Good morning and welcome to another blog tour! Today we are exploring the debut poetry collection Salmacis: becoming not quite a woman by Elizabeth Train-Brown with the wonderful Renard Press. Inspired by the tale of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and pagan folklore, this collection not only draws on the classical, but uses it as a framework to discuss identity and gender.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the mythology mentioned above, Salmacis was a young nymph, who, on spying Hermaphroditus bathing, was so consumed with passion she entered the water and begged the gods to allow them to stay together. And so, the two became one, part man and part woman. Poets often turn to the classical world for inspiration and, unlike many poets who explore retellings, this particular collection gives a modern and timely exploration on the same themes.
Train-Brown’s poetry is gritty and unforgiving – blood, screaming and tangles of limbs, bed sheets and hair are all in coexistence here. They are poems that are designed to make you uncomfortable in your own skin, emulating the experiences of the speaker. These experiences of identity are told with nuance and a startling specificity while being playful with form and folk tales. This made the collection very readable and at a slim 64 pages (can you tell I don’t read poetry very often?!), I flew threw this one, taking all the emotional reactions with me.
A hard-hitting collection of poems, Salmacis uses Ovid as a stepping stone to explore gender identity. Elizabeth Train-Brown is unflinching in her portrayals and the struggles of her speaker, which leave the reader reeling quite effectively. An exciting new voice in the world of poetry!
Salmacis: becoming not quite a woman by Elizabeth Train-Brown (£10) is published by Renard Press and is available in paperback.
Loz Lit 