Claire McLaughlin (Survivor’s Press, 2014); pbk, £10 In this her first collection, Claire McLaughlin penetrates the “misty blankness” of vision emerging into the vivid, sensory realm of memory. Blinded by a degenerative retina disease, her poems demonstrate the importance of memory when living without vision. McLaughlin’s account is so intense in its imagery, so arousing Read More
In his latest collection, seasoned poet and scrupulous “life critic” Alan Brownjohn writes candidly of modern life and the human experience. His penchant for the trivialities of la vie quotidienne manifests through an acutely realist and, at times, satirical lens. These thirty nine poems might be said to emulate the values of European cinema’s Neorealist Read More
A Bird is Not a Stone is thought provoking, honest and often deeply uncomfortable. This collection was written by twenty-five of the foremost Palestinian literary voices, four of them women, perhaps a reflection of gender-based disparity existing within the country. Since the Israeli occupation, which began in 1967, Palestine is a nation besieged. The erratic construction of barriers Read More