Lana Del Rey releases debut poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over Grass

Collection will be released in hardback format later this year

Lana Del Rey has released the audiobook version of her debut poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over Grass.

The artist’s reading of her poems is accompanied in the audiobook by instrumentation from her frequent collaborator, Jack Antonoff.

The collection is out via Interscope Records and the publisher Simon & Schuster. The audiobook version dropped this week – the poems will be released as a hardback edition and ebook in September.

In the audiobook, Del Rey reads the 13 poems to a background of piano and occasional saxophone solos.

Violet Bent Backwards Over Grass is the first of two poetry projects that Del Rey has planned for this year.

The other, titled behind the iron gates – insights from an institution, does not yet have a confirmed release date.

Del Rey said that half of the proceeds from Violet Bent Backwards Over Grass would benefit “Native American organisations around the country, whether it was for preserving their rights or trying to help keep their land intact.”

She announced the Navajo Water Project as the beneficiary in July.

In her controversial Instagram post in May, in which she addressed allegations that she “glamorises abuse”, Del Rey appeared to announce that a new album will arrive on 5 September.