Loop of Jade

Summary

Drawing on her mixed Chinese-British heritage, this debut collection interweaves lyric poems with prose fragments, classical Chinese texts, and the mythological traditions of both cultures to interrogate what it means to belong to more than one history and language. Howe's work is remarkable for the way it holds intellectual and formal ambition together with genuine emotional vulnerability. She became the first debut poet to win the prize, and the book announced an important new voice in contemporary poetry.