Released 31st March 2022 // 28 pages // 978-1-915079-11-4
She, Shapeshifter is a precise, pointed debut pamphlet from working class, neurodivergent poet Seanín Hughes. At its core She, Shapeshifter considers big themes such as mental health, trauma, death and whether we allow ourselves a chance to grow through pain, or whether, as in Anne Carson: “to be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful”. “Fuck you all” Hughes concludes in ‘Pretty Vacant’, it is tempting to agree.
PRAISE for She, Shapeshifter:
She, Shapeshifter is a brooding, acerbic pamphlet that sees Hughes exploring motherhood and family from both physical and spiritual dimensions. Through her razor-like poetics, the author pulls herself apart to expose past demons and future anxieties, laying bare truths that are not easily confronted. She, Shapeshifter is a brooding, acerbic pamphlet that sees Hughes exploring motherhood and family from both physical and spiritual dimensions. Through her razor-like poetics, the author pulls herself apart to expose past demons and future anxieties, laying bare truths that are not easily confronted. Hughes whispers ‘”why can’t I be gentle with the person I’ve become?” compelling us to whisper along with her. The result of She, Shapeshifter then, is a series of utterly fearless poems that embed themselves into the core of your being, where they sit uncomfortably, like emotional shrapnel.
— Stuart McPherson, Waterbearer
In She, Shapeshifter, Seanín Hughes confronts the body in all its strength and vulnerability, demonstrating its constant state of becoming in poems that are by turns lyrically delicate, and visceral. Illness, ageing and childbirth reside here in poems that challenge us to open ourselves to experience in a damaged and damaging world. She, Shapeshifter celebrates the mutability that makes us human.
— Jessica Traynor, Pit Lullabies
