the Road North

      …one about to dive in       &      about      to dive      in       &      still      about      to      dive       &       &       &[.] There is an element of this joint collection by Alec Finlay and Ken Cockburn, the road north, which seems to tease the reader into believing Read More

In Reality: Selected Poems

Seren Book’s In Reality: Selected Poems is the first major glimpse of poetry by award winning Luxembourger Jean Portante, translated for English speaking readers. The book gathers selected poems from his major collections, notably In Reality and What Does and What Doesn’t Come to Pass, and provides the original French in parallel with Zoë Skoulding’s Read More

A Red Cherry on a White-tiled Floor: Selected Poems

Women like me do not know how to speak. A word remains in their throats like a thorn they choose to swallow. Choose to swallow. In this first translation of her work into English, Syrian-born poet Maram Al-Massri confesses her secrets to us. Al-Massri is a woman stuck. Stuck between Arab tradition and modern femininity. Read More

The Clinic, Memory: New and Selected Poems

Con-men, poker-players, poets put the solid world at risk and then enjoy the dance… (“The Water Magician of San Diego”) Elaine Feinstein — poet, novelist, playwright, biographer and translator—has selected poems for The Clinic, Memory from twelve collections written over five decades which, alongside newly-written poems; these do indeed “put the solid world at risk”. Read More

Love is a Place

The three collections encapsulated in Love is a place – It wasn’t far away or difficult (2010), The signal is fading (2012) and From where to begin to love again (2014) have been translated from Catalan to English by Anna Crowe, a skilled veteran of poetry in translation. Joan Margarit is an award-winning poet who Read More

Declare

Works of literature allow readers to escape to any location in the world and to any era in history, an idea put to work in Geraldine Clarkson’s latest collection, Declare in which she depicts unfamiliar locations in enthralling ways. Clarkson’s aptitude has already been acknowledged: she has won several poetry awards and most notably has Read More

more bees bigger bonnets

I’m a poet who loves words loves people And believes some things Are worth getting angry about [.] Steve Pottinger, in his own words, is an angry poet. If you like your poetry with a cup of tea and a biscuit, look elsewhere. His latest collection, “more bees bigger bonnets” will shout at you, confront Read More

Letters I Never Sent to You: Poetry & Prose 2007-2016

And the thing about repression is if you dam the waters long enough, when they break get ready for floods.                              (“Clarification”) Fanning through Paula Varjack’s collection, Letters I Never Sent to You, two features imprint on the brain. The first is a photograph (the only one in the collection) of a clumsy heart mown into Read More

The Cream of the Well

Over the last four decades Valerie Gillies has truly inhabited the Scottish and Irish landscapes; she draws from them a perpetual source of sustenance for her work. “The Cream of the Well” refers to the first sip taken at sunrise that was believed to have healing properties – a mystical quality which has a strong Read More

The Days That Followed Paris: 13 November 2015

If you remember where you were on the 13 November 2015, you are no doubt thankful that you were not in Paris. Paul Stephenson however, was there; in the weeks following he wrote The Days that Followed Paris: 13 November 2015. The formal voice the poet adopts mimics the content of the work which is Read More