Arrangements in Blue

The Film/TV Rights are currently under option.

In her debut non-fiction, Key uses Joni Mitchell’s seminal album BLUE as her guide in navigating experiences of loneliness, desire, disappointment and romantic love. It was snapped up Jonathan Cape in the UK after a 7-way auction, and was published 6^th April 2023. US Rights were secured by Liveright, and was published on 9^th May.

When poet Amy Key was growing up, she looked forward to a life shaped by romance, fuelled by desire, longing and the conventional markers of success that come when you share a life with another person. But that didn’t happen for her. Now in her forties, she sets out to explore the realities of a life lived in the absence of romantic love.

Using Joni Mitchell’s seminal album Blue – which shaped Key’s expectations of love – as an anchor, Arrangements in Blue elegantly honours a life lived completely by, and for, oneself. Building a home, travelling alone, choosing whether to be a mother, recognising her own milestones, learning the limits of self-care and the expansive potential of self-friendship, Key uncovers the many forms of connection and care that often go unnoticed.

With profound candour and intimacy, Arrangements in Blue explores the painful feelings we are usually too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief and failure. The result is a book which inspires us to live and love more honestly.

Key is a poet and writer based in London. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Luxe (Salt, 2013) and Isn’t Forever (Bloodaxe, 2018), which was a book of the year in the Guardian, New Statesman, Times and Irish Times. Her poems have been widely published and anthologised, and her essays have appeared in At the Pond (Daunt Books, 2019), Granta, Poetry Review and elsewhere. Her essay about Mitchell, “A Breed of Blue”, was published by Granta last December. Amy is represented by Angelique Tran Van Sang at Felicity Bryan Associates.