Bethany Pope: “Sitting in a bus terminal (my God these are appropriately named – all life seems to stop.) reading Ivy Alvarez‘s wonderful verse-novel ‘Disturbance’ (which is also about a terminus, of the original kind). This book cuts straight to the gristle, ‘Her dress, for instance, did not shield her / from the buckshot aimed at her front and back. / We do what we can.’ Pick this book up the next time you need something wonderful…”
publications
Disturbance as a cake
Pictures of Disturbance as a cake, from its book launch (part of First Thursdays, a poetry and fiction reading series organised by Seren Books).
Mark William Jackson reviews Disturbance
“Brilliant. Ivy weaves many voices into a fine fabric of Lynchian dystopia; the surface — a nuclear, upper middle class family — hides the bruises and broken bones. The poems are (true to the Lynch ethos) in a non-linear narrative which, given the prescience, assists the reader to dive deeper in the sad minds of the victims and the mostrosity that is the father / husband.
“Each poem is standalone brilliant; collected they take you on a dark journey that will leave you wide-eyed and breathless, like hiding from a killer in a closet.” — Mark William Jackson
Reader photo of Disturbance
It has been a rare privilege to watch Disturbance go from final draft to printed book over the last year or so, as part of a closed Facebook group organised by Ivy Alvarez.
Launch: Disturbance at the Dylan Thomas Centre
Ivy Alvarez reads her poem ‘Husband Interrupted’ from Disturbance, at its book launch, as part of the Dylan Thomas Festival in Swansea.