Transitory

About the Book: 

Through the poet’s ‘small and continuing dialogues’, Transitory explores the ongoing state of change that we all inhabit. These intimate, elegant poems expose the impact of ourselves on the world, and the world on ourselves, touching on issues of identity, belonging and otherness with honesty and tenderness.

From the Saltire Award shortlisted author of Language of My Choosing.

Reviews: 

Transitory … is an apt title for this collection, as it is replete with poems which shift, surprise and develop as you read, as life does. It is divided into five sections, the first three focus on situations of Engagement and Dialogue: Social Realities, Hidden and Open Selves, Selves and Others. Written in free verse, the poems brim with a sense of bitter-sweet experience and self-exploration; some are tender; some almost punch you in the face, like Hungry Women. There is honesty and bluntness as social convention is blown apart. CHRISTINE DE LUCA

Anne Pia is a fresh voice among contemporary Scottish poets. The European context in which her imagination works, with poems responding to the work of Baudelaire, for instance, is taken as a given: Scotland and the community of European nations are mediated and represented in her poems with subtle understanding, sympathy and constructive insight, political realities that give “nurture” to “fledglings preparing to fly”. ALAN RIACH

The `small and continuing dialogues in my own life' which Anne Pia presents to us in this deeply felt and sensuous collection widen out to span continents of feeling. They move from `Asian bars on Gothic sidestreets' to the `tendernesses of tea' through landscapes of loss and fulfilment, interrogating every aspect of lived moments in graceful, supple and sharply observed poems. A real pleasure to read. AC Clarke

These poems are thought-provoking, insightful, grounded in the senses, and very readable. Anne Pia’s lively and engaging personality comes through in all of them. COLIN WILL

These poems pull us into the worlds of others, taking us in so wholly that we begin to recognise them as our own, tinged with the same grief and love and longing. Unguarded and unafraid, her words give us permission to step outside of ourselves, think as others might, and then see our own surroundings anew. MARJORIE LOTFI GILL

The strength of these poems lies their personal voice – intimacy and distance, immediacy and regret, the richness of life’s experiences, and its passing. DONALD SMITH

I had the pleasure of just having a sight of a few of her poems.… I know that I’ll read them again and again. The Spirit of Internationalism is with us still… DR DOLINA MACLENNAN

These are lovely life affirming poems. Wide-ranging in terms of subject, language and place, they are technically skilful, emotionally generous and a timely reminder that tenderness and love must prevail. ANGUS PETER CAMPBELL

About the Author:

DR ANNE PIA, poet, essayist and translator writes in English, French, Italian and Scots. She is a Saltire Award Finalist, a winner of the Crawford Gallery Cork, Flash Fiction Competition and in 2018 was awarded the prestigious Premio Flaiano Italianistica: La Cultura Italiana nel Mondo. She is also a member of the Guild of Food Writers and in 2022 and 2033 was invited to sit on the judging panel for the Scottish National Book Awards (Poetry). She been invited to review several poetry collections and her poetry and essays have appeared online and UK-wide.

Within a span of 13 years, since retirement, Anne has published three books of non-fiction, 2 full poetry collections and a poetry pamphlet. Her creative memoir and first book, Language of My Choosing was shortlisted for the Saltire Award for Best New Book of 2017 and the Italian language translation, Ho Scelto La Mia Lingua was published in 2018; Keeping Away The Spiders; Essays on Breaching Barriers was published in November 2020 by Luath Press; and Magnaccioni My Food My Italy, a celebration in poetic prose of the culture and way of life in southern Italy, the place of her origins, was published in 2023. 

 Her first poetry collection, Transitory, was published in 2018 and The Sweetness of Demons with translations from French, an oversetting of 14 poems by Baudelaire in Les Fleurs du Mal, was published by Vagabond Voices in April 2021. Dragons Wear Lipstick her poetry pamphlet, a tribute to the women in her life who have in big and small ways, detonated hierarchies, was published by Dreich  in November 2022.

Anne’s work focuses on cultural and sexual identity, and is firmly rooted in her Eurpoean heritage and cultural interests. She has read at the Stanza International Poetry Festival, SEALL in Skye, the Dundee Literary Festival, Southbank Poetry London, the Paisley and Portobello Book Festivals, Porty Pride, the Burns Birthpalce Museum and independent bookships across Scotland. She is listed in the Scottish Poetry Library Catalogue of Scottish Poets and is a regular contributor to poetry and literary gatherings in Edinburgh, Glasgow and more widely in Scotland. In 2018 she was a guest lecturer at the British Institute in Florence.

Anne has a strong background in Education and leadership.