Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney’s pre-eminence as a poet is too well known to need any elucidation of course, but perhaps it is worth noting here that his prowess as a translator was also already evident in his Beowulf. Heaney undertook his verse translation of the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid to honour the memory of Read More
Lus na Tùise is, by any standard, a beautiful book and it is, perhaps, fitting that this parallel Gaelic-English collection was published in Nova Scotia. Those who have set expectations of what Gaelic poetry may be, are already alerted that all is not as it seems; Marcas Mac an Tuairneir hails from Yorkshire and has Read More
Reading Amali Rodrigo’s Lotus Gatherers is like taking into your mouth sweetness, sharpness and bitterness all at once. Then she engages your other senses – smell, sound, texture, colour. After that you’re hooked because beyond the initial sensory pull, there are greater riches, deeper depths. Lotus Gatherers is Rodrigo’s first collection, though she has already Read More
Its hazy beauty strangely keeps it new, helps you forget the damage or the why. On sunny days, the mountain turns quite blue – this lumened place you dream of coming to. Hauntingly beautiful, Katherine Gallagher’s Acres of Light is steeped in lyricism. It is observant, evocative, and is above all, a celebration of Read More
Flocks of Words, Kate Innes’s debut poetry collection, draws deeply on her love of the medieval, the mythical and the imaginative, which she overlays with a profound connection with nature and the Shropshire hills in particular. Her music is the music of distant stars and of creation, sometimes almost Miltonian in its wonder and terror. Read More
A Barrel of Dried Leaves rakes together the “corroded” past and “sing[s] the anthem” of change and patriotism in a galvanizing, all-encompassing way. The collection veers away from the expected self-exploration and, without obscurantism, places the reader in a world-reaching, overarching search for human identity. From the start, Allan Cameron challenges national identity—the entirety of Read More
Reading this collection makes one aware that being human is also a religious experience. The clash of languages throughout this collection opens doors to foreign rooms full of incense which are, in truth, situated in our own backyards. Villanueva conjures the heat of a thousand candles that envelope; billows of what seem to be unknown Read More
In his first full collection of poems and flash fiction, Thomas McColl demonstrates the truth of Seamus Heaney’s remark that poets are distinguished by their ability to “notice things.” These fifty-six pieces are notable for their acute observation and unconventional treatment of a variety of topics. In the poem “I”, a rule of grammar, arguably, Read More
[S]ongs made dearer when gone than ever they were, sung by heroes, animal spirits[.] There has been a need for this volume for some time, a need perhaps fully established at Riley’s Light, the 2015 Helen Mort-organised Leeds University conference. Indeed many luminaries, Vahni Capildeo, Andrew McMillan, Ian Duhig and more have shared that journey. Read More