Michael Longley has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world, including the Whitbread, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and most recently the 2017 PEN Pinter Prize. Longley calls his home in Carrigskeewaun, Co Mayo his ‘soul-landscape’; the environment that feeds and inspires his soul. In Angel Read More
All I want now is my dignity back, To stand on my own unsteady feet […]. Testament is Robert Crawford’s seventh full length collection of poems, and here he writes about a myriad of themes in many different styles. Made up of forty-two poems, Testament is divided into five distinct sections; “Hard-Wearing Flowers”, “A Little Read More
Early in the 1980s, I visited an extraordinary installation in the Centre Georges Pompidou. Viewers wore special slippers to enter a room, a carpet to ceiling, wall to wall kinetic/op art environment which seemingly undulated, changing entirely when studied from different positions. The artist’s use of lenticular printing on folded surfaces, in precise mathematical terms, Read More
After reading this collection by Alice Oswald, it came as no surprise to learn that following her studies of Classics at Oxford, Oswald trained as a gardener. Plants, flowers, myths and legends are constant threads that run through her poems. She draws much of her inspiration from the River Dart and the folklore of the Read More
Neil Rollinson has published three collections of poetry before Talking Dead, and is a past recipient of a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors. He has also garnered a reputation for being polemical. His case is arguably quite similar to that of Henry Miller, who is often misinterpreted as a misogynist purveyor of smut. Read More
physical is Andrew McMillan’s debut collection following publications of his work in numerous prestigious magazines and anthologies such as London Review of Books, Modern Poetry in Translation and The Rialto. These poems are personal and moving works, and as the title suggests, they are focused for the most part on the body – exploring its Read More
Mark Doty’s ninth poetry collection, Deep Lane, opens gloriously, with a knowing nod to Seamus Heaney: When I’m down on my knees pulling up wild mustard by the roots before it sets seed, hauling the old ferns further into the shade, I’m talking to the anvil of darkness [.] It’s a tricky collection to review, Read More
Henry Shukman’s Archangel, published just under two years ago, was much anticipated; it was his first collection since the publication of his award-winning debut In Doctor No’s Garden, over a decade ago. The central sequence of this work addresses a captivating piece of little-known history: the story of thousands of Jewish immigrants, tailors, to be Read More
Granta 2012 Poet and visual artist Sean Borodale’s debut collection, Bee Journal rightly earned him an Eliot prize shortlisting and a Guardian Book of the Year accolade. What he terms “poem work” involves making verse in situ – smoked at the opened hive, or note-sticky at the honeyed centrifuge. If most poems may be considered Read More