For Reviews of 'The Significant Others of Odie May' please see here.
Reviews of Yield, with thanks to all who have read and reviewed it.
‘Claire Dyer writes poetry that tackles a modern concept – a son transitioning into a daughter – with freshness and innovation whilst drawing on the traditions of poetry that give the entire work gravitas and depth … Reading Yield feels as if I have been given privileged access to the innermost thoughts and emotions of a hugely talented writer.’ Linda Hill
I admire and praise her. There's an honesty that runs through this collection that cannot have been easy to express, but it's done with such passion and beauty. Anne Cater
‘Each poem is entirely unique, yet read together tell a story, and I feel I have been on a journey too. I think I will need to read the poems a few more times to fully appreciate them and the messages they are conveying … Yield is emotional, raw, greatly observed … Sarah Swan
‘It would have been so easy to have kept these poems in a notebook. And to steal a refrain from some of your poems, thank you for being brave, wise and kind.’ Joy Kluver
‘Reading Claire Dyer’s latest poetry collection, Yield, is to share an intimate journey told in a way very few people – if, indeed, anyone else – could tell it.’ Jane Cable
‘Crikey … Yield ... where do I begin? In Yield Claire has taken me through every emotion, including some I didn't know. Claire has written so beautifully about something so incredibly personal with real honesty and emotion … I love everything Claire has written, she could write a recipe for Trifle, which I detest, and I would be mesmerised.’ Nellie Williams
‘an emotional first aid box… The verses speak on a profound level which is so personal it hurts, and yet there's a beautiful lyricism which will stay with me for a long time.’ Josie Barton
‘A powerful, moving, sometimes startling collection which opens a privileged window for us into the world of a private transformation. Joyous, difficult, full of love.’ Sandra Danby
'I believe at a time when the poetry world has an opportunity to be part of the discussion on trans issues, and at this time in poetry’s evolution, this interesting, clever, painful, beautiful book about a mother’s love and her daughter’s transition from male to female could not be more welcome.' Louisa Campbell
'The overt and specific subject matter is a gender transition, but these exquisite poems also speak to any challenge to parental love. They speak of the need to find unconditional love, acceptance and surrender, of the difficult yielding to what life brings which we must all attempt.' Rosie Jackson
Reviews of The Last Day - thank you to all who have read and reviewed it.
'Claire Dyer's ability to write is not only talented but borders on incomparable.' Reading ‘n Stuff
'This beautifully written, observant novel will stay with you long after the final page has been turned.' ElementaryvWatson
'... when you're reading the book your heart will do soaring and diving, you'll be tutting and agreeing, and you'll need a hanky or sleeve to sob into when you gasp.' Nellie Pom Poms
'The characters, the writing, the emotion, it is all just so rich and beautiful and it will make you feel every smile, shed every tear, and ache over every heartbreak, and feel hope when it flourishes too. Absolutely amazing!!' Books of All Kinds
'Beautifully written about the fragility of love and life' … The Book Corner
'… one of those rare novels book that allows you to think about what you’ve read, sometimes by reading between the words, a difficult skill to pull off but so very effective when it is done as well as it is in The Last Day'. Cleopatra Loves Books
'… a deftly managed part-study of grief and mourning, part-teaser about how past events always affect the present.' Sandra Danby
'The Last Day fills spaces in your mind that you never knew existed.' Jaffa Reads Too
'This was one of those books that I had to read out loud at various points to appreciate the author's well-crafted words and beautifully observed character descriptions and interactions. It's tightly plotted, with a underlying sense of mystery about events to come.' Off the Shelf Books
Reviews of Interference Effects - thank you to all who have read and reviewed it.
See here for Emma Lee’s full review of Interference Effects of which she says, ‘the strength in these poems [is}: their precise language [which] opens and asks questions rather than providing neat, ordered conclusions. At first glance, they flutter into place like butterfly wings but it takes a second or closer reading to notice the engineering driving those wings and how the light reflects, enabling each reader to take away the patterns of light and shade that speak directly to them.’
And here is what the Poetry Book Society said of Interference Effects in their Winter 16 Bulletin: 'This is Claire Dyer's second poetry collection, following Eleven Rooms, published in 2013. Interference Effects focuses on many different experiences from picking melons at the supermarket to fishing for mackerel from a pier to witnessing her mother bake a 'Memory Cake' from parts of her life. The poems describe the human experience as interpreted by Dyer's poetic voice. These experiences, which are sometimes real and sometimes imagined, offer a new and unique outlook at the world.'
Thank you to D A Prince for her review of Interference Effects in South which she calls 'poetry that is questioning and outward-looking. Shades of colour, especially the colour blue, and constant shifts in perception slip through these poems, sometimes as realistic description, sometimes as metaphor. It's intelligent, multi-facetted and always engaging.' And she continues, 'Dyer is human, warm, detailing life as it is alongside life as it might look. Her sensuous play with language, balanced with an ear for contemporary rhythm, makes this a collection worth in-depth reading, worth spending time in its company.'
Thank you too to Noel Williams for his review of Interference Effects in the North 58: 'Like wings, such poems shine with multiple colours ... The hidden meaning in such poems is a function of our own viewpoint. We'll each see different colours.'
And another thank you to Nessa O'Mahony's for her review in edition 122 of Poetry Ireland: 'her eye for the memorable image is undeniable.'
Reviews of Eleven Rooms. Thank you, everyone who read and reviewed it.
This is an excerpt from David Cooke’s full review of Eleven Rooms for Message in a Bottle:
‘Claire Dyer’s best poems are quietly impressive. Musical and well observed, they create spaces and scenes that have been shaped by the ghosts that haunt them … above all, what distinguishes Dyer’s best poems are their ability to find images that are precise, memorable, and, to quote Boris Pasternak, get ‘to the heart of the matter.’
And here’s some of Belinda Cooke’s kind review of Eleven Rooms in No 51 of the North:
‘For Dyer place is important because place is where we begin and end and where we make all our connections with those we love. By way of carefully crafted poems with tight, cohesive patterns of syntax, she explores this theme in a very individual and unusual way.’
And about Two Rivers Press, she says:
‘The publishing of first collections is a recent development from Two Rivers Press under its new editorship by Peter Robinson. Given the quality of the three titles under review here [The Beholder by Kate Behrens, Eleven Rooms by me and Scrimshaw by Jean Watkins], he is providing a genuine service to poetry in raising the profile of such writers and availing them of a deserved readership.’