my name is abilene (Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023, Shortlisted)

Rachael Allen describes a collection which ‘is a haunting’, whilst John Greening terms it ‘almost a verse novel’. I’m uncertain where the parameters lie, but in this Fenland Gothic tale, Elisabeth Sennit Clough (who is from that area) conveys the almost-trippy drift from the subconscious, ingrained with something painfully real. And all of it arrives with a level of formal poetic crafting which lifts this narrative into the extraordinary. 

Arrivals of Light

Robin Fulton Macpherson (Shearsman Books, 2020); pbk, £10.95  Robin Fulton Macpherson’s collection opens with the observation of birds in the natural world.  The perspective of the viewer observing crows watching a heron seem to merge with that of the corvids:  From the black lace of a leafless birchseven crows seem to be watching one  heron rowing air Read More

Ghost Passage

Most famously, Seamus Heaney remarked on ‘chiming the ancient with the modern’. In Ghost Passage, Josephine Balmer’s task is similarly charged. Her rich publication record includes her own poetry, Classical verse translations, editorship of anthologies and, arguably most closely in the context of this latest collection, Piecing Together the Fragments: translating Classical Verse, Creating Contemporary Poetry (OUP, 2013). This is a poet very ready to write this book.

Hidden Cargoes

A prolific essayist, Chris Arthur’s writing is marked invariably by an expansive curiosity, an omnivorous reading life and spooling philosophical enquiries that begin with an attentiveness to the ordinary. His finely wrought essays are what challenged me to think about essaying as an activity outside the schoolroom, beyond those dry-as-dust abstracts and arguments of professionalised, templated writing that sometimes masquerade for life in the Humanities….

Star Muck Bourach

Embracing the rural landscapes of Northeast Scotland, Star Muck Bourach explores intergenerational changes within the land and its occupants. David Ross Linklater’s fourth pamphlet documents his idealised imaginings of an agricultural childhood as it becomes progressively tainted by destruction and loss. This collection continues Linklater’s exploration of environmental issues whilst navigating an uncharted territory where ‘only the hills know where we go from here.’ It questions humanity’s inclination towards industrialisation and their effects despite their inevitably short lifespans when in comparison to nature.

Continuous Creation

In spite of the poet’s undeniable fastidiousness in presenting his lines, being Les Murray’s editor must have had mercurial moments. Jamie Grant provides an illuminating ‘Note on the Text’ to open the great Australian’s final collection.

DJCAD Degree Show 2023: Animation

Starcrossing; Kitchen Madness; Phantasmagoria; A Pangolin’s Tale; Fridge and Chaos are some of the most varied I personally can remember seeing at the Degree Show. No two are alike in style or tone, spanning a refreshing mix of genres from the comedic to the mystical to the horrific. What they do have in common is the fact that they all successfully continue to uphold the high bar of quality that can be expected from the showcase.  

Shouting at Crows

Introduced as ‘poetry to read to the monsters under your bed,’ Sadie Maskery’s first full-length collection unearths magical tropes, blending imagination with scepticism. Her writing permeates the borders between dreams and reality, past and present, attachment and loss in ways that are both whimsical and haunting.

The Pot of Earth and The Iron Pot

The mythological state of history can cast a shadow on the apparent mundanity of contemporary life. It can be tempting to look at the world and proclaim that we have reached the end of a time where people can look at the world around them with childish wonder. It takes poetic works such as Ruth Mcllroy’s The pot of Earth and the Iron Pot to reinvigorate the majesty of day-to-day life, dissipating the numbness that often accompanies familiarity.

The Vagina Monologues

It’s safe to say that The Vagina Monologues is not a play that everyone wants to see. A combination of observations, monologues inspired by interviews about women’s relationships and experiences with their vaginas, and facts about genitalia, the play remains legendary in feminist culture, but is often prefaced by “could you imagine watching…” by others. From the beginning of the play, the point was made clear: ’think about your vagina. Do you like it?’