Exquisite Prisons

“Edward O’Dwyer’s poems in Exquisite Prisons pack the quotidian with a creeping terror; motorists nervously migrate to investigate the car stalled at the lights, a father is filmed throwing his child higher and higher, a husband wonders if his wife also fantasizes about killing him. These poems are savagely ironic, authoritative and delivered in an unsettling coaxing voice that occupies that same dazzling imaginative territory as Shirley Jackson in The Lottery.” - Eleanor Hooker

“These are poems which explore the preciousness and unreliability of what we think of as 'the present'. They often unpick fleeting moments, but their impact is enduring. Highly recommended.” - Helen Mort

“In Exquisite Prisons, Edward O’Dwyer considers the reasons people need other people: to validate, reflect, desire, resist, and mourn. These poems are surreal, sneakily funny and unashamedly sad. The images will stay with you. O’Dwyer’s poetic voice is utterly contemporary and the poems have a wittily executed lightness of touch which charms the reader.” - Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins

“Edward O’Dwyer’s Exquisite Prisons is a country where anything resembling a cliché is turned back at the border. This is a brilliant, original, courageous, dramatic, often painful collection, with no simple ‘happy ever after’ endings. The dark truths shine. Many of the poems are elegiac in tone throughout. The relationship poems are tortured and intriguing. Tough poems but also so much joy – the joy is in the language, the words written in steel. Welcome to an unforgettable country.” - Tim Cunningham