The Luck

A new collection from Jane Routh, author of Circumnavigation, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and Teach Yourself Mapmaking, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
After lockdowns have swept calendars clear, leaf-fall, early sunrise and gales are Jane Routh's measures of time, as she goes about her tasks in the hill pasture and woodlands where she has the luck to live.
With sharp, lyrical description and down-to earth understanding, her poems consider the flora and fauna around her, formative moments and lifespans – as well as the dead who won't be forgotten. Her elegant and informed writing conveys a sense of belonging in a particular place and the care for its future, carrying a universal resonance.

Jane Routh is one of the most engaging and consistently interesting of the serious poets now writing in Britain. The Luck is her fifth collection of poetry from Smith|Doorstop. Circumnavigation won the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet competition in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize. Teach Yourself Mapmaking was a PBS Recommendation. Individual poems have won several competitions including the Academi Cardiff International and Strokestown International Competitions.
Jane lives on the northern edge of the Forest of Bowland, where she looks after Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland and the new woods she has planted. Smith|Doorstop also publish Falling into Place, her remarkable prose book about this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.