Textiles

In ‘Textiles’ Sara de Koning weaves an intense and sensual poetic universe of which language forms the beating heart. This award-winning debut collection gives voice to a polyphonic choir of women: mistresses, daughters, mothers, writers. Their voices reach each other through letters, telephone conversations, diary entries and jottings.

The collection consists of fragmentary texts in which perspectives alternate and overlap. Longing and loss, intimacy and distance, the yearning for connection and the deficiency of words are central. De Koning’s style is baroque and musical, a riotous flood of words full of play on sounds, unexpected images and disconcerting metaphors. She experiments with sentence structure and meaning, and her poetry requires attentive, slow reading.

‘Textiles’ is composed of six interwoven parts, with references to literary diaries and correspondence by, among others, Sylvia Plath. This creates a layered textual fabric that does not immediately divulge itself but unfolds further and further with rereading. A collection to immerse yourself in – slowly, with the senses open and a readiness to follow the threads.