Pretending to be Dead by Ross Hattaway

ISBN 978-09571510-3-1 RRP €11.99

86 pp 100 gsm Munken

Seven Towers is proud and delighted to be publishing Ross Hattaway’s brilliant new collection, Beautifully illustrated by the artist  Paul Hattaway, brother to the poet.

Pretending to be Dead is Ross Hattaway’s second collection of poems since his critically acclaimed first collection The Gentle Art Of Rotting. Again in this collection drawing from the traditions of Japanese tanka, haiku and his own gift for the pun and telling laconic portmanteau phrase, Hattaway’s Volume is at time brilliantly funny, heartbreakingly sad and leaves one with a profound sense of the authors own insight into humanity and awareness of the complex seemingly antithetical motivations that sometimes lead humanity down such dark corridors of action and motivation.

The volume is illustrated with deeply evocative and apposite paintings by the New Zealand Artist and brother of the poet, Paul Hattaway

THIS COLLECTION IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER HERE

EUROS (below)

About Pretending To Be Dead and other entertainments

“Well, yes, entertainments . . . Ross Hattaway has always been one of those old-school Romantics who covers his tracks by talking out the side of his mouth. And he can be brilliantly laconic: think Raymond

Chandler or Humphrey Bogart. But in these poems he’s far more than a bunch of wise-cracks and off-hand noises. Get ready for a clear gaze. A good ear. A fully human heart.”

Bill Manhire

Ross Hattaway was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1962 and grew up in Wanganui. He went to Victoria University of Wellington and has lived in Dublin since 1990. He has been published in periodicals and collections, including Mutes and Earthquakes, Poetry Australia, Census, Poeziyos Pasavaris and The Raintown Review. He has read widely in Ireland, including the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, and has read in the UK, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Poetry Spring Festival in Lithuania. This is his second collection. The first, The Gentle Art of Rotting, was published by Seven Towers in 2006.

Paul Hattaway is an artist and sculptor. His work has been recognised through various prizes, awards and residencies and is represented in private and corporate collections around the world. Paul examines the world by drawing and painting, and sculpture has become part of this exploration in recent years. In 2001, one of Paul’s pieces was selected as a finalist in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Wynne Prize

Exhibition. Paul exercises his artistic temperament in Sydney, where he lives with his wife Catherine Parr, with whom he has raised their two sons..

This Collection will be launched at the TWISTED PEPPER ABBEY ST ON the 23rd MAY at 6.30 pm