Look How Alive - Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith
At times gut wrenching, at times ecstatic and defiant, Look How Alive is filled with vibrant poems, pulsing with the joy and the pain of living. Navigating love and loss, battles with depression, Alpine landscapes and buzzing cityscapes, Hollingsworth-Smith's debut book has a heartbeat.
Praise for Look How Alive
“Arresting, wise and honest, Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith’s debut collection evokes what it is to come of age now. The speaker emerges from mental illness, isolation and complicated first romantic encounters with the determination to live and love herself wildly: ‘The Wolf is coming out. She’s coming, look! She’s coming!’” —Helen Bowell
“Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith’s debut collection is an inquisitive and tender examination of the minefields of coming of age. Here the body is a site of conflict and reconciliation. We are gifted with honest testimonies that microscopically examine sexuality, sensuality, crushes, first love and mental health. Hollingsworth-Smith’s scathing, yet refreshingly honest poetics brutally expose the impact of society’s gender violence on the body. The poems evoke a haunting, where the body endures and navigates imperfections and vulnerabilities. Wherea scathing woman resides within the poet’s body and her caustic voice is a gripping melodythat traps. Yet there is innocence here alongside reckless adventure, with stunning imagery where the caustic inner ghost is continually purged. These are poems of witness and resilience. Poems whose gripping melody bruises and beguiles.” —Malika Booker
“These are startlingly tender poems from such a sharp, witty and badass poet. I love the escapism they provide. Beautifully crafted and observed. The illustrations are just another added layer of gorgeousness.” —Warda Yassin