Counting Backwards: Helen Dunmore, Bloodaxe
It is tempting to reiterate that Helen Dunmore was a poet first and last, both metaphorically and chronologically, but this would be to see prose and poetry as rigidly separate. To me her poetry always contains a small narrative and by turns, her prose is lyrical. In 1993 she published her debut novel Zennor in Darkness, which won the McKitterick prize. The chronology of these poems shows that she...
22nd March 2019
become something frail: Stuart Buck, Selcouth Station Press
Stuart Buck is possessed of an astonishing imagination coupled with an enviable ability to birth fully-formed poems of unique, musical, and mind-bending originality. become something frail is his second collection of poetry. At first glance, it resembles a school exercise book, with title and name i...
22nd March 2019
The Soil Never Sleeps: Adam Horovitz, Palewell Press
How much use is a poet down on the farm? Adam Horovitz was invited by the Pasture-led Livestock Association to be their poet in residence for a year, which involved staying on four of their farms – in...
19th March 2019
So the Sky: Valerie Lynch, Dempsey & Windle
Valerie Lynch, who is aged 90, was born in Hertfordshire, but spent many childhood holidays visiting Dorset relatives. Although she has been writing poetry all her life and has had poems published in ...
19th March 2019
Alice in Winterland: Julie Egdell, Smokestack
My favourite version of Lewis Carroll’s best known work, the psychedelic fairytale ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ is not the slightly saccharine (but still endlessly strange) Disney version, nor t...
14th March 2019
Messages Written on Envelope Backs: Ayelet McKenzie, Dempsey & Windle
Ayelet McKenzie has lived in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, for 32 years. She has published two pamphlet collections, and two previous full collections, The Patient is Disappointing and Courting the Asyl...
9th March 2019
Sense Me: Annum Salman, AuthorHouse
A well-informed article recently published by the Guardian discussed poetry’s wind of change over the last few years, and mentioned young poets such as Rupi Kaur, whose bestselling works can be found ...
1st March 2019
Husbands for Breakfast: Trisha Broomfield, Dempsey & Windle
Trisha Broomfield was born in Lincolnshire, grew up in Australia and now lives in Surrey. As well as poetry, she’s a writer of short stories and unfinished crime novels. Husbands for Breakfast is her...
21st February 2019
Anatomy of a Whale: Matt Barnard, Onslaught Press
Matt Barnard’s Anatomy of a Whale is disarmingly accessible and at times startlingly original. He explores the underside of the ordinary and aspects of the familiar that are best seen by looking sidel...
16th February 2019
The Weather in Normal: Carrie Etter, Seren
Carrie Etter is one of the few writers who, when I hear she has a new book coming out, I get all excited about because I know it’s not going to disappoint. Her last book, Imagined Sons, was a series o...
12th February 2019
This Phantom Breath: Henry Normal, Flapjack
The cover of Henry Normal’s collection The Department of Lost Wishes features a youthful poet in a garish jacket and a huge badge that asks “Are we having fun yet?”. The answer from me is a resounding...
12th February 2019
The Healing Next Time: Roy McFarlane, Nine Arches Press
Roy McFarlane’s second collection, published during Black History Month last year, is a serious and determined attempt to document in poetry institutional and everyday racism in Britain. There is ange...
4th February 2019
Blackbird, Bye Bye: Moniza Alvi, Bloodaxe
Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, No...
3rd February 2019
The Best of a Bad Situation: Jamie Thrasivoulou, Silhouette Press
In performance Jamie Thrasivoulou has a sten gun delivery. It is the rhythmical bang, bang, bang of the best of ranters’ performance poetry, laying audiences to waste with a voice that is described as...
27th January 2019
Elastic Man: Paul McGrane, Indigo Dreams
Paul McGrane’s debut collection is an enjoyable glimpse into the mind of a man whose tastes, formed in the last decades of the 20th century, will chime with those of many readers today. His title ackn...
20th January 2019
Where the road runs out: Gaia Holmes, Comma Press
Gaia Holmes is a Halifax-based poet and creative writing tutor who has previously made a living as a busker, a cleaner, a gallery attendant, an oral historian, and a lollipop lady. The first section o...
17th January 2019
Five Views of Mount Fuji: Myra Schneider, Fisherrrow Press
Myra Schneider was born in 1936, and grew up in Scotland, London, and Sussex. She has published a number of poetry collections, writes essays and reviews for literary magazines, and has co-edited anth...
15th January 2019
Tutti Frutti: Konstandinos Mahoney, SPM
A skilled observer, Konstandinos Mahoney communicates his enthusiasm for life and language in every poem of Tutti Frutti, his honest, warm and perceptive first collection, which was second prize winne...
6th January 2019
The Wear and Tear of Conversation: Charlotte Harker, Dempsey & Windle
Charlotte Harker’s The Wear and Tear of Conversation is an ironic and humorous account of the interactions between the self and its surroundings. The transgender poet and artist deals with depression ...
5th January 2019
