Modern and contemporary poetry

Book SynopsisI come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free. The poems of Wendell Berry invite us to stop, to think, to see the world around us, and to savour what is good. Here are consoling verses of hope and of healing; short, simple meditations on love, death, friendship, memory and belonging; luminous hymns to the land, the cycles of nature and the seasons as they ebb and flow. Here is the peace of wild things.Trade ReviewWendell Berry is the most important writer and thinker that you have (probably) never heard of. He is an American sage -- James RebanksOur modern-day Thoreau ... He is unlike anybody else writing today -- Andrew Marr * New Statesman *The poet laureate of America's farmland * Observer *Wendell Berry's poems have a real twinkle in their eye in the face of a dark world -- Colum McCann * Atlantic *He has returned American poetry to a Wordsworthian clarity of purpose * Baltimore Sun *

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Book SynopsisA tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs, to the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis.Trade Review“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation “[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review “[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.” –from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

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Book SynopsisConfronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his wit and native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him.Trade Review“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation “[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review “[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.” –from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah''s ''Books That Help Me Through'' for Oprah''s Book ClubChosen by Poetry Book Society as their special commendation''No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver''s exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem'' The Washington Post''It''s as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration'' Chicago TribuneThroughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Devotions is a stunning, definitive and carefully curated collection featuring work from over fifty years of writing - from Oliver''s very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through to her last collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

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Book SynopsisThe book of peace that will open doors to new realities. Written in poetry form, short stories, a book of spells, bringing back old folk heroes Robin Hood and little Miss Riding Hood, along with shamans, angels, wizards and magicians. Questioning the way of life and its current state of affairs, whilst creating an opening for the reader to question their own mind and existence. The reader will be left with a personal choice as they enter a new future.

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Book SynopsisBrian Bilston has been described as Twitter's unofficial Poet Laureate. With over 400,000 followers on social media, Brian has become truly beloved by the online community. He has published collections of poetry, You Took the Last Bus Home; Alexa, what is there to know about love?; and Days Likes These. His novel Diary of a Somebody was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. He has also published a collection of football poetry, 50 Ways to Score a Goal, and his acclaimed poem Refugees has been made into an illustrated book for children.Trade ReviewBrian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times -- Ian McMillanBilston is a magician with words * The Guardian *Part John Cooper Clarke, part Frank Sidebottom . . . brilliant * Esquire *

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Book SynopsisMaybe our world will grow kinder eventually.Maybe the desire to make something beautifulis the piece of God that is inside each of us.In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life''s work. Herons, sparrows, owls and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry and impermanence. Whether considering a bird''s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees or the paintings of Franz Marc, Mary Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.Blue Horses asks what it truly means to belong to this world and to live in it attuned to all its changes. ''To be human,'' she shows us, ''is to sing your own song''.Trade ReviewMary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations. - Stanley KunitzThe gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable. - Miami HeraldOliver's poems are thoroughly convincing - as genuine, moving and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring. - New York Times Book ReviewMary Oliver teaches us the profound act of paying attention - a living wonder that makes it possible to appreciate all the others. - Boston Globe

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Book SynopsisThe classic collection of poetry from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.''A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman'' BARACK OBAMAMaya Angelou''s poetry - lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful - speaks of love, longing, partings; of Saturday night partying, and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams.''She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds'' OPRAH WINFREY''She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate'' TONI MORRISONTrade ReviewA brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman -- President Barack ObamaThe poems and stories she wrote . . . were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace -- President Bill ClintonShe moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds -- Oprah WinfreyShe was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate -- Toni MorrisonAngelou was the first poet since Robert Frost to recite work at a presidential inauguration. And Still I Rise is a tribute to determination, from the title poem to the anthemic "Phenomenal Woman", which sounds like something that Beyoncé could set to music -- Stig Abell * The Times *

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Book SynopsisI go down to the shore in the morningand depending on the hour the wavesare rolling in or moving out, and I say, oh, I am miserable,what shall-what should I do? And the sea saysin its lovely voice:Excuse me, I have work to do.Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her treasured dog Percy, Mary Oliver is beautifully open to the teachings contained within the smallest of moments. In A Thousand Mornings she explores, with startling clarity, humour and kindness, the mysteries of our daily experience.Trade ReviewMary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations. - Stanley KunitzThe gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable. - Miami HeraldOliver's poems are thoroughly convincing - as genuine, moving and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring. - New York Times Book ReviewMary Oliver teaches us the profound act of paying attention - a living wonder that makes it possible to appreciate all the others. - Boston Globe

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Book Synopsis''But no, she''s abstract, is a birdOf sound in the air of air soaring,And her soul sings unencumberedBecause the song''s what makes her sing.''Dramatic, lyrical and ranging over four distinct personae, these poems by one of Portugal''s greatest poets trace a mind shaken by intense suffering and a tireless search for meaning.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

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Book SynopsisAs the world celebrates and reflects on the beautiful life of Maya Angelou, Virago presents an updated collection of her works of poetry, collected together for the first time.Trade ReviewOne of the brightest lights of our time -- a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman * Barack Obama *The poems and stories she wrote and read to us in her commanding voice were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace . . . I will always be grateful for her electrifying reading of 'On the Pulse of Morning' at my first inaugural, and even more for all the years of friendship that followed * Bill Clinton *The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. "When you learn, teach. When you get, give" is one of my best lessons from her * Oprah Winfrey *You will hear the regal woman, the mischievous street girl; you will hear the price of black woman's survival and you will hear of her generosity. Black, bitter, and beautiful, she speaks of our survival * James Baldwin *

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Book SynopsisRainer Maria Rilke’s powerfully touching letters to an aspiring young poet.    At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for generations of writers and artists of all kinds, including Lady Gaga and Patti Smith. With honesty, elegance, and a deep understanding of the loneliness that often comes with being an artist, Rilke’s letters are an endless source of inspiration and comfort. Lewis Hyde’s new introduction explores the context in which these letters were written and how the author embraced his isolation as a creative force. This edition also includes Rilke’s later work The Letter from the Young Worker.  For more than 80 years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature Trade Review...I cannot think of a better book to put into the hands of any young would-be poet, as an inspirational guide to poetry and to surviving as a poet in a hostile world. -- Harry Fainlight * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThe multi-award-winning meditation on survival, care and the place of literature in an unequal world''Around that time my daughter and I had this exchange:Anne, imagine if the world had nothing in it.Do you mean nothing at all - just darkness - or a world without objects?I mean a world without things: no houses, chairs, or cars. A world with only people and trees and dirt.What do you think would happen?People would make things. We would make things with trees and dirt.''When the cold comes, when our needs announce themselves, it is with clothing, with possessions, in literature, through dreams - in all the forms and categories that shape, contain and constrain - that we keep ourselves alive. Yet, in a society in which some are rich and some are poor, who gets to dream, and who invents our forms? This is a book made of money and the lack of money; of writing and of not-writing; of illness and of care;

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Book SynopsisThis is one of the greatest collections of love poetry ever published. Inspired by Pablo Neruda's youthful relationships and injected with an expressive eroticism, these poems are as accomplished as they are evocative and sensual. First published in 1924 to international acclaim when Neruda was just nineteen, this book is still adored the world over for being one of the most memorable, intense and romantic works of poetry ever written.It is a work of poetry to be cherished by lovers old and new. The perfect Valentine's Day present. INTRODUCED BY LEO BOIX'The poems today remain as urgently gorgeous as freshly picked flowers' Carol Ann DuffyThe Vintage Classics Love Poems series brings together some of the most sensual, heart-breaking and romantic poetry ever written. Working in collaboration with Vintage Creative Director Suzanne Dean this edition has been created by Spanish illustrator Jesús Cisneros.Trade ReviewHis love poems have fuelled romances around the world * Independent *The greatest poet of the 20th century -- Gabriel García MárquezHe was that rare thing - a public poet, and a great one, held in deep affection by every layer of Chilean society. For the skill that earned him such esteem was his ability to find beauty in ordinary things * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis''That crown which he set on his lifetime''s effort.' Ted HughesFour Quartets is the culminating achievement of T. S. Eliot's career as a poet. This edition is based on the design made by Giovanni Mardersteig for his letterpress edition of 1960 and marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of its first publication in the UK by Faber & Faber in 1944.Throughout these poems there is also the invention of new rhythms, of unimagined possibilities in the movement of language . . . He is perhaps more original and inventive in rhythm than any other poet in English.' Delmore SchwartzThe most original contribution to poetry that has been made in our time.' Edwin Muir

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Book SynopsisTed Hughes''s Birthday Letters are addressed, with just two exceptions, to Sylvia Plath, the American poet to whom he was married. They were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963, and represent Ted Hughes''s only account of his relationship with Plath and of the psychological drama that led both to the writing of her greatest poems and to her death. The book became an instant bestseller on its publication in 1998 and won the Forward Prize for Poetry in the same year. ''To read [Birthday Letters] is to experience the psychic equivalent of the bends. It takes you down to levels of pressure where the undertruths of sadness and endurance leave you gasping.'' Seamus Heaney ''Even if it were possible to set aside its biographical value . . . its linguistic, technical and imaginative feats would guarantee its future. Hughes is one of the most important poets of the century and this is his greate

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize‘Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition.’ New YorkerAn extraordinary debut from a young Vietnamese American, Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other. Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects – love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire – and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention: ‘…the chief of police/facedown in a pool of Coca-Cola./A palm-sized photo of his father soaking/beside his left ear.’ This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, and its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.‘These are poems of exquisite beauty, unashamed of romance, and undaunted by looking directly into the horrors of war, the silences of history. One of the most important debut collections for a generation.’ Andrew McMillan Winner of the 2017 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection A Guardian / Daily Telegraph Book of the YearPBS Summer RecommendationTrade ReviewNight Sky With Exit Wounds…startled me with its urgency and its relevance. A eerily sure-footed debut. -- Rupert Thomson * Observer, Books of the Year *Vuong writes with a piercing, dreamlike clarity. -- Tristram Fane Saunders * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition … His lines are both long and short, his pose narrative and lyric, his diction formal and insouciant. From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion. * New Yorker *Ocean Vuong is one of my auto-buy authors. I keep recommending his Night Sky With Exit Wounds to everyone; I can’t shout loud enough about it… I have quite a complicated relationship with what’s considered "classical poetry" but then someone like Ocean Vuong comes along, and he’s doing something so exciting that you can’t help but get caught up in it. -- Sara Collins * Refinery29 *The poetry is a conduit for a life in which violence and delicacy collide… I like the fragility, resilience and the sense that the stories that need telling are hardest to tell – a difficulty Ocean Vuong is courageously minded to overcome. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *There is a powerful emotional undertow to these poems that springs from Mr Vuong’s sincerity and candour, and from his ability to capture specific moments in rime with photographic clarity and a sense of the evanescence of all earthly things. -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Ocean Vuong is the Walt Whitman of Vietnamese American literature. Lyrical, expansive, sexual, provocative, he sings of the Vietnamese body and of Vietnamese history. -- Viet Thanh Nguyen * Literary Hub *The operatic voice of the book is vulnerable and unpredictable. Some of its strongest poems are also the strangest… It is an impressive, uneven, moving book about painful and important subjects – and is the work of a young poet who might, excitingly, say anything next. -- Jeremy Noel-Tod * The Sunday Times *Many of the poems in this, Vuong’s debut collection, achieve lift-off amid comparable scenes of drama and desperation… This is a book full of promise. -- David Wheatley * Literary Review *Vuong writes in what may be one of the most unfashionable modes of recent decades, in the richly meditative style of Rainer Maria Rilke. And, almost unbelievably, he does so successfully… Vuong’s roomy, cool, risky poems are more than promising, and this is an exciting and compelling book. -- John McAuliffe * Irish Times *Taking war and cultural upheaval in its stride, Night Sky with Exit Wounds is an assured but open debut collection. It’s accessible to non-poetry readers while offering sufficient depth to keep the experts engaged. -- Aimee Grant Cumberbatch * Evening Standard *If you only read one new book of poetry this year, make it Ocean Vuong’s game-changing debut collection. Night Sky With Exit Wounds is breathtakingly beautiful, gut-wrenching and sublime… Phenomenal. * Attitude *One of the most extraordinary first collections of poems in recent memory… The poems sear through the heart, Vuong finding the words and feelings to capture moments with complete clarity. -- Alex Scott * Cent *His style is not unlike a wall of sounds, a relatively consistent, arrestedly pubescent palette of desire and obsession, turned up high enough to hit the pulse. -- Declan Ryan * Times Literary Supplement *From its opening lines...the book brims with precise, surreal, erotic imagery… Vuong authoritatively lays claim to a range of symbols and tropes... Vuong possesses a large and unusual imagination… Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a remarkable debut. Where Vuong is headed is anyone’s guess, but you’ll want to go with him. -- Paul Batchelor * New Statesman *Vuong’s intimate lyrical voice, his precise, stark imagery and engagement with gay sexuality construct a familiar story of loss… Balancing memory and silence with erudition, Vuong’s poetry resists being so easily pinned down… Vuong’s poems, written with intelligence and tenderness, offer new spaces for becoming. -- Sandeep Parmar * Guardian *His debut collection, praised for its “precise, stark” imagery, can be read both as a personal story – of gay sexuality, absent fathers and hyphenated identities – and as a highly erudite exploration of poetry’s possibilities. -- Martin Doyle * Irish Times *His debut collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, is the work of a man with history on his back, even if he has had to imagine some of it into being again. He brings a mythmaker’s insistence on being seen and heard to subjects ranging from the death of Telemachus’s father, from Homeric myth, to the fall of Saigon and common-or-garden masturbation. -- Claire Armistead * Guardian *Vuong’s words writhe and spin – his use of English is astonishing. He’s a smelter at his poetry, making words transform into something other than letters and meaning…. His gay love poems are stark, beautiful and utterly unnerving in their uncompromising adoration… A magical journey into Vuong’s imagination and talents and an astonishing debut collection. * Gscene *Night Sky With Exit Wounds…contains poems of finely pitched, operatic feeling that unpick the violence and fragility of masculinity with wisdom and humour. -- Jeremy Noel-Tod * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisThe poems in Sylvia Plath''s Ariel, including many of her best-known such as ''Lady Lazarus'', ''Daddy'', ''Edge'' and ''Paralytic'', were all written between the publication in 1960 of Plath''s first book, The Colossus, and her death in 1963.''If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.'' A. Alvarez in the Observer

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Book Synopsis'A source of uncompromising elemental warmth' Ali SmithBy turns moving, playful and wise, the poems gathered in Dearly are about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals. They explore bodies and minds in flux, as well as the everyday objects and rituals that embed us in the present. Werewolves, sirens and dreams make their appearance, as do various forms of animal life and fragments of our damaged environment.Dearly is a pure Atwood delight, and long-term readers and new fans alike will treasure its insight, empathy and humour.BOOK OF THE YEAR OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMESTrade ReviewHere we see Atwood at the height of her poetic powers * New York Times Book Review *A poignant yet playful collection of verse, about endings and departures, it is sliced with clever, sharp humour * Daily Telegraph *This collection of poems is a reckoning with the past that comes from a place of wisdom and control . . . You can almost hear her speaking voice, see the twinkle in her eye . . . wonderfully observed * Observer *Atwood's first poetry collection in over a decade is intimate, lingering delicately between the human and the natural, and this world and the next * New Statesman *She's become world famous for The Handmaid's Tale, and jointly won the 2019 Booker Prize for The Testaments, but Canadian author Margaret Atwood was once better known as a poet . . . this new volume brings together some of her favourite themes, from zombies, werewolves and aliens, to the passage of time and the most pressing political issues of the day * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisAriel, first published in 1965, contains many of Sylvia Plath''s best-known poems, written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before her death in 1963. Including poems such as ''Lady Lazarus'', ''Edge'', ''Daddy'' and ''Paralytic'', it was the first of four collections to be published by Faber & Faber. Ariel is the volume on which Sylvia Plath''s reputation as one of the most original, daring and gifted poets of the twentieth century rests.''Since she died my mother has been dissected, analysed, reinterpreted, reinvented, fictionalized, and in some cases completely fabricated. It comes down to this: her own words describe her best, her ever-changing moods defining the way she viewed her world and the manner in which she pinned down her subjects with a merciless eye.'' Frieda Hughes

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Book SynopsisThe late Les Murray described Jamie Grant’s work as “poems of scrupulous craftsmanship and unlinking intelligence, poems which pay acute attention to the contours of experience.” This new collection, which is divided into five discrete sections, focuses that attention on the twenty-first century world, its office buildings and hospitals, motorways and wind farms, while also looking back to characters and events from earlier times. There are also observations of Australia’s natural environment, its forests, farms, birds and animals. The last of the five sections is a series of versified thumbnail sketches of historical figures whose achievements helped to shape the present age. And there is even an elegy for Les Murray among the other verses.

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Book Synopsis'But I, being poor, have only my dreams; / I have spread my dreams under your feet...'By turns joyful and despairing, some of the twentieth century's greatest verse on fleeting youth, fervent hopes and futile sacrifice.

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Book Synopsis*Donna Ashworth's new book Wild Hope is out September 2023*FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF I WISH I KNEWFor those cast adrift in the lonely sea of grief, this collection offers solace for when the water gets rough.Donna Ashworth's poetry reminds us that love and grief are intertwined, and life's true treasure lies in those we hold most dear.Intended to rejuvenate weary souls; these poems are a must for anyone who has lost someone.Readers are cherishing Loss- 'Emotional and beautifully written poems that reach out and speak to you.' ***** Amazon- 'I had to take multiple breaks just so I could read through my tears! It was so heartbreakingly beautiful that I just have no words!' ***** NetGalley- 'Simply WOW! Donna Ashworth's words touched my soul.' ***** NetGalley- 'Emotional and beautifully written poems that reach out and speak to you.' ***** NetGalley

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Book SynopsisFour Quartets is the culminating achievement of T.S. Eliot''s career as a poet. While containing some of the most musical and unforgettable passages in twentieth-century poetry, its four parts, ''Burnt Norton'', ''East Coker'', ''The Dry Salvages'' and ''Little Gidding'', present a rigorous meditation on the spiritual, philosophical and personal themes which preoccupied the author. It was the way in which a private voice was heard to speak for the concerns of an entire generation, in the midst of war and doubt, that confirmed it as an enduring masterpiece.

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive volume contains all Sylvia Plath''s mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963. The poems are drawn from the only collection Plath published while alive, The Colossus, as well as from posthumous collections Ariel, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees.The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath''s juvenilia.This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.''For me, the most important literary event of 1981 has been the publication, eighteen years after her death, of Sylvia Plath''s Collected Poems, confirming her as one of the most powerful and lavishly gifted poets of our time.'' A. Alvarez in the Observer

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTIONChosen as a Book of the Year by New Statesman, Financial Times, Guardian, Observer, Rough Trade and the BBCShortlisted for the Rathbones Folio PrizeLonglisted for the Jhalak Prize''Restlessly inventive, brutally graceful, startlingly beautiful ... a landmark debut'' Guardian''Oh my God, he''s just stirring me. Destroying me'' Michaela Coel''A poet of truth and rage, heartbreak and joy'' Max Porter''Takes us into new literary territory ... impressive'' Bernardine Evaristo, New Statesman (Books of the Year)''It''s simply stunning. Every image is a revelation'' Terrance HayesWhat is it like to grow up in a place where the same police officer who told your primary school class they were special stops and searches you at 13 because ''you fit the description of a man'' - and where it is possiTrade ReviewTakes us into new literary territory ... impressive -- Bernardine Evaristo * New Statesman (Books of the Year) *It's rare for a book of poems to repeatedly leave you breathless when reading it. Such is the urgent brilliance of Caleb Femi's Poor . . . Femi's language is restlessly inventive, unerring in uncovering images that lodge in your memory. His use of concrete as a recurring motif is brutally graceful, encapsulating this startlingly beautiful book, a landmark debut for British poetry -- Rishi Dastidar * Guardian *I am reading a powerful book of poetry by a young man, Caleb Femi. Oh my God, he has a book called Poor and he's just stirring me. Destroying me. I look up to him as a poet -- Michaela CoelCaleb Femi is a gift to us all from the storytelling gods. He is a poet of truth and rage, heartbreak and joy. But above all, this is love poetry. Love of community, language, music and form. This book flows from the fabric of boyhood to the politics and architecture of agony, from the material to the spiritual, always moving, always real. Poor is the heartbeat of a living city which truly knows itself. Caleb is a mighty and positive force in UK culture and this is a vital book -- Max Porter, author of LannyIn this fabulous debut, concrete becomes a paradox of toughness and vulnerability, confinement and shelter . . . Caleb Femi's riveting photographs and compassionate yet hard-hitting lines map North Peckham's black boys and blocks . . . His depictions of young black men possess a brother's empathy . . . It's simply stunning. Every image is a revelation -- Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future AssassinMesmerizing and transporting. I've never read a collection like this . . . I literally had to shake off the experience once I was finished. [This] incredible collection . . . gives voice to a London many would prefer to ignore . . . I don't think it possible for anyone to come away from this book without having developed new levels of empathy and compassion -- Derek Owusu, author of That Reminds MeImpressive . . . At the heart of the collection is the poet's deconstruction of language, fusing biblical cadence with a contemporary street vernacular. There is something reminiscent of William Blake's visionary poetic in Femi's commitment to a realistic worship for places like Aylesbury Estate and North Peckham, as well as their communities . . . [recalls] Gwendolyn Brooks's and Nate Marshall's odes to Chicago . . . [Poor is] in conversation with Roger Robinson's and Jay Bernard's poems of witness and poetic gospel, which . . . create myths, legends, and folklore that render black bodies as holy -- Malika Booker, author of Pepper SeedCaleb Femi's Poor bristles with the exhilarations and violences of boyhood and adolescence. In its interplay of image and text, of photographic image and poetic image, the book asks us to consider what is seen and unseen, spoken of and concealed; what is, in one of many numinous phrases, "proof of light". More than this, these are poems of witness, both noun and verb: poems of the self and what the self can bear -- Stephen Sexton, author of If All the World and Love Were YoungGiving a mythic resonance to communal life, the poems in Caleb Femi's Poor are vital, confronting and electric. Political, spiritual, formally inventive and energized by a music of protest and grief, this is a rare and anthemic debut -- Seán Hewitt, author of Tongues of FireAn urban romantic . . . powerful * Dazed & Confused *Caleb's talent calls for a global stage -- Virgil Abloh

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Book SynopsisGhost Huntis a poetry book of powerful truths in the aftermath of a sudden death. Laced with expressions of loss and an exploration of the spectrum of human emotions, this collectiontakes you on a jolting journey with keen insight and humour.

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Book SynopsisDeals with literature's grandest evocation of life's journey, at once an ageless human story and an individual test of moral endurance. This title presents you with the author's best-loved poem, recounting Odysseus' wanderings after the Trojan War.Trade ReviewWonderfully readable... Just the right blend of roughness and sophistication. (Ted Hughes)Robert Fagles is the best living translator of ancient Greek drama, lyric poetry, and epic into modern English. (Garry Wills, The New Yorker)Mr. Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless. (Richard Jenkyns, The New York Times Book Review)

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Book SynopsisDiscover the Sunday Times bestselling collection from the TikTok sensation and author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'One of the most important poets of his generation'ANDREW MCMILLAN, author of Physical'Powerful'DUA LIPA'Redefines our idea of what an elegy can do it, what it is for'ILYA KAMINSKY, author of Deaf RepublicIn this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother's death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Vivid, brave and propulsive, Vuong's poems contend with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the value of joy in a perennially fractured American spirit.The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time is a Mother is a return and a forging-forth all at once.Trade ReviewOcean Vuong, one of my favourite contemporary poets, expanded his body of work beautifully in Time Is a Mother * Observer *A remarkable return: Vuong's unparalleled luminosity of phrase, his perfected pinpoint accuracy of image is here placed alongside a thrilling expansion of voice and gaze which further confirms Vuong as one of the most important poets of his generation -- Andrew McMillan, author of PhysicalHaunting, inconsolable, and at the same time a playful, generous in spirit, tender, inimitable book. The poet’s late mother is these pages’ muse and guardian spirit, as poem after poem Vuong redefines our idea of what an elegy can do it, what it is for. But from all of this intersection of tragedy and tenderness, true wisdom comes: Vuong teaches us not just how to grieve, but how to live -- Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf RepublicThis summer, I'll be packing his poetry collection... I'm looking forward to being still and having the space to read and reread his powerful words -- Dua LipaThese 28 accomplished poems explore grief, trauma, family... Language itself, in all its power and violence, falls under Vuong's incomparable scrutiny * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2022* *Tender and heartbreaking... Delving back into the visceral themes that made his 2019 novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous a revelation, Vuong traverses the intensely personal and the broadly political with grace and courage * TIME *Vuong's poems passionately and inventively articulate the difficulties of understanding and accepting selfhood alongside the varieties of life beyond it * Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year* *There's something about Vuong's writing that demands all of your lungs. The succinct line arrangement and absence of full stops in poems... force you to breathe heavy * Observer *Not since Emily Dickinson has poetry found such an oceanic openness of the self's quiet laceration and cautious resilience. In Time Is A Mother Ocean Vuong's words are bullets travelling through the page and hitting us with debris resembling our memory of art, love, grief and acts of survival... We find ourselves being salvaged and released into a world where a word, a turn of phrase, or a line makes a difficult moment bearable. There is a violent process of fermentation in Vuong's poems that keeps poetry pungent, truth-seeking and unerasable -- Kit Fan, author of Diamond HillVuong writes with such a sensitive scrutiny, breathtaking in its expression * Financial Times, *Books of the Year* *

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Book SynopsisWrong Norma is Anne Carson's first book of original material in eight years'Effortlessly readable... Fun' DAILY TELEGRAPH'I'm a big fan... She pinpoints the collision of oracle and anachronism' TEJU COLEAs with her most recent publications, Wrong Norma is a facsimile edition of the original hand-designed book, drawn and annotated by the author. Several of the twenty-five startling poetic prose pieces have appeared in magazines and journals like the New Yorker and the Paris Review.Anne Carson is probably our most celebrated living poet, winner of countless awards and routinely tipped for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Famously reticent, asking that her books be published without cover copy, she has agreed to say this:Wrong Norma is a collection of writings about different things, like Joseph Conrad, Guantanamo, Flaubert, snow, poverty, Roget's Thesaurus, my Dad, Saturday night, Sokrates, writing sonnets, forensics, encounters with lovers, the word "idea", the feet of Jesus, and Russian thugs. The pieces are not linked. That's why I've called them "wrong".Trade ReviewUncompromisingly intelligent, while being effortlessly readable, and – a word critics don’t often use about Carson – fun * Daily Telegraph *I'm a big fan of her work... There's a joy in encountering a mind that takes nothing for granted... She pinpoints the collision of oracle and anachronism -- Teju Cole, author of TremorShe is one of the few writers writing in English that I would read anything she wrote -- Susan Sontag, author of Against InterpretationCarson applies the habits of classical scholarship, the linguistic rigor, the relentless search for evidence, the jigsaw approach to scattered facts, to the trivia of contemporary private life * New York Magazine *Anne Carson is, for me, the most exciting poet writing in English today -- Michael Ondaatje, author of The English PatientHer work is full of moments of startling originality and beauty. The poems play with character and plot, myth and magic; they are rich with attitude and wit and the undertow of grief. If she was a prose writer she would instantly be recognised as a genius -- Colm Tóibín, author of BrooklynI haven’t discovered any writing in years that’s so marvelously disturbing. I just feel so happy that she’s around -- Alice Munro, author of Dear LifeStrikes a range of scintillating, strangely affecting, and largely unconnected scenes… Each prose poem displays a precision, an attentiveness to the mildest of incidents as well as the most monumental of aftershocks * Skinny *

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Book SynopsisThe world has reopened and so has the Poetry Pharmacy: the powerful final instalment in the hugely beloved seriesAfter the tumult of the last years, William Sieghart is back to prescribe the perfect poem for a variety of life''s ailments, offering hope and comfort to readers in need. Here, he draws on the emails he received from the public during multiple lockdowns, as well as tried-and-true classics from his in-person pharmacies, to create an essential anthology of poetry for our times. Through his expert curation and insightful commentary, he reminds us of the power of words to help us heal, to reconnect us with the world and to recover what has been lost.From weathering sorrow and sudden loss, to dealing with environmental despair and burnout, this new selection speaks directly to a society in urgent need of comfort and compassion. Whether you''re searching for guidance, hope, or simply a moment of beauty, The Poetry Pharmacy Forever is here to provide solace, joy and inspiration, one verse at a time.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1956 when he was twenty-two years old, Let Us Compare Mythologies is Leonard Cohen's first collection of poetry. It is an accomplished and passionate collection which demonstrates Cohen's remarkably assured voice, even as a young man.An unprecedented debut published to immediate acclaim, new generations of readers will now rediscover not only the early work of one of our most beloved writers, but poetry that resonates loudly with relevance today.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR LEONARD COHEN: One of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century * * Guardian * *There is something irresistible about Cohen's charm * * New Yorker * *Utterly unique and impossible to imitate no matter how hard we tried -- NICK CAVEExceptional. Clear yet steamy, cosmic yet private, both playful and profound. . . as soulful a credo as he has ever put on paper * * New York Times * *As strong a poet as he is a musician * * Guardian * *Awe-inspiring . . . Cohen emerges as the wry, sensual mystic his champions have always known he was * * Sunday Telegraph * *He is a writer of terrific energy and colour, a Rabelaisian comic and a visualiser * * Observer * *Leonard Cohen was the poet laureate of the lack, the psalmist of the privation, who made imperfection gorgeous * * New York Times * *The best bring an ironic, world-weary sensibility to bear on themes of ageing, sex, sensuality and spirituality * * Financial Times * *Playful, colourful, erotic . . . brilliant and sharp as flint * * The Big Issue * *

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Book SynopsisThis is poetry for our times. The Forward Book of Poetry is the indispensable annual guide to contemporary poetry. In bringing together the best new work published in the UK and Ireland, as chosen by the jury of the annual Forward Prizes, this anthology offers a vital overview of the literary landscape to seasoned poetry lovers and new readers alike.

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of a baby coming into the world, and of her first year in that world altered beyond recognition by a virus born into our lives at nearly the same time. It is a song of breath, and of light. It is a collection of love poems, and a cry flung into the universe echoing the cry of all babies, a cry of loss and of nearly unbearable love. It is a book not just for pregnant women, or new mums and dads, but for all people who have entered through that small crack into the light of this life, and for all who have parents and have grappled with the joys and challenges of those most intimate of relationships. It is a song of light, and of breath. It is a story of where we come from. “This collection not only exalts, is frightened for, and treasures new motherhood, but allows for its complexities and the terrible potential for loss, and especially I like how it doesn’t amputate mother-love from just the way we love as humans, sensuously and sometimes messily. It never slips into ‘saintly mother’ territory – it seems to recognise the burden that particular role has placed on women – for those who chose to have kids and those who didn’t.” —Lynn Davidson

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Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world''s greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.In this inspirational, allegorical guide, Al Mustafa the prophet delivers spiritual yet practical homilies on the work of living: beauty, truth, possessions, sorrow, joy, death and more. Translated into more than fifty languages and among the best-selling books of all time, The Prophet remains a wise and revitalising handbook for the soul.

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Book SynopsisThis bilingual (German / English) chapbook of 20 poems makes for an exciting introduction to Kathrin Schmidt's work. Thanks to Sue Vickerman's daring translations, we are able to appreciate Schmidt's irrepressible poetic style as she ranges across the themes of gender, identity, the body, eroticism, her own personal history and language itself.

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Book SynopsisIn his second poetry collection Solastalgia, Irish poet Ciarán Hodgers explores the intersection of environment and mental health. Considering the effects of climate change on the wellbeing of our world and ourselves, this exploration of ecopsychology asks what it means, how it feels and how to be in relation to the more-than-human world. Punctuated throughout by counselling ‘sessions’, this book holds up to the light a processes of healing, both ourselves and the planet, through exercises in reciprocity. It asks what a tree can teach us about grief; how evolutionary biology might support the counselling process; what the water cycle can teach us about time; how autumn can make us reconsider lost friendship and how a mountain might help us overcome trauma. Moving out from the individual, it considers geopolitical history and cultural perspectives on climate change, and seeks to move beyond present restrictions and creatively engage in the notion of the symbiocene. Celebrating the resilience, tenderness and connection between the human and more-than-human worlds, this collection holds space for the deep emotional response to the climate crisis, helps us find more commonality with the world, challenges us to think of a way through the immediate and galvanises us toward action against the most pressing issue that has ever faced the planet.Trade ReviewOne of the region’s most exciting spoken word performers - The Independent

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Smart's passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, described by Angela Carter as Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening A masterpiece'.One day, while browsing in a London bookshop, Elizabeth Smart chanced upon a slim volume of poetry by George Barker and fell passionately in love with him through the printed word. Eventually they communicated directly and, as a result of Barker's impecunious circumstances, Elizabeth Smart flew both him and his wife from Japan, where he was teaching, to join her in the United States. Thus began one of the most extraordinary, intense and ultimately tragic love affairs of our time. They never married but Elizabeth bore George Barker four children and their relationship provided the impassioned inspiration for one of the most moving and immediate chronicles of a love affair ever written By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.Originally published in 1945, this remarkable book is now widely identTrade Review‘Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening … A masterpiece.’ Angela Carter ‘At some point every good reader comes across By Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept. And he or she recognises an emotion essential and permanent to us.’ Michael Ondaatje ‘A revelation…This short, powerful work has a profound influence on me and was one of the factors that made me want to be a writer.’ Beryl Bainbridge ‘I doubt if there are more than half a dozen such masterpieces of poetic prose in the world.’ Brigid Brophy ‘Explores a passion between a man and two women, one of them his wife – a love despairing and triumphant upon which the reader may gaze, awed, appalled, or even, perhaps, envious.’ The Times ‘Few writers have ever captured the full honesty of what passion means as shockingly and as piercingly as Smart. Today, its force still strikes us hard in the face, a beautiful and bloody blow.’ Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday ‘Constructed as a single, sustained climax, it is like a cry of ecstasy which, without changing volume or pitch, becomes a cry of agony.’ Spectator ‘The emotion, the truth and abject affliction comes through…to move the reader, and even to awe him.’ London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisWith a new introduction by the multi-prizewinning young poet Kayo Chingonyi. For over forty years, until his death in 1967, Langston Hughes captured in his poetry the lives of black people in the USA. This edition is Hughes's own selection of his work, and was first published in 1959. It includes all of his best known poems including 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers', 'The Weary Blues', 'Song for Billie Holiday', 'Black Maria', 'Magnolia Flowers', 'Lunch in a Jim Crow Car' and 'Montage of a Dream Deferred'. A key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes is now seen as one of the great chroniclers of black American experience - and one of the great artists of the twentieth century.Trade ReviewLangston Hughes, for me, was always the poet of the people. -- Claudia RankineThe poet laureate of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance -- Lemn Sissay * Guardian *Every time I read Langston Hughes I am amazed ... Hughes, in his sermons, blues and prayers, has working for him the power and the beat of Negro speech and Negro music. -- James Baldwin

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Book SynopsisThe Journals of Sylvia Plath offers an intimate portrait of the author of the extraordinary poems for which Plath is so widely loved, but it is also characterized by a prose of vigorous immediacy which places it alongside The Bell Jar as a work of literature. These exact and complete transcriptions of the journals kept by Plath for the last twelve years of her life - covering her marriage to Ted Hughes and her struggle with depression - are a key source for the poems which make up her collections Ariel and The Colossus.''Everything that passes before her eyes travels down from brain to pen with shattering clarity - 1950s New England, pre-co-ed Cambridge, pre-mass tourism Benidorm, where she and Hughes honeymooned, the birth of her son Nicholas in Devon in 1962. These and other passages are so graphic that you look up from the page surprised to find yourself back in the here and now . . . The struggle of self with self makes the Journals compelling and unique.'' John Carey, Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisThe enchanting festive poem from Carol Ann Duffy, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, and adorned with sumptuous illustrations by artist Margaux Carpentier, Christmas Eve at The Moon Under Water is the perfect festive gift for the poetry lover in your life.All the lights were on at The Moon Under Waterand the landlord, an Owl, was slowly pulling a pintto test his ale. Toothsome. It was Christmas Eveand the fire in the ancient grate gargled its flames...A horse walks into a bar. A hedgehog plays the piano. An owl mulls a flagon of wine. On Christmas Eve at The Moon Under Water, anything is possible, so when the landlord announces a festive prize for the best performance of the night, all and sundry pile into the pub, eager for a chance at victory.In Christmas Eve at The Moon Under Water all the old rivalries of the natural world are suspended for one miraculous night, as man stands shoulder to shoulder with animal, and predator and prey add warble and wail to the Yuletide chorus.

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Book SynopsisFrank O'Hara was one of the great poets of the twentieth century and, along with such widely acclaimed writers as Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley and Gary Snyder, a crucial contributor to what Donald Allen termed the New American Poetry, 'which, by its vitality alone, became the dominant force in the American poetic tradition.'Frank O'Hara was born in Baltimore in 1926 and grew up in New England; from 1951 he lived and worked in New York, both for Art News and for the Museum of Modern Art, where he was an associate curator. O'Hara's untimely death in 1966 at the age of forty was, in the words of fellow poet John Ashbery, 'the biggest secret loss to American poetry since John Wheelwright was killed.'This collection is a reissue of a volume first published by Grove Press in 1957, and it demonstrates beautifully the flawless rhythm underlying O'Hara's conviction that to write poetry, indeed to live, 'you just go on your nerve.'

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Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION*** AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4**'Warsan Shire is an extraordinarily gifted poet whose profoundly moving poems so powerfully give voice to the unspoken' Bernardine Evaristo'Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed' Guardian__________Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience from the award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Black Is King.With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a girl who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. These are noisy lives, full of music and weeping and surahs. These are fragrant lives, full of blood and perfume and jasmine. These are polychrome lives, full of moonlight and turmeric and kohl.The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of survival. Each reader will come away changed.'Warsan Shire electrifies... The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts' Roxane Gay'Absolutely beautiful... So relevant' Elizabeth Day, *Day's Delights*Trade ReviewI have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me, as she so powerfully gives voice to the unspoken -- Bernardine EvaristoAn incredible collection -- Candice Carty-Williams * Stylist *Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed -- Mary Jean Chan * 'The best recent poetry' - Guardian *It is absolutely astonishing how much emotion, intelligence, imagination, and truth Warsan Shire can get into one collection. She is a poet of the highest order, with a compassionate heart, and a limitless mind -- Benjamin ZephaniahMust-read poetry from the superstar Somali-British writer Warsan Shire * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisFrom Tiktok phenomenon Whitney Hanson, a revised edition of her bestselling Home, now with a new introduction and more than a dozen new poems"the bees aren't going to go awaybut they are going to change with yousometimes they will be chaoticsometimes they will restsometimes they will give you sweet honeyand sometimes they will remind youof how much love can stingbut if you can find a home within yourselfand make peace with your beesyou will be alright"--from HomeResonant, raw, and vibrant, Home is a lyrical map to navigating heartbreak. Tracing the stages of healing - from the despair that comes with the end of a relationship to the eventual light and liberation that comes with time - the poems in Home provide comfort and solace, while revitalizing your soul - and helping you make peace with your bees.'I would buy it again!' 5* reader review'This book is everything I needed and more' 5* reader review'Best poet out there' 5* reader review'This book did wonders for my mental health and heartbreak' 5* reader review'Can't wait for what Whitney writes next' 5* reader reviewTrade ReviewGave me literal goosebumps * 5* reader review *I loved this book!! I felt like she was talking about my own experiences * 5* reader review *She is such a phenomenal writer and she portrays the truths of life so beautifully * 5* reader review *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize 2025''Gub is unlike anything I have ever read. In a playful demotic that is exhilarating, hilarious and never forced, Scott McKendry makes magic of a Belfast that in other hands would make grim reading. The most exciting poet to come out of the north of Ireland in many years'' Louise Kennedy, author of Tresspasses''There is nothing else like this in Irish poetry. A lyrical savant of the highest level, and one of the most exciting writers in Ireland today, McKendry is utterly his own beast'' Michael Nolan, author of Close To Home''A distinctive and energetic voice'' Sunday Times Ireland''McKendry is a joyful liar, a storyteller... McKendry writes "life''s not synonymous with pain" and it''s this sense, of a kind of all-encompassing appetite, that marks him out as fine company'' Declan RyanDemons, geese, The Laughing Cow, marching bands, LSD and pistols smuggled home from the USSR. You''ll find all these in Scott McKendry''s GUB. Rooted in the language of working-class Belfast, and slipping between eras and time zones, closing the gap between the real and the fantastical, the academic and the everyday, the parish and the polis, McKendry''s exhilarating debut collection comes to terms with generational trauma, social decay and the rituals of a place with a fraught history and an uncertain future. Invoking the balaclava''d gunmen, urban warlords and explosions which gripped the decades either side of the Good Friday Agreement, GUB drags the language of ghettoised Belfast into serious Irish poetry. Wearing the lyrical influences of his ''ugly city'' lightly - Carson, McGuckian, Longley - McKendry''s tightly-wrought structures weave an unprecedented verse of mourning, witness, alter ego, class alienation and aesthetic turmoil. Noisy, dark and witty, GUB is an utterly new voice out of Belfast, but one posting bulletins across inner-city neighbourhoods everywhere.Trade ReviewGub is unlike anything I have ever read. In a playful demotic that is exhilarating, hilarious and never forced, Scott McKendry makes magic of a Belfast that in other hands would make grim reading. From surreal, almost fabulous - in its purest sense - encounters with birds and animals, to trippy interrogations of identity and tradition, he makes the most surprising connections. If there is sometimes the sense that no one is more surprised than McKendry - one poem is subtitled 'Somehow after Cezanne' - this should not be confused with a lack of confidence; these poems have a formal elegance so assured as to feel utterly organic. The most exciting poet to come out of the north of Ireland in many years -- Louise Kennedy, bestselling author of TRESPASSESMcKendry does something truly radical with this book. Even at its most phantasmagorical, it combines intense philosophical inquiry with a profound familiarity with the terrain on which his world is built and the people who populate it. Gub is a work comparable in scope and import to Ciaran Carson's Belfast Confetti. Like Carson, McKendry's ear is attuned to the cadence of the city's "speech and slabber", which he transposes, with great aplomb, to the upper echelons of contemporary poetry. Gub is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and one of the most moving. It parses the ironies, contradictions and shortcomings of the working-class Belfast I know with moments of incredible beauty. There is nothing else like this in Irish poetry. A lyrical savant of the highest level, and one of the most exciting writers in Ireland today, McKendry is utterly his own beast -- Michael Magee, author of CLOSE TO HOMEWhat makes McKendry's work so interesting, so important, is how he captures, with anecdotal specificity, one anabranch of somewhere that all too often has its stories told for it. Gub avoids homogeneity of experience, but this virtue is secondary to the collection's scansion, wit, and hypnogogic deployment of language. McKendry understands that a place's lexicon can become conative, indifferent and even deleterious to its speakers' intentions ... He fishes from a polymathic frame of reference, and the result is poetry that reaches far beyond a place's geographical parameters, achieving a complex North Belfast psychogeography. This collection is sharp, maximalist, and phonetically and formally buoyant. -- Susannah Dickey, author of TENNIS LESSONS[Gub] is exhilarating: I think of Blake's 'Energy is an Eternal Delight' but it comes here with tremendous sophistication, flair and originality -- Ian Duhig, author of THE BLIND ROADMAKERScott McKendry's poems are exhilarants; richly textured, gregarious, sublimely sophisticated. The extraordinary ambit of his language ... is interwoven, irrevocably, with its pleasures. Gub, as noun, carries the trace of its verb: it is gastronomic and discerning, but it makes no bones about how the sausage is made. And rather than bend the local to the universe, the universe is drawn to these poems: migratory geese, the Flintstones, the small delinquencies of childhood and teenhood. And the author's new orthography for his 'Belfastois'. Gub is a world you don't know and don't know you know. In the company of these magisterial, unique, frequently hilarious poems, you'll wonder where you've been -- Stephen Sexton, author of IF ALL THE WORLD AND LOVE WERE YOUNGThe poems are brutally eloquent, and with a fierce cultural commentary running through them, from the carry on in the hut at the Twelfth bonfire site to a satire on the secret inauguration rituals of loyal orders. There is a streak of surreal hilarity in those that involve the poet as a childhood 'oddity' observing the out and out craziness of the Troubles -- Susan McKay, author of BEAR IN MIND THESE DEADFresh, inventive, authentic and brilliant. McKendry is witty, intelligent and utterly original. We need this poetry; he is of here, but with a boundary-bursting world view, that changes how we see ourselves and our sense of our place in the world. Bravo -- Maria McManus

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