Gathering Evidence

'The notion of the poet as alchemist is a familiar one, but Caoilinn Hughes gives it new and enormous energy. I find myself wondering how she knows so much about so many things; and then I notice how far her poems travel beyond their own footprints. On page after page, she offers transformation -- turning facts into feeling, experience into knowledge, prose into poetry, science into art.' Bill Manhire
'Hughes brings to the embers of the Irish lyric new breath, new music, new word hoards, reinvigorating that tradition. She spins news from her travels in the wide world and it feels like essential information. This collection is a flaring forth, an auspicious comet, signal of achievement and promise.' Paula Meehan
'Carcanet Press and Belfast women poets are a very happy combination at the moment, and Caoilinn Hughes promises to be as individual a voice as Sinead Morissey. Add to that a caustic wit, as evidenced on Pacific Rim, or a gift for characterisation in Vagabond Monologue -- 'I'll€™ll tell you what makes poetry flow? Nice big bank notes to be writing poems on'€™. And so say all of us.' The Belfast Telegraph