Evelyn Schlag’s All Under One Roof captivates the reader using conversational prose, and a pattern of discovery in the innocent encounter of the places and the experiences that the speaker of the poem grows through. Translated by Kareen Leeder with a fine touch, the collection draws from her two German-language collections – Language of a Read More
Gabriel Josipovici’s The Cemetery in Barnes (2018) is a very short novel, with the story spread across a mere one hundred pages. However, this is a novel of burning intensity that leaves the reader in a constant state of uncertainty with plotline that jumps between different phases in the protagonist’s, an unnamed translator, life. These Read More
Ned Denny is a London-born author/critic whose work has been published in various magazines and publications along. Unearthly Toys: Poems and Masks combines his previous work with a large number of new poems to comprise a very diverse and eclectic book. Spread throughout the collection are many poems that are directly inspired by, or are Read More
Indisputably, Emily Dickinson’s “Tell it Slant” works, but does her entreatment apply solely to poets? In Rego Retold Owen Lowery has rightly termed his collection “Poems in Response” (my italics). Ekphrastic poetry has many detractors; done badly there is reason for critical disquiet. If we are all in some way telling it slant then any Read More
In a mizzling rain that brings darkness to the red heartstone of the city, I set out to meet David Kinloch to interview him about his Ars Poetica in light of his recent publication In Search of Dustie-Fute, shortlisted only this morning for the Saltire Poetry Prize. We have arranged to meet in “Tinderbox”, Ingram Read More
Robert Minhinnick’s newest volume of poetry comes to us in the form of a modest collection, wrapped in an austere white cover with narrow bands that leak bright, naturalistic details on closer inspection. Minhinnick, himself an established environmentalist, has filled his verse with wildlife and a sublime delight in nature. His “Song of Sleet” declares, Read More