Archivum

Featuring the poem 'Animals' (The Forward Book of Poetry 2026)Longlisted for the 2025 Saltire Society Poetry Book of the YearArchivum is a book - wise, funny and inventive by turn - that explores what it means to look at artefacts in an archive, and how these objects resonate with events in our lives. Imagined as a walk across Edinburgh, landmarks such as the Balmoral clock, National Library of Scotland, Meadows, Canongate Kirkyard and Water of Leith provide a meditative backdrop to the poems.The archives - in particular the archive of the writer Muriel Spark - are used to create a space to come to terms with the complexities of a life and how we in turn tell stories about ourselves: the depths of our familial relationships, relationship breakdowns and the death of a parent. What's found in the archive's boxes - including recipes, telegrams, letters - stirs and amplifies feelings of belonging, disorientation, triumph and grief.With a focus on women writers and interracial relationships, the book explores

objects belonging to significant figures in the poet's imaginary: along with Spark, the actor Maggie Smith, poet Elizabeth Bishop, the 19th century slave owner's daughter Eliza Junor and psychotherapist Marie Battle Singer. [Publisher's text]

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