This book will be released in April 2025.
Pre-orders are charged at time of order and the book will be posted to you as soon as it becomes available.
UK postage is 99 pence per order.
'What a precision feat this book pulls off. On the one hand, these are poems of sleek physicality – of clasp and bit and buckle and braid – with shrewd things to say about the tyranny of polish and perfection. At the same time, they’re intimately attuned to the charged spaces we occupy and the roles we perform within them, whether it be a rodeo arena, a haunted hayride, a school playground or an empty kitchen. The result is a collection that closes the distance between the rodeo and the home, between the knacker man and the childhood game, between the trick rider and the teenager learning the use of discipline: the voices here know that one as much as the other contains the threat of harm and the conditions for joy. Remember, girl, this is about control, says one of the voices, and it could be a wink from the poet herself: savvy, heedful, scrupulously threading her way through danger, making it all look effortless. I am, like one of her riders, lovestruck quick for all of it.' – Abigail Parry
‘Breaking a Mare is a magnificent exploration of female physicality, domination, and resistance. At its heart is the sacred relationship between human and horse, girl-woman and mare — a profound metaphor for the complex dynamic between a mother both breaking and empowering a daughter. With command and precision, Christina Thatcher has worked poems into being that are tightly wrought, each braided to the next. The skilful use of space and form gifts the reader another level of physical interaction, and such is the quality of the language that these poems give physical pleasure when read aloud. This is a book of real muscle. The poems are alive, rearing up, inviting us to ride our hurts and sorrows to find our strong and our “soft.” Christina Thatcher is an exceptional writer, a poet who refuses to “stay quiet”. Her speaker has galloped “out of darkness” urging us now to consider: what has been breaking us, what is it that we can tame, what wildness can we harness?’ – clare e. potter
'In Christina Thatcher’s vivid new collection, the farm, the ranch, offer wildness and wonder to a young girl, as she witnesses bodies broken and made strong again. Breaking a Mare shows us that the breaking can be part of the survival.' – Rebecca Goss
It’s summer and the flies are back
and your mare is wild-eyed and uneasy
tossing her head as she trots, jolting
as trucks arrive in the driveway, you
keep kicking, you want to canter:
come on girl, let’s go
Breaking a Mare is an investigation of silence, goodness and girlhood. It invites readers into the barn, the sawdust mill, the rodeo arena. These poems expose the hard work women do on farms, the loss of rural landscapes and the role death can play in these spaces. They ask what it means to be good in the face of physical, emotional and ecological threat. Ultimately, these poems want to know what breaks us and what makes us stronger.
Praise for How to Carry Fire:
‘Thatcher’s poems can be nostalgic and delicious in their visualisations … In these echoes of capturing, cradling, holding — Thatcher suggests that the speaker’s temptations aren’t drugs, or fire, but deeply-felt connections, touches, and caresses. There might never be enough.’ – Poetry London
‘Christina Thatcher is one of Wales’ most powerful young poetic voices – and her latest collection [How to Carry Fire] is a tour de force’ – Western Mail
‘In a remarkable second collection, Christina Thatcher not only teaches us How to Carry Fire, but demonstrates that from the flames can emerge love, passion, beauty and resolution… A fine achievement from this very accomplished writer.’ – Wales Arts Review
