Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake hero image.
Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake
Anna Mendelssohn (1948-2009) was a poet, an artist and, earlier in her life, a political activist. She also wrote under the name of Grace Lake. She produced prolific amounts of highly experimental lyric poetry and visual artwork, which culminated in the publication of her major collection, Implacable Art, in 2000. This special issue on Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake, edited by Eleanor Careless and Vicky Sparrow, is based on the proceedings of the Anna Mendelssohn Symposium, held at the University of Sussex in February 2017. The symposium took as its epigraph one of Mendelssohn’s titles: ‘Poetry does not deserve evil keepers’. This title sets down a challenge for readers and critics of Mendelssohn’s work, compelling us to ask: what does it mean to be good keepers of (her) poetry? How is the literary critic to deal with the biographical and political contexts – such as her incarceration for anti-capitalist activism, or the precarity of her later life in Cambridge – which intrude upon readings of her texts? Each of the essays in this special issue explores a different aspect of Mendelssohn’s work, from the tradition of Jewish lament to affective labour, activism and the university, the politics of reading and the language of flowers, while drawing on unpublished and previously unexamined material from the Anna Mendelssohn Archive.


Co-edited by Eleanor Careless and Vicky Sparrow


Editorial

‘Poetry does not deserve evil keepers’
‘Poetry does not deserve evil keepers’

Eleanor Careless and Vicky Sparrow

2023-05-17 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 15 • Issue 1 • 2023

Articles

Fear of Retribution
Fear of Retribution

Luke Roberts

2020-07-08 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2020

Poetry's Law
Poetry's Law

Joe Luna

2019-08-12 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 11 • Issue 1 • 2019

‘work with the word that is all’; Politics and Labour in the Poetry of Anna Mendelssohn
‘work with the word that is all’; Politics and Labour in the Poetry of Anna Mendelssohn

Albinia Stanley

2020-10-10 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2020

Fleurs du Travail, Fleurs Sublimes: Anna Mendelssohn's Involute Tulips
Fleurs du Travail, Fleurs Sublimes: Anna Mendelssohn's Involute Tulips

Sara Crangle

2021-09-10 Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

'A Hostile Environment': Failure of Composition in the Poetry of Anna Mendelssohn.
'A Hostile Environment': Failure of Composition in the Poetry of Anna Mendelssohn.

William Rowe

2021-09-15 Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

'Posies for sophists': Anna Mendelssohn and Veronica Forrest-Thomson
'Posies for sophists': Anna Mendelssohn and Veronica Forrest-Thomson

Callie Gardner

2023-03-30 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 15 • Issue 1 • 2023

Creative Responses

On 'always nervous'
On 'always nervous'

Shalini Sengupta

2021-10-19 Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

On Bernache Nonnette
On Bernache Nonnette

Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell

2021-10-19 Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

On 'clashing bronze'
On 'clashing bronze'

Florence Uniacke

2021-10-21 Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

THERE was a great ripping up OF ROMANCE OCCURRING.: A Performance by Lucy Beynon and Lisa Jeschke
THERE was a great ripping up OF ROMANCE OCCURRING.: A Performance by Lucy Beynon and Lisa Jeschke

Lucy Beynon and Lisa Jeschke

2022-07-19 Volume 14 • Issue 1 • 2022

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

'NOTHING is not really happening': on Anna Mendelssohn's prison writing
'NOTHING is not really happening': on Anna Mendelssohn's prison writing

Charlotte Thießen

2022-09-26 Volume 14 • Issue 1 • 2022

Also a part of:

Special Issue: Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Anna Mendelssohn’s ‘pladd. (you who say either)’
Anna Mendelssohn’s ‘pladd. (you who say either)’

Jon Clay

2022-08-21 Anna Mendelssohn/Grace Lake

Also a part of:

Issue: Volume 14 • Issue 1 • 2022

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Special Issues