Devour Everything

By Sarah Stewart

Devour Everything is a love letter to heroic failure, to creation in the face of destruction, to the mundane made sacred. Ranging from New York to small-town Aberdeenshire, from pop culture to Norse Valkyries, and wrestling with issues of motherhood, memory and loss, Sarah Stewart’s deftly illuminating debut collection reminds us that as humans ‘we are animals / and our bodies remember things.’

Reviews of Devour Everything

'Sumptuous, lyrical, and downright gorgeous throughout, ‘Devour Everything’ lives up to its title with gusto in its almost militant devotion to beauty.' – Jane McKie

'Devour Everything slides between worlds, crossing and recrossing the slippery borders between reality and illusion, past and present, memory and loss. Sharply observed, playful but deeply serious, these are poems that unsettle all our certainties.' – Helen Tookey

'Sarah Stewart’s close attention to the ‘thrum of normality’ often reveals the fragility within it, giving us poems poised at an edge, tingling with threat. The result is a finely tuned recital of human interactions, where we come to understand that life’s encounters can be small but devastating.' – Rebecca Goss

'These poems are a reapproach and reappraisal, looking at the familiar with a fresh gaze. There is a pleasing simplicity in the structure and language, no distractions from the keen insights and focus on the detail. The phrase 'Trust the small things' appears in one poem, and it could’ve been a maxim for the collection as a whole. There’s a humour too, a forgiving and indulgent humour at human frailties that leavens the work. Devour Everything is a significant collection, carrying forward from her debut pamphlet Glisk, and developing further a powerful voice.' – Ally Heather