VISITATIONS
Adré Marshall

October 2024
68pp
200mm x 130mm
ISBN: 978-0-7961-5615-0

DISTRIBUTED ON BEHALF OF CRANE RIVER

As you swim in the turquoise lagoon
that stretches brimming from the shore
to far limestone hills, remember her.

Stitch her life into yours as you tack
across the shimmering sheet of moiré silk,
your arms like needles rising and diving.

– from “Lagoon”

In her singular debut collection, Adré Marshall captures those intense encounters that take on the significance of a ‘visitation’. The poems are lyrical, humorous and elegiac by turn, even all three at once, and in her exploration of the complex interactions between people and the natural world, she finds many reasons in our modern times for both disquiet and consolation.

[There is a] “...deep thematic connectedness that runs throughout... about paying attention to nature, the cycles of life and death, and human encounters with the wild...” – Finuala Dowling

Adré Marshall taught English at various universities, most recently the University of Cape Town. Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, she has read at the McGregor Poetry Festival and is the author of a book on Henry James.

Her translations from French into English include Le Grand Livre de la Mémoire and a book of critical commentary/articles for the Picasso and Africa exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town. One of her poems was placed 3rd in the 2022 AVBOB Poetry Competition, while another was shortlisted for the National Poetry Prize in 2023.