Glass Book Reviews

Glass by Emily Cooper Book Summary

Glass is the debut poetry title from Emily Cooper, a writer and poet from Ireland. Cooper’s poetics masterfully create a compelling space that deliberately excludes wide views—instead bringing her pen up close to a dilapidated house in a small rural town with its own personality. The traces and presence of those who have existed in those spaces—real and imagined—become interdependent in the narrative. Rural, intimate, isolated and hospitable, she ponders the context of ownership of buildings in A fountain pen slices my leg through a bin bag as I move into my new house, and celebrates the old ones collapsing along with their social history. A tunnel of light, the vulnerability of garlic charcoaling in hot oil and the layering dust in-between floorboards are intercut with quiet moments of solitude, affection, disappointment and intimacy. Outside of these spaces of physical realities, there is a strong sense of affection for the enduring landscape of Donegal. Her poems are peppered with the idea of possibilities, of parallel lives and the potential for futures unknown and unseen.

Emily Cooper is a poet and writer whose work has been published in the Stinging Fly, Banshee, Hotel, Poetry Ireland Review and Bath Magg, among others. She has been granted residencies and funding by the Arts Councils of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Irish Writers Centre, Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, Greywood Arts and Donegal County Council. In 2019, Emily was a recipient of the Next Generation Award and took part in Poetry Ireland Introductions. She lives in Ramelton, Donegal.

‘Cooper is a poet of impressive deftness and idea’
— Jack Underwood, author of Happiness

‘If there is ever bad news, have it delivered to me in an Emily Cooper poem’
— Ella Frears, author of Shine, Darling

‘Emily Cooper’s voice shines with honesty and beauty’
— Francine Toon, author of Pine

‘I wanted to live inside the delicacy of these poems forever’
— Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of My Body Keeps Your Secrets

‘Glass chronicles the quotidian making and unmaking of permanence with a deft, impressive touch.’
— Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, author of Auguries of a Minor God

‘Glass rethinks the concept of home as a transient but intimate space’
— Livia Franchini, author of Shelf Life

‘left me aware of every breath in my body, and somehow, suddenly feeling breathless!’
— Abi Palmer, author of Sanatorium

‘These poems ask can we ever really own anything other than how we feel; our memories; and sometimes not even those’
— Amy Key, author of Isn’t Forever

‘Formally inventive, engaging, and driven by a restless curiosity’
— Jessica Traynor, author of The Quick

‘In this stunning and original poetry collection, I would follow Cooper anywhere.’
— Victoria Kennefick, author of Eat Or We Both Starve

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Glass (Emily Cooper) Book Reviews 2024

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