Cancer Poetry - Hardcover

“Deals with a range of different facets of cancer, including grief, repression, identifying breast cancer, surviving cancer, terminal illness and remission. ... Twiddy’s book is an important contribution in a budding field of cancer poetry that represents the first genuine attempt to assess the full diversity of the cancer experience and poetry’s relationship with this interminable disease.” (Mark Robinson, Irish Studies Review, Vol. 26 (1), November, 2017)
“Twiddy’s study is very expertly done, draws on a large number of poets and poems, covers three continents, and shows a remarkable knowledge of the poetry landscape over the centuries although his focus is the twentieth century. The author carefully engages with the emotionally laden topic without becoming too pathetic or too distanced.” (Carmen Birkle, Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 8, 2016)

This is the first critical study to offer a sustained analysis of the theme of cancer in contemporary poetry. In discussing works by major poets, including Paul Muldoon, Jo Shapcott and Christopher Reid, Cancer Poetry traces the complex ways in which poets represent cancer, and assesses how poetry can be instrumental to emotional recovery.