Pure Hustle

Kate Potts's first collection "Pure Hustle" is concerned with imagination - as a means of escape and of illumination, as destructive and redemptive. Its landscapes are shot through with myth, storytelling and the lure of transformation. Her poems are tightly wrought, multi-layered webs built out of sound, rhythm and wordplay that invite re-reading. With a startling and idiosyncratic eye, often photographic or cinematic, she examines the shifting, fractured nature of memory and the strangenesses of love. Her choice of material and inspiration is enthusiastically wide ranging, incorporating everything from news reports to advertising text to song lyrics, from cross-continental bus trips to the daily commute, from the grand passions and chronic uncertainties of a world in flux to the trials of a day at the office.