Jenna Clake

A Novel

Disturbance

Museum of Ice Cream is Jenna Clake's second collection, following her debut Fortune Cookie (2017), winner of an Eric Gregory Award, shortlisted for a Somerset Maugham Award. An uncanny examination of objects, scenes and flavours, these poems explore how food can connect or divide, can feel isolating or terrifying, and what it mean to have a secret.

Museum of Ice Cream

In an era of political and social turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic, where issues of gender, race and class are linked with concerns of how to survive in a capitalist society, a new aesthetic of Absurdist poetry has emerged. This aesthetic has a troubled relationship to race, pervaded by issues of representation in avant-garde poetry, and notions of who poetry writers and readers are. Focusing on British and US poets including Rachael Allen, Emily Berry, Crispin Best, Caroline Bird, Franny Choi, Jennifer L. Knox, Morgan Parker and Jane Yeh, Jenna Clake investigates how poets use the Absurd to destabilise ideas about race, gender and class and imagine social change. Bringing together Whiteness studies, socio-political theory, and close readings of poems, Clake examines how the Absurd has developed, how its poets understand privilege and offer prospects of hope and change, and how the Absurd might move away from nihilism.

Whiteness, Feminism and the Absurd in Contemporary British and US Poetry

'Wonderfully witchy and emotionally astute' Chloë Ashby | ' Bloody brilliant' Clare Pollard | 'Blazingly emotionally intelligent' Luke Kennard As the sun sets on a feverishly hot July evening, a young woman spies on her teenage neighbour, transfixed by what looks like an occult ritual intended to banish an ex-boyfriend. Alone in a new town and desperate to expel the claustrophobic memories of her own ex that have followed, the narrator decides to try to hex herself free from her past. She falls in with the neighbour and her witchy friend, exploring nascent supernatural powers as the boundaries of reality shift in and out of focus. But when the creaks and hums of her apartment escalate into something more violent, she realizes that she may have brought her boyfriend's presence - whether psychological or paranormal - back to haunt her. Propulsive and wry, this razor-sharp debut explores all the ways that relationships and trauma can haunt our lives. Twisting witchcraft and horror into a powerful narrative of one woman's struggle to return to herself, this lyrical novel is perfect for fans of Boy Parts and My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

Jenna Clake

About

Books

Join the club