A WHISTLING OF BIRDS, with illustrations by Douglas Robertson

111pp., illus., paperback, First SA Edition, Cape Town, 2023

First published in the UK in 2023.

"In this collection, creature-rich, the poems themselves are creaturely - sinuous and revelatory, bearing entire landscapes and architectures. To write them Isobel Dixon has been near to, in the company of, enchanted by, for a long time, a hoard of paintings, phantasms, writing - animal-besotted and world-mad all - to which she calls us close in these verses. I can almost not breathe for being in their presence." Gabeba Baderoon, author of The History of Intimacy

"These are warm, attentive, moving poems, full of feeling but also full of precision and clarity of mind. Isobel Dixon's work is engaged not just with life, but with poetry as life, and this haunting book is a testament to the doubleness of the poetic art: an engagement with the world, and a world in and of itself." Patrick McGuinness, author of The Last Hundred Days

Isobel Dixon grew up in the Eastern Cape, studied in Stellenbosch and Edinburgh and lives in Cambridge. Her debut collection of poems, Weather Eye, won the Olive Schreiner Prize. Her other collections are A Fold in the Map, Bearings and The Tempest Prognosticator.

Scottish artist Douglas Robertson is known for his collaborations with poets.