Naomi Alderman’s fourth novel, and first endeavour into speculative fiction, is based on the simple question: what might happen if women really did run the world? Set mainly in the near future, the novel is told from various points of view as first teenage girls, and then women, suddenly become aware of a whole new Read More
This year’s degree show for Art and Philosophy offers the viewer a wealth of thought-provoking art works. There are interesting connections between artists’ interests, yet outcomes are hugely varied. Stacey Pover emphasises the healing qualities of art and the power of collaborative expression in performances. She asks participants to take part spontaneously in creating paintings outside Read More
Product Design and Digital Interaction Design exhibits are displayed together in the lively Social Digital space on Level 5 of the Matthew Building. Here we can see the designs of the future, where some of our brightest new designers are presenting their solutions to a range of challenges in the modern world. For some, the Read More
The audience of eight alight themselves expectantly on a handful of deck chairs, next to a caravan. A young woman comes out and introduces herself as Catherine. She makes a game of guessing our names and getting us to guess the names of each other. She cheerfully admits that this is like one of those Read More
This is the work of a life cut short. Ian Abbot died in a 1989 road accident, the year after his debut collection Avoiding the Gods was published. He was only 42. Finishing the Picture, in the words of editor Richie McCaffery, is an attempt to secure the reputation of a poet whose work has, Read More
Thomas McCarthy’s new collection Pandemonium is a war cry. Written post-economic collapse in Ireland (2008), he uses the tools of his trade to rage, amass and, ultimately, heal: (…) let pandemonium Cease, let the wild confetti of poets Be withdrawn from the bitterness of the streets. This passionate, thoughtful collection is at once a response Read More
Slender hands can’t seize chances. So much for that when we breathe the narrowed sleep of reason that bids us tend and bide a husband. Their mariners score them maps, steel-incised empiries hard and spread as their bodies. They lend us a press of wax to imprint our names, their melted flattery, gone with a Read More
Jos Smith’s Subterranea is a poetry collection of vivid illustrations for searching imaginations. The poems explore and expand, the intimate space between internal and external landscapes. While it often focuses on specific settings, the collection in its entirety is about the pilgrimage from one reality to another. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the “Subterranean” as both Read More
In a turbulent political world, where the current US administration’s denial of climate change is clear, UK-based Illinois poet Carrie Etter’s Scar seems profoundly relevant. Informed by former government climate change reports, conversations with the Met Office and interviews with her fellow Illinoisans, this single long poem explores the impact that global warming is wreaking Read More
Temples and monuments reach for transcendence, beauty lies in the carcass of an insect, cities within cities, take your eyes from the heavens, look long and deep. These words greet us at the collection’s beginning, encapsulating beautifully the essence of William Letford’s Dirt. In the eyes of many, skywards is not necessarily paired with insects Read More