{"product_id":"rhizodont-9781780377131","title":"Rhizodont","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWinner of The Laurel Prize 2025\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAgainst a backdrop of vast geological time and recent fossil-fuel burning history, the poems of Katrina Porteous's latest collection address current issues of social and environmental change. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e330 million years ago what is now the rocky shore close to Katrina \nPorteous’s Northumberland home in the north of England was a tropical swamp inhabited by \nthree-metre long predatory fish with huge tusk-like teeth. They belonged\n to a family of lobe-finned fishes which evolved to move on land as well\n as swim, and which are the ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates, \nincluding humans. The fossil fish found in Northumberland is called the \n‘rhizodont’.\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePorteous’s new collection begins with a lovingly-observed contemporary \njourney through these ancient landscapes, from the former coal-mining \ncommunities of the Durham coast, where the coal-bearing Carboniferous \nstrata are overlain with younger rocks, to the Northumberland shores \nwhere the rhizodont’s remains were found. Against a backdrop of vast \ngeological time and recent fossil-fuel burning history, these poems \naddress current issues of social and environmental change. They are \nfollowed by two sequences about aspects of the latest technological \nrevolution – autonomous systems and AI, and the remote-sensing \ntechniques used to explore the most inaccessible reaches of our planet, \nAntarctica, to measure Earth’s changing climate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\tThe poems unfold from England’s North-East coast into global questions \nof evolution, survival and extinction – in communities and languages, \nand throughout the natural world, where hope resides in Life’s \nastonishing powers of reinvention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\t\u003cem\u003eRhizodont \u003c\/em\u003eis Katrina Porteous's fourth poetry collection from \nBloodaxe, and extends territory explored in her three previous books. It\n combines scientific themes from \u003cem\u003eEdge\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) with the ecological localism of \u003cem\u003eTwo Countries\u003c\/em\u003e (2014) and \u003cem\u003eThe Lost Music\u003c\/em\u003e (1996), both of which were concerned with the landscapes and communities of North-East England.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Katrina Porteous","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48280122753275,"sku":"9781780377131","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9781780377131.jpg?v=1772486445","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/rhizodont-9781780377131","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}