The Shard Box

About the Book: 

This collection of poems eloquently captures the contradictions and multiple identities of modern China.

Liz Niven has a keen eye for detail and a light touch that delivers an unexpected intensity. Taking on ancient traditions and contemporary issues, this selection is, in turn, humorous and poignant and illustrates China as it is rarely seen.

From the intimacy of the tea ceremony to the lives of the migrant workers in Beijing, nothing is as you would expect.

The Shard Box is a testament to the poet’s emotional honesty, her willingness to explore and engage. It is a book that will linger with the reader long after it is finished.

Reviews: 

These are not travel poems; they are 'Chinese' poems with a very strong Scottish accent - humorous, sympathetic, elightening and involved. They demonstrate how valuable the reflective nature of poetry can be in engaging with another culture. TOM POW

I loved Bei Dao in Scots! These early poems seem to work especially well. ELIOT WEINBERGER

Her poetry combines the lilting notes of Scottish bagpipes with the earthy regional cadence of the language. CHINA DAILY

A fine poet with an excellent ear for the Scots language. RON BUTLIN

There is fine writing in The Shard Box, crafted with vision, warmth and shafts of devastating insight. JANET PAISLEY

About the Author:

LIZ NIVEN lived in Glasgow for the first twenty years of her life. Since then, she has lived in Dumbarton, Easter Ross, Galloway and now Dumfries.  A former teacher, she has been Writer-in-Residence for dgaa, Scots Language Development Officer for Dumfries & Galloway Education Department and is now Cultural Co-ordinator for Creative Writing in D&G’s schools. For many years she has been a leading consultant on the use of Scots Language in Education, editing resources for education, co-writing the Advanced Higher Examination in Scottish Language and writing the first Dossier on Scots in Education for Mercator in the Netherlands. Her poetry and language related writings are widely published (UK, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Slovakia, Czech Republic) and broadcast on BBC Scotland, Radio 4, BBC Northern Ireland and ITV. Her award-winning poetry includes collaborations with sculptors for wood and stone installations on the River Cree in Galloway and commissioned poetry for Highlands & Islands Airports Ltd’s Gateway Arts Project. The latter commission is the subject of a television documentary entitled ‘Poet on a Plane’. She has been awarded two Scottish Arts Council Writers’ Bursaries, in 1996 and in 2003, and was awarded joint first prize in the Herald/McCash Poetry competition 2003.