Hannah Sullivan’s first book of poems breathes, from the tumultous living of the opening poem through a steadier still-vibrant growth in the second, to the painful inspirations of the third. Having led an academic career on both sides of the Atlantic, she’s translated her keen observations of the minutia of existence into something moving and Read More
Ailbhe Darcy’s second collection is a literary force of nature fearlessly exploring themes of love and grief. Much like her debut collection, Imaginary Menagerie, which begins in Dublin and then stretches further afield, Darcy offers a dark telling of the world seen through her eyes. Similarly, in Insistence, an unsettling feeling of hopelessness and anxiety Read More
Nick Laird’s fourth book of poetry, Feel Free, is a cleverly arranged three-part collection exploring the two words of the title: what it is like to feel and the nature of being free, if indeed freedom exists at all. The poems cover a huge range, from metaphysical notions of justice and the meaning of existence, Read More
‘You Are Now Entering Europa’, the opening poem in this, Sean O’Brien’s ninth collection, derives its title from a Lars von Trier film. In the film prologue, the voice of Max von Sydow primes the listener, ‘On the count of 1 to 10, you will be in Europa’, and as he descends the numbers, we Read More
Since the release of his poetry collection in 2014, Zaffar Kunial has been known for his exploration and experiment with language. His Anglo-Indian heritage means he can draw inspiration from both English and Urdu. Us has been praised, among many things, for a melding of languages and for Kunial’s flair for storytelling. Poetry, and indeed Read More
Fiona Moore’s The Distal Point is a debut collection that builds on earlier successes: poems from her pamphlets The Only Reason for Time (2013), a Guardian’s Poetry Book of the Year, and Night Letter (2015), shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award, appear alongside new work full of raw emotion and acute observation. ‘The Shirt’, an Read More
The Dundee Rep Ensemble’s latest production, The Snow Queen, in association with Noisemaker, is an enchanting Christmas epic. Based on Hans Christian Anderson’s classic, the show tells the story of Gerda, a young girl who must rescue her friend Kai after an ice-cold mirror shard falls in his eye and he is captured by the Read More
Every day the new and new kind lose their shyness. They approach us, look us in the eye, lead us to the sea. Without fear together we stop to breathe. [‘Tidal Events’] The boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us’ are explored with utmost attention throughout Mária Ferenčuhová’s new Shearsman collection whether these be in relation to Read More
There’s a difficult question you immediately have to answer if you want to review a pantomime: is it fair to apply serious criticism to something that is, for all intents and purposes, ‘just a bit of fun?’ This is, after all, not a ‘serious play’ by any stretch of the imagination – it’s a parody Read More
If light fails, follow darkness in my eyes she says, unfolds the map engraved on her, marks him with a cross and draws him in. (“The Woodman’s Tale”) Just as the recently-deceased Nicolas Roeg’s film Insignificance plays lightly with several kinds of significance, only the foolhardy would draw easy assumptions from Incidentals’ title. The name Read More