Cowboy
The poems in Cowboy are knowing, millennial, internet-sick, funny, with deep undercurrents: of embodied and disembodied spiritualities; of the knowledge of animals; of familial mythologies; of grief and longing; of autism and navigating diagnoses; of early and enduring disappointment; of the wildness underneath the smooth glass-and-chrome surfaces of contemporary life.
The echo of a question permeates the collection – where does a person grow up? – moving restlessly between rural Wales, London and the American South; between the esoteric spaces of the internet; between the artlessness of childhood and adolescence transfigured inexplicably into a disquieting adulthood, with its attendant weirdness of rent-paying, cohabiting, the churn of mindless work and alienation.
The generous abundance of Cowboy's references – memes, early noughties television shows, pop songs, cities and their suburbs, video games – bring anxiety and pressure, joy and glory to this singularly impressive debut.
Kandace Siobhan Walker is a writer and artist of Canadian, Jamaican, Saltwater-Geechee and Welsh heritage. She is an editor at bath magg. In 2021, she was an Eric Gregory Award recipient and the winner of The White Review Poet's Prize. A poetry pamphlet, Kaleido, was published by Bad Betty Press in 2022. Cowboy is her first book. She lives in London.
