Life Without Air

SHORTLISTED FOR THE TS ELIOT PRIZE FOR POETRY 2020
WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH BOOK AWARDS' POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR
A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN POLLARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE
"Whip-smart, sonically gorgeous" - Rae Armantrout, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Versed
When Louis Pasteur observed the process of fermentation, he noted that, while most organisms perished from lack of oxygen, some were able to thrive as 'life without air'. In this capricious, dreamlike collection, characters and scenes traverse states of airlessness, from suffocating relationships and institutions, to toxic environments and ecstatic asphyxiations.
Both compassionate and ecologically nuanced, this innovative collection bridges poetry and prose to interrogate the conditions necessary for survival.

Daisy Lafarge was born in Hastings and studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Her poetry collection Life Without Air (Granta Books, 2020) was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Paul, the winner of a Betty Trask Award, is her debut novel.