Clay is Mandy Coe’s third collection for adults. What I loved most about it was – to borrow a phrase from one of Coe’s own poems – how “sharp with life” it is. One thing this means is putting the body at the centre of her writing, which she does with wonderfully uninhibited gusto:

Light shakes out sheets
in billows, a lover’s breasts and hips,
ripples of flesh on a smacked arse.

Using simple, precisely targeted syntax and diction, Coe flashes vivid images in front of our eyes, crams them into our hands, and makes us see and feel particular things … Continue Reading