The Twelve Foot Neon Woman

Shortlisted for the 2012 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

Loretta Collins Klobah sends us a twelve-foot woman with red neon surging through her veins, who boldly and gracefully takes on the challenges of urban life. Keen observer and witness, our warner woman turns her electric gaze to the everyday world and its extraordinary people. Against a soundtrack of world music, from salsa to reggae to jazz, and in a vibrant blend of English, Spanish and patois, she delivers by turns tender and incendiary hymns of homage to the Caribbean, American and British metropolis. Splendid, though endangered, nature and the spirit-world pervade the city, offering green-hearted hope for the future.

Loretta Collins Klobah lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she is a Professor of Caribbean Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Puerto Rico. She was one of eight poets featured in the anthology New Caribbean Poetry, edited by Kei Miller (Carcanet, 2007), and her poetry was also anthologised in the 1996 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her poetry and scholarly essays have been published widely in the Caribbean, the UK and the US.