Mycological Studies

Jay Millar’s second collection of poems looks at the world of mushrooms through a kaleidoscope ofperspectives and styles, ranging from innovative and constraint-based writing to visual and concrete poetry. This book makes a unique contribution to the poetry of science and nature; if mushrooms have a language that is spoken to us or through us as hallucinogenic experiences, Millar has managed to tap into that language and refine it into potent poetic form.

‘As readers,’ says Millar, ‘we witness that which occurs on and above the surface of language. Meanwhile, the fungal threads themselves, lying beneath or between the letters, faithfully connect each piece of the whole to all of the others in a particular order forever unknown to the reader.’ Mycological Studies is an uncanny book, one that suggests that the divides between the sentient and the unconscious are frequently bridged in subtle and mysterious ways.