Falling Awake (poetry collection)

Falling Awake
First edition (p/b)
AuthorAlice Oswald
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
PublisherJonathan Cape
Publication date
7 July 2016
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages81
Awards2016 Costa Poetry Award
2017 Griffin Poetry Prize
ISBN9781910702437

Falling Awake is a 2016 poetry collection by English poet Alice Oswald, published by Jonathan Cape.[1] Her seventh book of poetry,[2] it won the 2016 Costa Poetry Award and the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize.

The poems explore themes relating to nature, mutability, cycles and rebirth, as well as mythology.[2][3][4] The final poem in the collection, Tithonus (46 Minutes in the Life of the Dawn), is meant to be experienced over the course of 46 minutes as when Oswald performs it live,[5] the amount of time between pitch-darkness and dawn on a typical midsummer morning in her native Devon.[3]

The book was met with critical acclaim upon release.[2][3][6][7][8][9]

  1. ^ Oswald, Alice. Falling Awake. Penguin Books. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Falling Awake by Alice Oswald review – encounters with nature that defy language". The Guardian. 24 July 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Chiasson, Dan (5 September 2016). "Alice Oswald's Natural Terrors". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Alice Oswald's Falling Awake | Friday Pick". B O D Y. 19 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Alice Oswald: 'I like the way that the death of one thing is the beginning of something else'". The Guardian. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  6. ^ Sampson, Fiona (19 August 2016). "Falling Awake by Alice Oswald review – a dazzling celebration of nature". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  7. ^ Kwek, Theophilus (19 July 2016). "Falling Awake by Alice Oswald". The London Magazine. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  8. ^ Bryce, Colette (2016). "Review: In Different Voices". Poetry Ireland Review (120). Poetry Ireland: 40–43. JSTOR 26799742. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  9. ^ Seale, Yasmine (July 2016). "Falling Awake By Alice Oswald". Literary Review. Retrieved 26 March 2021.