Lila Matsumoto’s 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 is published on 21 May.
You can pre-order the book now, which will arrive with limited edition postcards. Thank you for pre-orders so far.
More details soon of events in Edinburgh, Bristol, London, Nottingham. In the meantime, happy to share further endorsements…
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‘What do you get the wow of? What kind of beauty compels you to speak? How do we learn to notice it to one another? Matsumoto roves across “a movie set called America” in search of wonder, finding it not in sunsets, monuments or institutions, but in supermarkets, house shows, video games and especially the crystalline fly-tipping suspended beneath a frozen pond – bootlegged, cut-price, bulk-bought, ultra-processed, ultra-perfect. She pursues “things before they harden into emblems”, before they hang together in the usual ways. 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 is about girlhood, friendship, and becoming yourself between registers and alongside someone else.’
— Jennifer Hodgson (
@jennifer_hodgson_ )
‘𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬’s speakers are beset by other people’s language, sat in it, “in the thrall” of it. Living is a stream of audio interruptions writing cannot soothe; living, writing – swap those terms around. But even if we’re subjected to administered language’s “gawky big marbles” in the mouth, or struggling to reproduce the conditions for life, we can still look to objects – a sweet-pea’s “unfurled earlobe pink”, “glommed” windshield bugs – and, coursing beneath artifice, there’s a “shambolic and candied jamboree” constantly streaming from the headphones anyway: in Lila ’s poems it’s this road-tripping DIY “jangly lo-fi insurgency” that I love the most.’
— Tom Betteridge (
@tttombbb )
‘𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘈 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 is a captivating collection that pulses with vivid imagery and raw emotion. With lyrical precision, it captures fleeting moments and deep reflections, inviting readers into a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. A thought-provoking, soul-stirring read making the familiar feel new and the fleeting moments of life linger long after the final word.’
— Peter Gizzi (
@p.g.gizzi )
