Winner of the 2015 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry 2014
Hannah Lowe’s first book of poems takes you on a journey round her father, a Chinese-black Jamaican migrant who disappeared at night to play cards or dice in London's old East End to support his family, an unstable and dangerous existence that took its toll on his physical and mental health. 'Chick' was his gambling nickname.
A shadowy figure in her childhood, Chick was only half known to her until she entered the night world of the old man as a young woman. The name is the key to poems concerned with Chick's death, the secret history of his life in London, and her perceptions of him as a father. With London as their backdrop, Hannah Lowe's deeply personal narrative poems are often filmic in effect and brimming with sensory detail in their evocations of childhood and coming-of-age, love and loss of love, grief and regret.
‘The British-born poet conjures her gambler, Afro Chinese Jamaican father, the eponymous Chick, who boarded the SS Ormonde to Britain in 1947. Lowe is in dialogue with her father in the collection...’ - Colin Grant, Historian and writer, The Guardian (Windrush at 75: books that shaped the black British experience), on Chick
‘A thrilling sequence of poems about the poet’s relationship to her Chinese-Jamaican gambling father which is funny, wise and affectionate.’ – Daljit Nagra, Big Issue (London), Top 5 Poetry Books [on Chick]
‘An unforgettable book. In an age where blurby superlatives compete on debut book covers, this one has an edge: it is about someone, namely the poet’s late father, from whose name it takes its title… “Say”, which exploits understatement to the full, is remarkable, and heartbreaking’ – Helena Nelson, Magma, on Chick
‘Hannah Lowe’s debut collection is wonderful… a book which deals plainly and honestly with big emotions and tender, dramatic personal scenes’ – Declan Ryan, Ambit, on Chick
'Chick opens with a powerful sequence of poems centred around the poet’s memories of her Chinese/black Jamaican father – a complex, larger than life character who came to London in the late 40s and eked out a living as, among other things, a gambler. But the book is very much more than a personal reminiscence and family history. This is a collection cross-hatched with myth and history, a hymn to London as much as to its characters. Though all the poems have a strong, vividly cinematographic line, they are also beautifully lyrical – sung stories, offering us the glimpsed lives of strangers and lovers. But however poignant and moving it may be, the collection remains doggedly celebratory of life itself, of people and place, loved and remembered. Each poem takes us a little further into the mystery of lives in a world that is as incomprehensible as it is unforgettable. This is an outstanding, unputdownable first collection'. – John Glenday.
‘Here is a poet with a commanding style; her voice is entirely her own, both rich and laconic. These are poems springing from the page with vitality, rue and insight. Her elegies are restrained and devastating. An extraordinary debut.’ – Penelope Shuttle.
Hannah Lowe reads her poems
Hannah Lowe reads from her poetry at the opening ceremony of Norwich Showcase '12 presented by Writers' Centre Norwich and the British Council. At this event in 2012 she was reading from her pamphlet The Hitcher published by The Rialto in 2011 and from newer poems, most of which have now been included in her first book-length collection, Chick, published by Bloodaxe in 2013. The poems include 'The Fist', 'The Calmness of Sheep' and 'Barley Lane'.
