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In brief: books that authors have talked about at this year's festival - Poetry in focus

We continue our rundown of books we've discovered at this year's festival, with a selection of poetry collections from poets who have performed. If you've liked what you heard, then please do explore the writer's other work.




The Four Poets Bill Lewis/Maggie Harris/Sarah Hehir/Barry Fentiman Hall

A sampler of poems from each of the Four Poets.


Deluge Charlotte Ansell

Confronting displacement, ageing, therapy, family, as well as social shifts like gentrification, Charlotte Ansell draws perspective from the community she lives in and distils it into the stunning exhortations and vignettes that make up this collection. In poems like 'Jennie', 'Deluge' and the heartbreaking 'Emptied', both Charlotte’s empathetic range and formal restraint are in evidence, confirming a unique ability to pick at the most complex of the heart’s dilemmas with clear language and refreshing directness.


Ambush At Still Lake Caroline Bird

Caroline Bird's new poems show us the ambush of real life that occurs in the stillness after the happy ending. This is a collection about marriage, lesbian parenthood, addiction and recovery in which a recurring dream is playing out: a world where mums impale themselves on pogo-sticks, serial killers rattle around in basements, baby monitors are haunted by someone else's baby and, through it all, love stays and stays like a stationary rollercoaster that turns out to be the scariest, most thrilling ride in the amusement park.

Her editor welcomed the book in these terms: 'It is bleak, repellent and hilarious in an American Psycho-ish way. Hectic and vivid.'


The Inexorable Progression Zack Davies

Zack's fourth collection contains his usual brand of piquant humour and about 40 poems.


A Bit Like Falling In Love  Sarah L. Dixon

A Bit Like Falling in Love “takes you dancing in the kitchen, making mosh pit friends, meeting musicians in dreams and life”. It’s clearly a very personal collection, but persuasively transmits her enthusiasm and love for her subject, and how much it has meant to her, in an informative and endearing way. With titles such as ‘They say you should never meet your idols’, ‘Dancing in your houses’, ‘Wildness in me’, and ‘My body as an ageing indie mosh pit’, you can maybe get the idea.  


Austerity Soup Barry Fentiman Hall

A recipe for austerity: Firstly ensure your kitchen has a fully hostile environment; then marinate five stuffed Prime Ministers in their own juice for 12 years (and counting);add a bunch of roughly chopped benefits; stir the pot with some thinly disguised racism; then garnish with a non-apology. Bon Appetit!

Beat poems for the beat.


The Remaining Men Martin Figura

Acutely observed, incisive and precise, The Remaining Men sees Martin Figura combining precision, wit and compassion to produce a collection that is linguistically dexterous and deeply effective. Keeping his gaze on those whose lives are too easily dismissed by society and government, he achieves this potent clarity without a shred of didacticism. Instead we are drawn into the worlds of his characters to have our vision enlargened.


On Watching A Lemon Sail The Sea Maggie Harris

"A lyrical and sensuous interweaving of 'sun-bright wind-cut' images and memories … a symphonic celebration of self and of the landscapes that inform her. This is Maggie Harris at her best." GRACE NICHOLS

"Ford Madox Ford said of Jean Rhys, 'experience as an exile gave Rhys a unique viewpoint.' Maggie Harris has this viewpoint and much, much more … a dancer, a diviner, an arabesque on the water. She sings of freedom and love, freedom to wander wherever the soul may take you, never to be bound to place although we can evoke the tales, imbue the histories … marinate in the sensuality of it all. Sleep on the wings of this collection because you can ' t be pinned down, you need to fly wherever she goes." ROY MCFARLANE


Talk to the paw Pauline Holmes

Talk to The Paw is the debut collection by former Kent Poetry Champion Pauline Holmes. Written unashamedly for those who are at their happiest when covered in dog hair, Talk to The Paw explores our relationships with our faith four-legged and their roles as friends, guide and healers. Pauline’s explosive style and humour jump off the page in this smashing collection of poetry. An absolute must for anyone who loves, or has been loved by, dogs.


Constructing A Witch Helen Ivory  

Helen Ivory’s sixth collection Constructing a Witch fixes on the monstering and the scapegoating of women and on the fear of ageing femininity. The witch appears as the barren, child-eating hag; she is a lustful seductress luring men to a path of corruption; she is a powerful or cantankerous woman whose cursing must be silenced by force. These bewitching poems explore the witch archetype and the witch as human woman. They examine the nature of superstition and the necessity of magic and counter-magic to gain a fingerhold of agency, when life is chaotic and fragile. In the poems of Constructing a Witch Helen Ivory investigates witch tourism, the witch as outsider, cultural representations of the witch, female power and disempowerment, the menopause, and how the female body has been used and misunderstood for centuries.



Sparrowhawk And Other Poems Bill Lewis

Sparrowhawk explores the themes that are characteristic of Bill Lewis' poetry: nature, identity, love, loss, mythology and his love of cinema. Lewis observes the world around him, meditates in silence and translates his emotions into words and imagery. With his poetry - as with his painting - Lewis attempts to discover identity and to express his sensitivity through hidden messages, leaving us wondering which mysterious clues could open things up. In fact, Lewis writes in his poem 'The Poets': "They bathe in mysteries while others only seek to explain them." If Lewis' poems are mysterious and intriguing, they are also rich and magical. A joy to explore.


cover of Tiger Work

Tiger Work Ben Okri

'Both a work of lyrical imagination and a warning about the dangers we will face unless we take immediate action' New Yorker

'An artist's ardent plea for change' Kirkus

This earth that we love is in grave danger because of us. Forests are becoming legends, rare as unicorns...

If we continue to live as we do now, there will be no world left for us to fix, Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri argues in this evocative collection. He imagines messages - sent to us from beyond the end, from those who saw it coming - exhorting us to change now.

Combining fiction, essay and poetry, Tiger Work displays Okri's classic blend of storytelling, fantasy and magic.


Rant: Dyslexic Me Sam Rapp

Sam Rapp is an award-winning poet and playwright who tours the country, at poetry nights and festivals as The Dyslexic Poet. Despite the obstacles presented by dyslexia, Sam has found publication in magazines and websites up and down the country. Since performing her first poem at Brighton Fringe, Sam has broken down barriers to form and genre, delivering her message of inclusion and perseverance. Rant: Dyslexic Me is her debut collection, which finds her in conversational, confessional and confrontational spirits as she reflects on adversity and bullying, and ultimately, the overcoming of odds.


Soho Richard Scott

SHORTLISTED FOR THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA POETRY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE

In this intimate and vital debut, Richard Scott creates an uncompromising portrait of love and gay shame. Examining how trauma becomes a part of the language we use, Scott takes us back to our roots: childhood incidents, the violence our scars betray, forgotten forebears and histories. The hungers of sexual encounters are underscored by the risks that threaten when we give ourselves to or accept another. But the poems celebrate joy and tenderness, too, as in a sequence re-imagining the love poetry of Verlaine.

The collection crescendos to Scott’s tour de force, ‘Oh My Soho!’, where a night stroll under the street lamps of Soho Square becomes a search for true lineage, a reclamation of stolen ancestors, hope for healing, and, above all, the finding of our truest selves.


An Aviary Of Common Birds Lalah-Simone Springer

An Aviary of Common Birds is Lalah-Simone Springer's first collection of poetry. It is an emotionally raw work built on the poet's deep wells of inner strength and heart-warming sensitivity. Springer's poetry asks questions about love, family, community and working class relationships, at the heart of the writing is acceptance. An Aviary of Common Birds is a collection which is always there for the lonely, reaching out a hand, dreaming of a brighter future.


 We hope that you've enjoyed our rundown of poetry collections, and discovering new poets.

 




 

 


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