Bad Diaspora Poems (FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION, FORWARD PRIZE 2023, SHORTLISTED)

To prefix the title of your debut Forward Prize nominated poetry collection ‘Bad’ may seem, at first, to be a brave choice. But Bad Diaspora Poems is clearly a title that encourages you to think about nuance – something which feels all the more important in a week in which Suella Braverman is having her ‘rivers of blood’ moment at the Tory party conference. ‘Diaspora’ – online definition ‘the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland’ – is a loaded term, so it is no wonder Momtaza Mehri wants us to think about the value judgements we might attach to it, just as she questions the ability of poetry to respond to such a topic. What does it mean to write ‘diaspora poetry’?

Cain Named the Animal (Shortlisted, Forward Prize for Best Collection)

There are cracks running visibly through the poems in Cain Named the Animal. From reading reviews of American poet Shane McCrae’s earlier collections, National Book Award Finalist In the Language of My Captor and T S Eliot prize shortlisted Sometimes I Never Suffered,         cracks persist             throughout them too       as well as        no              punctuation           with space instead                  serving as a kind of                 punc-                           tuation     coupled with    stumbling repetitions               stumbling and the odd / line break             depicted odd          as you would write it in an essay or review.                    it is      an arresting device        and one that             initially to me, initially was       a         distraction                    seeming to get i              n the way    of me               hearing the poems                               in my head.

WRITING PRACTICE AND STUDY SHOWCASE:“Cracked, part two” by Stephen Carruthers

                         The degree of abuse suffered is not always obvious                             to the observer but only known by the victim who is                             reluctant to share it with others.                                            (Please feel free to handle the pieces)                                                                                     Ralph Mavin   —- A man gets up one morning and he leaves his Read More

HISTORY OF WOLVES (SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017)

How far would you go to belong? So runs the tagline to Emily Fridlund’s Booker shortlisted debut novel History of Wolves. It is suggestive of the latest pseudo-psychological thriller, but this does the book a disservice, belying a much subtler, somber work. The book is about a quiet desperation: yes, to belong; but also to Read More

Several Deer

It is a striking image – that of Jan Van Brock’s engraving “Woman in hunting dress” – which adorns the cover of Belfast-born poet Adam Crothers’ debut collection. Behind the elegant, shotgun-carrying woman, a pair of deer sits placidly on a moonlit night. Only on looking closer do you notice the folds etched into the Read More

On Poetry and Writing: An Interview with Don Paterson

“So Don, why do you love poetry?” It takes only three words of Don Paterson’s reply to what I naively think will be a nice, easy first question for me to understand that this is not going to be an hour of nice, easy assumptions. “Oh I don’t” he replies immediately “that would be a Read More

Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys

Since his six years as Rector during the 1990s, Stephen Fry has had many kind things to say about Dundee University. Given that the University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1995 and named its student association bar after his novel The Liar, the feeling is clearly mutual. It is no surprise then that the Read More

Queen of Katwe

Queen of Katwe, directed by Mira Nair of Monsoon Wedding fame, tells the real-life story of chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi. Growing up in the Katwe slums of Uganda, she meets chess coach Robert Katende and discovers she has a talent that could offer her a way out of poverty. So far, so rags-to-riches. But this Read More