Writing King Kong

England’s Robert Seatter explores the way we write and rewrite the world for both our own development and delusion in this collection of poetry. Subjects range from his travels in South America to the recipe for summer pudding to engineering facts about the Sydney Harbor Bridge. These subjects are complemented by more emotionally charged poetry—an elegy for a lost friend or an attempt to comfort a father on his deathbed. The collection’s eclectic cast of literary, fictional, and pop culture figures, including Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Anton Chekov, Robinson Crusoe, King Kong, Marilyn Monroe, and Ulysses, further blurs the line between what is real and what is illusory.