Whip-Hot & Grippy

By Heather Phillipson

Whip-hot & Grippy is a collection of possibilities in a state of emergency. In the first part, a series of long-form and sequenced poems augment various states of being divided/plural in attempts to activate unauthorised directions. Disrupted tangents are punctuated by recurring muzak, advertising-speak, sex scenes, terrorism, broadcast media, consumption-anxiety, protest, human-animal relations and cosmic departures. Throughout, informed discontent and humour act as drivers of dissent, mining conceptual complexity and testing poetry's combustible potential. The book culminates in 'more flinching', a multi-part poem first published and freely distributed in an exhibition. Merging the news of a military dog, shot in service, with the death of a pet dog, it collapses images with bodies and politics with intimacies, enacting failed attempts to navigate practical and emotional entanglements. Whip-Hot & Grippy is Heather Phillipson's second collection, following her highly praised debut, Instant-flex 718, published in 2013. As well as being an award-winning poet, she is an internally renowned artist whose sculpture, 'The End', was installed on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in 2020.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1780374674
• ISBN13: 9781780374673
• Release Date: April 2019
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.4"