THE SUN IS OPEN (excerpt) - Gail McConnell

The Sun is Open sifts through a boxed archive of public and private materials related to the life and death of the author’s father, who was murdered by the IRA outside their Belfast home in 1984. Moving between child and adult voices, past and present, this startlingly innovative debut attempts to decode the fragments left behind and, with them, piece together a history and a life.

“Each page is rich with exquisite and surprising language, pain, and wisdom.” Maggie Nelson

“In this devastating yet immersive book, McConnell skilfully utilises juxtaposition, understatement and negative space to offer us an intimate work of poetic testimony.” Mary Jean Chan, The Guardian

“The Sun is Open is a work of extraordinary emotion, written with extraordinary control. It is also - perhaps extraordinarily - a work of joy.” Joanna Walsh

”One of the most startling elegies in print.” Adam Piette, Blackbox Manifold

Gail McConnell is a writer from Belfast. She is the author of Fothermather (Ink Sweat & Tears, 2019), Fourteen (Green Bottle Press, 2018), and Northern Irish Poetry and Theology (Palgrave, 2014). Fothermather, an exploration of queer parenthood, was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award and made into a programme for Radio 4. Her debut poetry book, The Sun is Open, was published by Penned in the Margins in September. Gail’s writing interests include violence, creatureliness, queerness and the possibilities and politics of language and form.

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Buy The Sun is Open here