Amy Key's Isn't Forever featured in Observer & Vogue
‘Amy Key does for verse what Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer of Fleabag, is doing for television, wrenching laughter of shock and recognition from line after line.’ – Susannah Herbert, The Observer (Five of the best)
Amy Key's second book-length collection Isn't Forever was published by Bloodaxe on 21 June 2018. It was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice for Summer 2018. It was a book of the year choice in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Irish Times.
POETRY FEATURES
The Observer, Sunday 27 January 2019
Susannah Herbert was asked by The Observer to choose five recently-published poetry books with appeal to young women. She chose Amy Key's second collection Isn't Forever, and also mentioned Imtiaz Dharker as one of the poets included in the She is Fierce anthology, another of her choices. This was part of a two-page feature in The Observer on how young women are changing the rules of poetry. Bloodaxe poets Helen Dunmore and Rebecca Perry were highlighted in the body of the article.
‘Amy Key does for verse what Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer of Fleabag, is doing for television, wrenching laughter of shock and recognition from line after line.’ – Susannah Herbert, The Observer (Five of the best)
Vogue, online Friday 15 March 2019
Amy Key was interviewed for an article called ‘Why Poetry Is Back in Fashion’, which ran online in Vogue. Amy’s second collection Isn't Forever is mentioned by way of introduction.
‘From Sappho’s “delicate woven cloths” through to Carol Ann Duffy’s lavish poem Warming Her Pearls, there’s a long and luxurious history of verse centered on the symbolic power of garments. It’s something poet Amy Key is especially aware of – her ornate, aching collection Isn’t Forever is stitched through with a keen awareness of the thrall and challenges of what we wear.’ – Rosalind Jana, Vogue
Click here to read the feature.
BOOKS OF THE YEAR FEATURES
The Guardian, Best Books of 2018, Saturday 1 December 2018
‘As for poetry, I fell hard for Amy Key’s Isn’t Forever (Bloodaxe), a gorgeous, sad box of delights about intimacy, bad bodies, sorrow… Key is adept at linguistic surprises, charting women’s lives with a savage delicacy.’ – Olivia Laing, The Guardian (Best Books of 2018)
The Irish Times, Books of the Year Chosen by Writers, Saturday 1 December 2018
Amy Key’s second collection Isn't Forever and Leanne O’Sullivan’s fourth collection A Quarter of an Hour were picked by writer and broadcaster Sinéad Gleeson for The Irish Times Books of the Year feature of 1 December.
‘New poetry collection highlights: Hannah Sullivan, Colm Keegan, Amy Key, Leanne O’Sullivan and Doireann Ni Ghríofa.’
POETRY BOOKS OF THE YEAR FEATURES
The Sunday Times, Best Poetry Books of 2018, Sunday 2 December 2018
Amy Key’s second collection Isn't Forever was one of the 'wonderful collections published this year' chosen by Jeremy Noel-Tod for his Best Poetry Books of 2018 in The Sunday Times’ colour supplement Culture magazine.
Morning Star, Poetry Books of the Year, Thursday 29 November 2018
There were multiple choices for Bloodaxe titles in the Morning Star’s Poetry Books of the Year feature as chosen by poets, including Bloodaxe’s Jane Commane.
Fran Locke chose Amy Key’s Isn't Forever and Abigail Parry’s Jinx.
‘I’m never really sure what’s meant by “best.” Those that take reality to task or those that provide us with a much-needed escape from it? Poets who do both include Bobby Parker (Working Class Voodoo), Amy Key (Isn’t Forever), Abigail Parry (Jinx),Martin Hayes (The Things Our Hands Once Stood For) and Peter Raynard with his electrifying The Combination.’ - Fran Locke, Morning Star (Poetry Books of 2018)
Click here to read the feature.
BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2018
'Her new collection, Isn’t Forever (Bloodaxe), is playful, surreal and enchanting but also rooted in brutal emotional honesty. She is writer of a rare and strange magic.' - Sarah Perry, The Guardian (Best Summer Books 2018)
‘Ms Key’s poetry is sublime. Read this to lose yourself in another person’s worldview entirely. Hypnotic with a cutting, witty edge, these poems invite you into a hall of mirrors reflecting everything about the self – from sex, to love, to death. Despite this, they are not alienating, but rather draw you closer and closer to understanding an inner transcendent human truth.’ – Max Wallis, Mr Porter
INTERVIEW WITH AMY KEY
South Bank Poetry, online 3 September 2018
An online interview with Amy Key in South Bank Poetry, London’s urban poetry magazine. The feature was illustrated with colour photos of Amy Key and with the cover of her second collection Isn’t Forever.
Click here to read.
REVIEW COVERAGE
Isn't Forever reviewed in the The Yorkshire Times:
'The reader is continually astonished by the outrageous acuity of Key’s use of imagery; she persuades, utterly, on the most unlikely ground.' - Steve Whitaker, The Yorkshire Times
To read the full review, click here.
[08 May 2019]
