Plastic: A Poem by Rice, Matthew
Plastic: A Poem by Rice, Matthew

Plastic: A Poem

Set during a single twelve-hour night shift in an injection molding factory, plastic is a book-length poem...
$31.90 USD
$56.99 USD
$31.90 USD
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Author: Matthew Rice
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $31.90
Plastic: A Poem by Rice, Matthew

Plastic: A Poem

$56.99 $31.90
Plastic: A Poem by Rice, Matthew

Plastic: A Poem

$56.99 $31.90
Author: Matthew Rice
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description
Set during a single twelve-hour night shift in an injection molding factory, plastic is a book-length poem exploring the life of the industrial worker turned poet

Bringing together memoir, ekphrasis, and satire, plastic is based on Matthew Rice's experience working in a plastic molding factory for ten years. Illustrating alienated twenty-first-century Irish labor in poetic form, plastic engages with the inflictions and implications of a "post-industrial," "post-Troubles" society, all while weaving in depictions of factory work from literature, film, and the visual arts.

Time-stamped to highlight the claustrophobia of the worker's experience, Rice meditates on masculinity, sectarianism, and intergenerational trauma. But at its core is a poem about feeling a calling while being submerged in the world of menial labor--making plastic airplane parts by night, making poetry by day.

Invoking the brevity of Seamus Heaney, plastic is an expansive and imaginative poem that offers the working class a grace, dignity, and truth not often found in contemporary literature.

Author: Matthew Rice
Publisher: Soft Skull
Published: 01/13/2026
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.25lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781593768034


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 01/01/2026

About the Author
MATTHEW RICE was born in Belfast. He holds an MA in poetry from Queen's University Belfast and is currently undertaking a PhD at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's. His debut collection, The Last Weather Observer, was published in 2021 to critical acclaim, highly commended for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and included in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's top ten books of the year.
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