Cynthia Fuller’s new collection is concerned with personal histories and how we begin to retrace the paths that lead from then to now.
The poems in Background Music explore the stories behind landscapes, families and individuals, and the choices and chances that shape the present. The poems look for continuities between generations and the underlying rhythm connecting the different selves we have been.
"The poems evoke the landscape and birdlife of valleys and farms in winter, before Spring arrives and the deadheading of old blooms. The second half of the collections offers some real surprises, including an intriguing series of four ‘Maisie Poems.’"
Paul Stephenson, 25 Years in The North
"Fuller's link to previous generations is warm and deeply felt, though told with artistic detachment.... Fuller has the confidence and artistry to speak quietly, knowing she will be heard; apparently simple language, with subtle resonance, brings to life the previous generations and those just beginning."
Mslexia
"She writes perceptively about the potential, often unrealised, of people and places, of the days when the 'dark is sloshing round her feet' and the connections, sometimes strong, sometimes tenuous, that lead from then to now: 'I can see the printed fortune they took home / was kinder that the one that would evolve.'"
Keith Richmond, Tribune
"There is a lovely, autumnal feel to these poems..."
Morning Star
Cynthia Fuller was born in Kent, but has lived in the North East since the 1970s, working freelance as a teacher of literature and creative writing in Adult and Higher Education, and also with groups in the community. She has co-edited several poetry anthologies, including Smelter (Mudfog, 2003) with Kevin Cadwallender, The Poetry Cure (Bloodaxe, 2005) with Julia Darling, and North By North East (Iron Press, 2006) with Andy Croft. Her poetry has appeared in such anthologies as Bloodaxe’s New Women Poets and Being Alive.
Her earlier collections were Moving Towards Light (1992), Instructions for the Desert (1996) and Only a Small Boat (2001). Jack's Letters Home, her previous collection, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in 2006. All have been published by Flambard Press.
The poems in Background Music explore the stories behind landscapes, families and individuals, and the choices and chances that shape the present. The poems look for continuities between generations and the underlying rhythm connecting the different selves we have been.
"The poems evoke the landscape and birdlife of valleys and farms in winter, before Spring arrives and the deadheading of old blooms. The second half of the collections offers some real surprises, including an intriguing series of four ‘Maisie Poems.’"
Paul Stephenson, 25 Years in The North
"Fuller's link to previous generations is warm and deeply felt, though told with artistic detachment.... Fuller has the confidence and artistry to speak quietly, knowing she will be heard; apparently simple language, with subtle resonance, brings to life the previous generations and those just beginning."
Mslexia
"She writes perceptively about the potential, often unrealised, of people and places, of the days when the 'dark is sloshing round her feet' and the connections, sometimes strong, sometimes tenuous, that lead from then to now: 'I can see the printed fortune they took home / was kinder that the one that would evolve.'"
Keith Richmond, Tribune
"There is a lovely, autumnal feel to these poems..."
Morning Star
Cynthia Fuller was born in Kent, but has lived in the North East since the 1970s, working freelance as a teacher of literature and creative writing in Adult and Higher Education, and also with groups in the community. She has co-edited several poetry anthologies, including Smelter (Mudfog, 2003) with Kevin Cadwallender, The Poetry Cure (Bloodaxe, 2005) with Julia Darling, and North By North East (Iron Press, 2006) with Andy Croft. Her poetry has appeared in such anthologies as Bloodaxe’s New Women Poets and Being Alive.
Her earlier collections were Moving Towards Light (1992), Instructions for the Desert (1996) and Only a Small Boat (2001). Jack's Letters Home, her previous collection, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in 2006. All have been published by Flambard Press.