Thirty-Six Views of the Sugarloaf

In Thirty-Six Views of the Sugarloaf, Nell Regan, with an artist's eye, gives us the familiar Sugarloaf mountain in County Wicklow as we have never experienced it before. In poems characterised by the attention, concision and freshness of Japanese poetry, she delves into the geology, archaeology, history and dinnseanchas of our own small, many-named Mount Fuji. The mountain acts as pivot and focus as we meet, among others, the seventeenth century author of the Down Survey, Samuel Beckett absorbing moonlight, and the children of Curtlestwon school hurtling through a first fall of snow. This book is an absolute delight. - Moya Cannon

Inspired by the nineteenth century Japanese print master Hokusai's 'Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji', Regan's collection was begun as a collaboration with print maker Cathy Henderson, who lost her life and became a strong presence in these astonishing poems. With the quicksilver intensity of the haiku, the shapes of the poems on the page have their own corporeality, turning the material of life - the death of a dear friend, miscarriage, a new home, love - into linguistic prints that are moving and brilliant. It is a celebration of the natural world and a praise for life in all its moments. - Carmen Bugan