Eely
(hardback, 184pp)
£14.99 £14 (launch price)
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Eely is a symphony in four movements. The first movement, Eel, focuses on the lifecycle, ecology, epic migration, conservation status and enigma of the European eel. The second movement, /ˈiːlai/, explores two main themes: the author’s autobiographical encounter with the eel, and the conflict that was so often associated with that encounter. The third movement, eely, develops the themes of the second movement in a guerrilla-pastoral, folk-horror fantasy of the author as a were-eel—if Eel is an adagio and /ˈiːlai/ a sonata, then eely is a capriccio. The fourth movement, Eelysium, concludes the piece and broadens the vision with a focus on the Eastern fenlands of England. The English fenlands were once a stronghold of the European eel, as they were for many other species. The poem imagines the origin of the fens in the eustasy of the early Holocene, their development from the Mesolithic to the Early Modern period, their ecological and economic superabundance, the social and ecological catastrophe of their destruction, and a vision of their restoration. Eely is published by Longbarrow Press on 8 April 2024; you can order the book securely by clicking on the relevant PayPal button above. Click here to read ‘Eelysium’, a short essay focusing on the themes of Eely‘s fourth movement (with four poems from the book).
The European Eel
(hardback, 80pp)
SOLD OUT
The European Eel will be republished as the first part of Steve Ely’s Eely, a symphony in four movements, due from Longbarrow Press in early April 2024.
A beautiful piece of work. Charlie Connelly /
Books this good don’t come along too often. Max Porter / A remarkable poem: fresh, real, and truly radical. Read it! David Morley
Steve Ely’s The European Eel is a long poem that imagines the life cycle, ecological contexts and enigma of the charismatic and critically endangered fish of the poem’s title. Based on Ely’s in-depth engagement with the scientific literature, discussions with leading eel researchers and conservationists, and hands-on experience with the eel in river systems across the country and abroad, The European Eel is unique not only in its sustained birth-to-death focus on the eel, but in the vivid way the eel’s riverine and marine habitats are evoked and articulated—and in its portrayal of the daunting array of anthropogenic threats that are currently threatening this once common species with extinction. Although a poem first and foremost—an Expressionistic epic monology that transforms its natural history into a quasi-gnostic affirmation of the persistence of life in the context of the Anthropocene and the Sixth Extinction—the poem’s rootedness in research also enables it to function as a credible piece of informed nature writing capable of shaping ecological debate. Seventeen pages of illustrations by the award-winning artist P.R. Ruby complement and interpret the text, and detailed notes provide context that further opens up the astonishing world of the European eel.
You can read an extract from the book here. Click here to read ‘Body of Dark’, a reflective essay on the development of The European Eel. Shortlisted for The Laurel Prize 2022.
Steve Ely’s poetry publications include Oswald’s Book of Hours (Smokestack, 2013), Englaland (Smokestack, 2015), Incendium Amoris (Smokestack, 2017), Bloody, proud and murderous men, adulterers and enemies of God (The High Window Press, 2018), Jubilate Messi (Shearsman, 2018), Zi-Zi Taah Taah Taah (Wild West Press, 2018) and Lectio Violant (Shearsman, 2021). He has also published a novel, Ratmen (Blackheath Books, 2012), and a biographical work, Ted Hughes’s South Yorkshire: Made in Mexborough (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield.
Longbarrow Press 