Across eerie jungle landscapes and silent indoor spaces, shards of history and memoir intersect in this haunting new collection.

Certainly, there was an uneasiness to the place
Certainly, I felt like we didn’t belong there

Clay Eaters traverses a network of fault lines diverging and converging at unexpected angles: a mysterious jungle island, military reconnaissance training, the spirits in the trees and abandoned temples, old family homes, the echoes across rooms, the dining table set for the archetypal feast. Here the author asks what it means to write the self, and what it is the living must carry.

Author

Gregory Kan is a writer and developer based in Pōneke/Wellington. His first collection of poetry, This Paper Boat, was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for poetry in 2017. Under Glass, his second collection, was longlisted for the award in 2020. He was the 2017 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow.

Endorsements

‘Kan is a sophisticated and accomplished poet and he creates a unique tone in his poems, using simple language in a sort of alchemy to make emotional depth. The poems come together to create a feeling of an unhurried, loving and honest gaze at his family, himself and his world. Clay Eaters is an original and significant collection.’ — Lynn Jenner

‘Deities, spirits, ghosts, the lost characters and world of a jungle island; a father who is slowly losing himself; the loss of a much-loved cat – the ‘fast-waddling … / Penguin boy / In your fluffy pants’. Kan excavates the red-clay earth, navigates ‘old desire paths’, searches back among the trees for ‘clear lines of sight’. Was it so? he asks, as he examines pixelated maps of the human heart. Clay Eaters haunts us, just as Kan haunts himself.’ — Alison Wong