A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Nick Hern Books Plays from the Arab World
Book SynopsisA collection of five extraordinary plays exploring and reflecting contemporary life across the Near East and North Africa. In Withdrawal by Mohammad Al Attar (Syria), Ahmad and Nour rent a flat so that they can spend time together away from their families, but is having a space to themselves going to solve all their problems? In 603 by Imad Farajin (Palestine), four Palestinian men share a cramped prison cell listening to the buses come and go outside. Will the next bus be the one to take them home? In Damage by Kamal Khalladi (Morocco), three weeks after Youssef and Sana’a’s wedding, Youssef accepts a military peacekeeping expedition in the Congo. Will either of them be the same people when he returns? In The House by Arzé Khodr (Lebanon), Nadia wants to remain in the house she grew up in. For her sister, Reem, it is filled with painful memories. Are their differences over the future of the house irreconcilable? In Egyptian Products by Laila Soliman (Egypt), Hadia is an independent woman in Cairo. Gasir is a painfully awkward lab assistant with attachment issues over his dead mother. Is he really her knight in shining armour? In 2007 the Royal Court Theatre’s International Department and the British Council embarked on an ambitious project working with twenty-one writers from across the Near East and North Africa. Seven of the resultant plays received rehearsed readings at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2008. This volume, introduced by Laila Hourani of the British Council, collects five of these unique new voices, each posing different but equally urgent questions.
£16.14
Nick Hern Books Beauty and the Beast
Book SynopsisLucy Kirkwood's delightful version of the classic fairytale, first seen in a production devised and directed by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre for Christmas 2010. ‘I expect you have been told fairytales before. But you have never really heard a fairytale until you have heard it told by a real fairy.’ The theft of a single rose has monstrous consequences for Beauty and her father. Because this is no ordinary rose...and this is no ordinary fairytale. Narrated by a pair of mischievous fairies, a very helpful Rabbit, and a Thoughtsnatcher machine, this timeless story is sure to surprise, delight and enchant. A wild and twisted tale, full of exciting and intriguing challenges for drama groups wishing to stage their own production. Lucy Kirkwood's Beauty and the Beast was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in December 2010.Trade Review'Chock-full of clever ideas' * Whatsonstage.com *'Clever, fast and endearing, with grand insults and proper jeopardy.' * The Times *'The story is beautifully and touchingly told... a continuously inventive delight' * Telegraph *'This new devised version is blessed with a sassy script by Lucy Kirkwood... Beauty-fully done' * Evening Standard *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books Precious Little Talent & Hot Mess
Book SynopsisTwo plays by award-winning playwright Ella Hickson. Precious Little Talent is about a father desperate not to forget his daughter and two young people determined not to be forgotten by the world. It was first performed at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and later, in a revised, full-length production, at the Trafalgar Studios, London, in April 2011. Hot Mess is a dark and lyrical tale about friendship, loss and loneliness. Twins Polo and Twitch were born with only one heart between them: where Polo is not looking to be loved, Twitch can do nothing but. Hot Mess was first performed at the Hawke & Hunter Below Stairs Nightclub, Edinburgh, in August 2010, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Trade Review'A rising star of British theatre ... she has a gorgeous way with words and head full of bewitching ideas. Hickson remains a red-hot one to watch' * Independent *'She writes with great assurance using charmingly poetic language... Miss Hickson proves to be an inspired director' * British Theatre Guide *
£11.69
Penguin Putnam Inc Henry IV Part 1
Book SynopsisThe repackaging of the acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series continues with more dazzling new covers to excite Shakespearians of all ages
£8.54
Penguin Putnam Inc As You Like It
Book Synopsis The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700Trade Review“Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks.” —Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings“I have been using the Pelican Shakespeare for years in my lecture course--it's invaluable, the best individual-volume series available for students.”—Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
£9.00
Nick Hern Books Four Play
Book Synopsis‘Spiders are scary. Terrorists are scary. Cancer is really scary. But… monogamy?’ A comic play about sex and commitment in the 21st century. Rafe and Pete have hit a rut. After seven-and-a-half blissfully happy years, their lack of sexual experience is driving them apart. So when they proposition mutual friend Michael to help out with their problems – knowing full well that Michael has his own partner Andrew – what seems like a simple solution quickly spirals out of control. Jake Brunger's Four Play premiered at Theatre503, London, in February 2016.Trade Review'A frank and hilarious take on the complexities of modern day monogamy… an honest, reflective piece' * Londonist *'Sharp, well-observed... some stand-out comic moments... a thoroughly enjoyable take on contemporary love – and contemporary life' * The Stage *'A sparkling comedy… lively and refreshing' * The Reviews Hub *'Hilarious and touching' * British Theatre Guide *
£11.69
Nick Hern Books Dara
Book SynopsisAn intense domestic drama of global consequence – for India then and for our world now. 1659. Mughal India. The imperial court, a place of opulence and excess; music, drugs, eunuchs and harems. Two brothers, whose mother's death inspired the Taj Mahal, are heirs to this Muslim empire. Now they fight ferociously for succession. Dara, the crown prince, has the love of the people – and of his emperor father – but younger brother Aurangzeb holds a different vision for India's future. Islam inspires poetry in Dara, puritanical rigour in Aurangzeb. Can Jahanara, their beloved sister, assuage Aurangzeb's resolve to seize the Peacock Throne and purge the empire? Originally performed by Ajoka Theatre, Pakistan, Tanya Ronder's adaptation of Shahid Nadeem's play Dara premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2015.Trade Review'Electrifying' * The Times *'Cuts to the thrust of the most critical, insoluble dilemma of our times; faith's absolutism against liberalism's tolerance... a huge dramatic force' * WhatsOnStage *'Magnificently ambitious... throws both light and darkness on a crucial moment in world history' * Time Out *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Crushed Shells and Mud
Book Synopsis'She came out of the sea Crawled out of the mud, quietly Shy and beautiful, brushing off sand and shells' England trembles in the grip of a devastating epidemic. But in a remote coastal village, quiet Derek waits for love and life to really begin. Then Lydia arrives. She burns brightly, beyond Derek’s wildest dreams. And she is hiding something. When Derek discovers her secret, they are both propelled into a strange new world of conflicted desire and dangerous loyalties, where terrifying forces test their courage and humanity. But can love survive the fear inside? Ben Musgrave's play Crushed Shells and Mud premiered at the Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2015.Trade Review'Musgrave writes so beautifully: these intricate, intimate moments – psychological dances of persuasion, rivalry and cruelty' * WhatsOnStage *'A sensitive portrait of a teenage love triangle... the nuances of relationships are finely rendered' * Evening Standard *
£11.69
Carcanet Press Ltd Light Song of Light
Book SynopsisKei Miller's work was acclaimed by the distinguished Jamaican writer Olive Senior as 'Some of the most exciting poetry I've read in years...An extraordinary new voice singing with clarity and grace'. "A Light Song of Light" sings in the rhythms of ritual and folktale, praise songs and anecdotes, blending lyricism with a cool wit, finding the languages in which poetry can sing in dark times. The book is in two parts: Day Time and Night Time, each exploring the inseparable elements that together make a whole. Behind the daylight world of community lies another, disordered, landscape: stories of ghosts and bandits, a darkness violent and seductive. At the heart of the collection is the Singerman, a member of Jamaica's road gangs in the 1930s, whose job was to sing while the rest of the gang broke stones. He is a presence both mundane and shamanic. Kei Miller's poems celebrate 'our incredible and abundant lives', facing the darkness and making from it a song of the light.
£9.45
Canongate Books Come On In!: New Poems
Book SynopsisBukowski's unmistakable charisma - an ex-down-and-outer who wrote of booze and loneliness in maverick, confident free verse - made him one of the world's most popular poets long before he died in 1994. More than a decade later, death has not slowed his production. This collection is selected from an archive of verse that the author left to be published after his death. It includes poems of love and sex, advice to so-called losers (as he once was) to have confidence in themselves (as he did), gambling laments and humbling poems accepting his own imminent ultimate full stop.Trade ReviewThe thing about Bukowski is, when you read what he has to say, he's right. * * Sean Penn * *We all knew Bukowski was a tough guy, but who would have guessed that even the grave could not shut him up? * * Billy Collins * *Full of sad, hilarious lamentation and schadenfreude. As usual, not for the kiddies. But for the adults, God, yes. * * Booklist * *In an age of conformity Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad. * * Observer * *A laureate of American low life. * * Time * *
£13.49
Carcanet Press Ltd This is Yarrow
Book SynopsisThe poems in Tara Bergin's debut collection combine sensuous, supple lyricism with the unsettling familiarity of folklore, fairytale and dream. They are inhabited by characters who seem at first widely different from one another, yet share nervous energy, a troubled state of mind: 'I am unwell, little crow, / I am unwell and far from home / where longing lives in my house'. In This is Yarrow Bergin gathers language from a wide range of sources and places to create a music and vision entirely her own.Trade Review'The voicing and line technique is bold, edgy, risking or withholding violent.' --Adam Piette, professor, University of Sheffield '[...] Bergin succeeds in creating a clear voice and a dramatic situation. This is Yarrow is primarily a book of monologues, establishing voices whose skewed attitudes invite an engaged critical response from the reader. The monologues are sometimes reminiscent of Paul Durcan and at other times Sylvia Plath and they can be very cutting and funny at the expense of their speakers [...]' -- John McAuliffe, Irish TimesTable of ContentsLooking at Lucy's Painting of the Thames at Low Tide Without Lucy Present Acting School Water is Difficult All Fools' Day: An Academic Farewell Questions You Could Show a Horse Himalayan Balsam for a Soldier Dancing Sonnets for Tracey i. Permission to Fire ii. Handbook iii. X Prostitutism iv. Tambour Cafe, Marienstr. 16 Composition for the Left Hand Christmas Window, Armistice Day Sonnet for Catherine Who Never Turned Up Military School White Crow The Undertaker's Tale of the Notebook Measuring 1 x 2 cm Rapeseed Red Flag The Passion Flower The Sick Child, at the Time of the Diamond Jubilee Restriction Bridal Song The Confession Glinka The Pressed Iris Pilinszky at the Tenshi no Tobira Swiss Station Room St Patrick's Day Address, 1920 Photograph of Therese of Lisieux Holding Lilies Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon Studying the Fresco of St Nikolai of Myra At the Garage from The Ballad of Tom Gun Training Camp, Whit Monday My Personal Injuries Claim Garrison Supermarket At the Lakes with Roberta Portrait of the Artist's Wife as a Younger Woman Stag-Boy If Painting Isn't Over Queen of the Rodeo Candidate Feverfew This is Yarrow Notes Acknowledgements
£9.45
Alma Books Ltd Canti: Newly Translated and Annotated
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1831, and here presented in a dual-language edition with annotations and additional reading material, Leopardi’s poetical masterpiece is an unsurpassed anatomy of man’s unhappiness on earth. Trapped between an admiration for the classical past and a disappointment in the impoverished present, Leopardi rejected both the easy allure of Catholic faith and the unbridled optimism proposed by science and the Enlightenment. His unflinching pessimism and existential resolve, here brilliantly rendered in verse by prize-winning translator J.G. Nichols, make him one of the most fascinating and best-loved Italian poets.
£10.44
Alma Books Ltd Tender is the Night
Book SynopsisWhile holidaying at a villa on the French Riviera, Dick and Nicole Diver, a wealthy American couple, meet the young film star Rosemary Hoyt. Her arrival causes a stir in their social circle and exposes the cracks in their fragile marriage. As their relationship unravels, glimpses of their troubled past emerge, and a series of disturbing events unfolds. Peopled by an unforgettable cast of aristocrats and high-fliers, Tender Is the Night is at once a scathing critique of the materialism and hypocrisy of the Roaring Twenties and a poignant and sensitive account of personal tragedy and disillusionment.Trade ReviewGatsby was a tour de force, but this is a confession of faith. -- Fitzgerald comment on Tender is the Night He was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a generation. * The New York Times *
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd Ruslan and Lyudmila: Dual Language
Book SynopsisIn order to rescue his beloved Lyudmila, who has been abducted by the evil wizard Chernomor, the warrior Ruslan faces an epic and perilous quest, encoutering a multitude of fantastic and terrifying characters along the way. The basis for Glinka's famous opera of the same name, Ruslan and Lyudmila - Pushkin's second longest poetical work - is a dramatic and ingenious retelling of Russian folklore, full of humour and irony.Trade ReviewHe managed what is almost unmanageable: to offer parody and enchantment at the same time -- Colm Tóibín
£9.49
Everyman Tennyson Poems
Book SynopsisThis collection includes, of course, such celebrated poems as "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade." There are extracts from all the major masterpieces-"Idylls of the King," "The Princess," "In Memoriam"-and several complete long poems, such as "Ulysses" and "Demeter and Persephone," that demonstrate his narrative grace. Finally, there are many of the short lyrical poems, such as "Come into the Garden, Maud" and "Break, Break, Break," for which he is justly celebrated.
£11.40
Everyman Sleep And Dreams
Book SynopsisPoets have always drawn inspiration from the wild fancies of dream-life. We spend a third of our lives asleep, and throughout history our nocturnal visions have engaged the interpretive talents of our greatest writers.It includes poems about daydreams and nightmares, about falling asleep and about waking up, about insomnia, night thoughts, monsters of the dark, twilight, dawn, and the rebirth of morning. From Yeats's "Lullaby" to Rosetti's "Nuptial Sleep," from Salvatore Quasimodo's "Insomnia" to Thom Gunn's "Annihilation of Nothing," Poems of Sleep and Dreams evokes the whole haunting, magical spectrum of sleep and dream.
£10.44
Everyman Comic Verse
Book SynopsisThis anthology of comic verse is drawn from sources which range from the Greek Anthology to the present day. Divided into thematic sections (to be determined) for case of use, it covers a wide range of forms including limericks, clerihews, ballads, sonnets and nonsense verse. The prevailing tone is light, but satire and ridicule - even passion - have not been excluded.
£10.44
The Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd Romeo and Juliet - The Student's Shakespeare:
Book SynopsisThe drama of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous of all tragedies. It tells the story of two 'star-crossed' lovers whose young lives are cruelly cut short because of a bitter feud between their families. Since it was published in 1597, Romeo and Juliet has been performed all round the world, made into box office recordbreaking films, ballets and adapted by Leonard Bernstein for his world-famous musical, West Side Story. Shakespeare was young when he wrote the play, and the exquisite language captures his sympathy for the lovers. This new edition includes the complete text with explanatory notes and a full introduction that describes the setting, summarises the plot and profiles the main characters. It discusses Shakespeare's language and the play's themes, and it gives typical essay and test questions to help students prepare for exams. Includes: Introduction The Story of Romeo and Juliet The Play's Characters Themes and Language Examining the Play The Play NotesTable of ContentsIntroduction The Story of Romeo and Juliet The Play's Characters Themes and Language Examining the Play The Play Notes
£6.93
Everyman Irish Poems
Book SynopsisWith its roots in the devotional verse of the early Christian church and the long lyric poems of the Irish bards, Irish poetry has a rich and robust tradition both of engagement and self-reflection. It has grappled long with politics and has provided the most eloquent response to Ireland's turbulent history, mediating and mitigating histories of loyalty and loss; it has soaked itself in the Irish landscape and Celtic myth; it has encompassed religion, so much a part of Ireland's cultural heritage. At the same time Irish poets have given their own original slant to everyday experience and affairs of the heart.Thematically organized and spanning many centuries, this selection also features a section of Gaelic poetry in translation, notably excerpts from the 18th-century epic masterpiece, Brian Merriman's The Midnight Court.
£11.40
Pan Macmillan The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems
Book SynopsisBilly Collins is the author of six books of poetry including, most recently, Nine Horses. Collins's poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks and a variety of publications in the UK and the US, including Harper's and the New Yorker, and a selection of poems, Taking Off Emily's Dickinson's Clothes, was published in 2000. Poet Laureate of the United States for 2001-2003, Collins lives with his wife in northern Westchester County, New York.Trade Review"'Billy Collins is one of my favourite poets in the world' Carol Ann Duffy 'I'd follow this man's mind anywhere' Michael Donaghy 'Billy Collins's poems describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides' John Updike"
£9.89
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Coming up Hot: 8 New Caribbean Poets
Book SynopsisHere is an opportunity to discover some of the best new, unpublished poets from the Caribbean. Coming Up Hot is the second publication of Peekash Press, an imprint of Akashic Books and Peepal Tree Press committed to supporting the emergence of new Caribbean writing, and as part of CaribLit project.With a generous sample from each poet, there are new writers from Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia, St Vincent and Guyana. Meet Danielle Boodoo-Fortune and her richly gothic take on love and its complications; Danielle Jennings’ exuberant narratives of family history and the struggles for respect between men and women; Ruel Johnson’s often witty attempts to confront the insanity of contemporary Guyana’s race wars and political corruption through the formal coolness of poetry; Monica Minott’s frank celebrations of women’s sexuality and her attempt to re-enter the world of spirit possession and trance; Debra Providence’s spare womanist reflections that pack a more devastating punch by saying more with less; Shivanee Ramlochan’s confidently experimental poems that explore the threatening uncertainties of the present through the imagery of speculative fictions set in some post-disaster world; Colin Robinson’s polyphonic, modernist reflections on the queer Caribbean and its joys and sorrows; and Sassy Ross’s tightly structured explorations of memory between the here and there of St Lucia and New York. Here is a generation that has absorbed Walcott, Brathwaite, Carter and Lorna Goodison, but has found its own distinctive voices, themes and formal models. Each of the contributors is well on the way to having their own first collections.Coming Up Hot is the second publication of Peekash Press, a joint imprint of Akashic Books and Peepal Tree Press committed to supporting the emergence of new Caribbean writing, as part of CaribLit project.Table of ContentsDanielle Boodoo-FortuneDanielle JenningsRuel JohnsonMonica MinottDebra ProvidenceShivanee RamlochanColin RobinsonSassy Ross
£8.54
Peepal Tree Press Ltd The Stone Gatherer
Book SynopsisThere is a candour to Esther Phillips's affecting collection of poems, The Stone Gatherer, that can be quite disarming. In poems that undress the foibles of family – a father's masks and a mother's 'fortissimo' – there is tenderness and affection despite the pain. Here is a poet's voice that seeks and finds grace notes in the spaces between experience. Hers is a poetics that locates itself in the landscape of Barbados, displaying a facility for the Barbadian dialect and the lyrical West Indian English of the major poets that have come before her. The collection's structure is a woman-centred movement of poems that begins with the complex coming-of-age journey of a child, through an adulthood of romance and crushed emotions, through the rewards and anxieties of motherhood, to the contemplative and reflective place of maturity where a woman assumes the role of elder, protector of the community, and of prophet. Phillips embraces all of these roles in her poems, allowing us to enjoy what becomes an expansive narrative through time and life's changes. She shows herself to have the wit and intelligence of an artist committed to the use of verse to test the meaning of experience. And yet in all of this, we are often most struck by Phillips's eye for detail, her sense of landscape and her willingness to locate her poems in the world that moves and breathes around her.In The Stone Gatherer, one has the sense of an artist collecting stones of different shapes and dimensions, arranging them in such a way that there is space enough for them to breathe and for us to pause to think and feel.Esther Phillips was born and lives in Barbados.
£7.59
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Moon Before Morning
Book SynopsisW.S. Merwin was arguably the most influential American poet of the last half-century – an artist who has transfigured and reinvigorated the vision of poetry for our time. An essential voice in modern American literature, he was United States Poet Laureate in 2010-11. The Moon Before Morning is a love letter composed in a stunning rush of memory. Answering the call set forth in The Shadow of Sirius (2009), which won him his second Pulitzer Prize, Merwin extends the emotional and intellectual reach of that collection with passionate reverence for the natural world, bittersweet reflection on time’s irrevocable ravages, and equanimity informed by a lifetime of writing and practised contemplation. Merwin’s studied precision in form and language filters crisp, beautiful images through ethereal memory, forging an intense bond between the writer and a quickly transforming world. ‘When we forget,’ Merwin writes, others will remember: no action or spirit on Earth is without its infinite reverberations. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.Trade ReviewThe Moon Before Morning is a book of drive, finesse and astonishing beauty...There are few great poets alive at any one time, and W.S. Merwin is one of them. Read him while he is still contemporary. -- Fiona Sampson * Guardian *W.S. Merwin’s legacy is unquestionably secure: his best and most fierce poems are moody, visionary compositions that dive into the unconscious and the seeds of existence with an inwardness and scrutiny unique in American poetry. -- David Biespiel * Poetry *Merwin points his oracular, unpunctuated poems toward his own past, admitting, "I have only what I remember", and offering what may be his most personal, generous and empathic collection. Somehow, he manages to dissolve the boundaries between one time and another, seeming to look forward to the past or remember what has yet to happen… Gorgeous poems about enduring love melt time as well, looking toward a moment when we will be no older than we ever were. * Publishers Weekly *
£10.80
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Over the Moon
Book SynopsisImtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief. She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Over the Moon is her fifth book from Bloodaxe. These are poems of joy and sadness, of mourning and celebration: poems about music and feet, church bells, beds, cafe tables, bad language and sudden silence. In contrast with her previous work written amidst the hubbub of India, these new poems are mostly set in London, where she has built a new life with - and since the death of - her husband Simon Powell.Trade Review'This is a passionate, uplifting collection of poems about language, love and loss, grief and joy, elegy and celebration. The loss of a great love makes poems of piercing beauty. In her finest book to date, Imtiaz Dharker finds resolution in language itself, and in a world the more loved for the sharpness of loss' - Gillian Clarke. 'Imtiaz Dharker's new collection is the crown to a celebratory, humane, wholly utterable, subtly crafted poetry. Its dark jewels are the magnificent poems of bereavement, which will surely endure. Reading her, one feels that were there to be a World Laureate, Imtiaz Dharker would be the only candidate' - Carol Ann Duffy.
£10.80
Liverpool University Press My Dark Horses
Book SynopsisSet against the charms and vicissitudes of growing up in a family of musicians, Jodie Hollander’s beautifully-structured and compelling debut follows the story of a daughter’s maturing relationship with her mother. Interspersed with versions of Rimbaud, and always alert to the surreal comedy of the human condition, these powerful and immediate poems chart with huge passion, musicality and insight a complex journey towards familial understanding and reconciliation.Trade Review'Compelling....obsessive....heart-rending'Compass Magazine'For some, childhood innocence erodes slowly with each new experience. The lucky ones get to occupy this safe, uncomplicated realm – at least for a time. The longevity of this illusion often depends on the adults around us. For Jodie Hollander’s protagonist, the illusion is broken at a young age, a recurring sensation that is explored throughout My Dark Horses.'Lucy Winrow, The Poetry School'This is a technically competent, enjoyable collection which will bear repeated re-readings. At its heart, it is a book about processing and recovering. You will feel your humanity strengthened by reading it.'Charlotte Wetton, The High Window'Magnificent...a vast pallette of emotion.' Robert Ham, The Portland Mercury'The nice thing about the expression “dark horse” is that it applies whether the horse wins or not: it captures the possibility of breakout, and then admits the unlikelihood of it.' THINK'Jodie Hollander’s powerful debut collection is as hypnotic and rich as a dream ... Hollander’s are finely tuned and strongly narrative poems, crafted with strong openings that immediately draw the reader in.' Suzannah V. Evans, Times Literary Supplement'The poems in this collection, both blunt and lyric, stoic and tender, roll over the palate like the flavors of a complex dish.'Donna Vorreyer, Rhino PoetryReviews ‘A torrent of shocking and revelatory poetry simmers between the covers of My Dark Horses, pulling the reader in with the very first poem…It takes great courage to write of love, grief, abuse, and survival with such unflinching honesty.’ Erica Goss, Pedestal MagazineTable of ContentsSplitting and FuckingThe MetronomeOblivionThe Talking TreeThe Humane SocietyHe’sRomancing HerselfAprès Le DelugeLittle SerenadeA CactusMother’s WristsTransporting the PianoThe Chicken LadyMother’s Tomato PlantsGreenHow to Fry a ChickenThe Fat Lady’s ArmsTalking in LamuThe Sound of ScissorsMigraineThe Glass ElephantsThe Storm HorseThe FerretThe Red TricycleA Music StandFlowersHorse BonesSkyping with my MotherA BoxThe Last Time I Saw HerSpeaking with the DeadMother’s Persian RugsCaprice for ViolinDream of a Burning WomanThe Last BreakfastChildhoodHistoric EveningRutsVagabondsPhrasesNocturneShopping for Overalls in MilwaukeeTreemotherWild HorsesMy Mother’s Will Emailed in pdfVictoria ParkFirst StormA DaughterHawthornden CemeteryKathmanduZero HourMy Brother’s ViolinThe Family FreezerA Friend RequestFeeding the HorsesLake ParkWhite HorseDawnMy Dark HorsesAcknowledgments
£10.99
University of Illinois Press Complete Poems
Book SynopsisThe complete works of previously unpublished and published poetry of a pioneer of modern black writingTrade Review"A volume that no student of the Harlem Renaissance, the leftist interwar period, dissident sexuality studies, the Catholic worker movement, or negritude, diaspora, and Caribbean language literature can live without. . . . Maxwell's skillful salvaging of remote primary material, thorough scholarship, and original criticism substantially reconfigure how we understand the diaspora cruising author, rendering intelligible much that has mystified and sometimes disconcerted [us]. . . . A vital contribution to black studies."--African American Review"Maxwell's introduction offers a fascinating overview of McKay's life and a spirited defense of his poetry."--Los Angeles Times"Maxwell has edited this comprehensive volume superbly, hunting down every last poem. . . . [He] has deepened our sense of McKay's life and increased our respect for the independence of mind behind all his work."--Times Literary Supplement"A brilliant introduction . . . cause for celebration!"--Virginia Quarterly Review"Claude McKay's Complete Poems comes as an invaluable gift to all lovers of McKay, African-American literature, and literature in general. McKay's eminence among poets of the Harlem Renaissance is richly documented in this scrupulous collection. With a lively, always perceptive introduction and meticulous notes, Complete Poems stands as the definitive gathering of the verse of a writer who saw early the beauty and humanity of the black world at home and abroad."--Arnold Rampersad, author of The Life of Langston Hughes and the Sara Hart Kimball Professor of the Humanities, Stanford University."This is a wonderful book. McKay is a hugely important figure in the development of Caribbean and African American poetry, and bringing his poems together in one place does an invaluable service to readers of all backgrounds. Maxwell's outstanding introduction is the most insightful and cogent critical assessment of McKay's poetry to date."--James Smethurst, author of The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946
£23.39
Nightboat Books Mature Themes
Book SynopsisIn Andrew Durbin's Mature Themes, texts flow in and out of media realities and consciousness like images on a Tumblr dashboard. He assays the controversies and topologies of public lives mired in sex, secrecy, and fame, where celebrity subjects and anonymous speakers bleed into one another, sharing the dreamy, often darkly funny space of a Hollywood. These poems pursue the other, secret realities that lurk in a pressurized empire, an earth, on the verge of collapse.Trade Review“Mature Themes negatively embraces media culture in its dizzying vortex of self-reflexivity, where facts exist only as powered by dreams, and dreams are in fact, malignant intent. It's like that, like a cat chasing its tail. Durbin's incisive and often brilliant book offers pitch-perfect feedback of a culture where to go deep is to resend an unanswered text at 3 a.m.”—Chris Kraus“Mature Themes is very good, but Andrew Durbin is going to die alone anyway. Not because he isn’t a very good lay, but because as it turns out, this book shows us how Andrew just can’t enjoy any luxury he seeks to accumulate. Basically, Mature Themes is a musical flood of dispassion seamlessly submerged in a paranoid post-internet takeover where any notoriety turns on living the nightmare dream. Here’s the thing—as Lauren Berlant writes, “sitting with the loss of the world requires a supple affective infrastructure, or a religion." Sometimes this is music, or art, or academia, or love. Andrew prefers not to be triangulated, which means the promiscuity of his work is also something that has to stretch and move and bend through this by already knowing it’s all over. And as it turns out, for Andrew, aesthetic disinterest, waning faith and terminal irony are not very good ways to find a nice Jewish girl or a homonormie partner. So he is probably going to die alone, but that’s OK, because who doesn't want a flirtatiously immovable attachment to an impossible position of doom? I’d hit it. I know you would.”—Trisha Low
£11.39
University of Illinois Press Traveling Light
Book SynopsisDistills the essential emotions from people's encounters with each other, with nature, and with themselves. This book lets us see ourselves and the world that surrounds us through the author's compassionate but unblinking eyes.Trade ReviewPacific Northwest Booksellers Association Poetry Award, 2000. Governor's Writers Award, Washington State Center for the Book, 2000.
£23.39
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Our Town A Play in Three Acts
Book Synopsis“[Our Town] leaves us with a sense of blessing, and the unspoken but palpable command to achieve gratitude in what remains of our days on earth.”— New YorkerThornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire—an allegorical representation of all life—is an American classic. It is the simple story of a love affair that asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life, and death. This beautifully designed Harper Perennial Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper, making it the perfect gift book.Our Town explores the relationship between two young neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily loses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acTrade Review“Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid New Hampshire town, Mr. Wilder has transmuted the simple events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective....Our Town is one of the finest achievements of the current stage.” — Brooks Atkinson “Its astringent distillation of life and death in the fictional early-20th-century town of Grover’s Corners, N.H., is desperately needed. . . so Americans can remember who we are. . . . The true American faith endures in 'Our Town'.” — Frank Rich, New York Times “Wilder’s unfashionable insistence on embracing wonders as well as woe is both gallant and exhilarating. . . .[Our Town] leaves us with a sense of blessing, and the unspoken but palpable command to achieve gratitude in what remains of our days on earth” — The New Yorker "Our Town demonstrates in the most gentle way, the most celebrational way, how difficult it is to be a human being." — Will Eno, American playwright "Our Town is probably the finest play ever written by an American." — Edward Albee "In Our Town, [Wilder] cautions us to recognize that life is both precious and ordinary, and that these two fundamental truths are intimately connected." — New York Times
£16.19
McSweeney's Publishing Morning in Serra Mattu: A Nubian Ode
Book Synopsis
£18.94
Wave Books Of Entirety Say the Sentence
Book SynopsisThere has been growing interest in Ernst Meister because of the publication of two books in his informal trilogy, In Time's Rift (2012) and Wallless Space (2014). We expect much excitement for this final installment. This collection differs from the others in its expansion, both in ideas and the length of the poems. Though he wrote from outside the literary circles of his time, Ernst Meister received accolades for his poetry, including Germany's most prestigious poetry prize, the Georg Büchner Prize. Translator Foust is an esteemed poet with an established fan base. Translator Frederick is a noted German scholar. The original poems, in German, will face the English translations. This book holds diverse appeal to those interested in philosophy, existential questions, and international literature.Trade ReviewArguably the most emotionally resonant of Meister’s late trilogy, this collection carves out a much-needed space for an essential and often overlooked poet. —Publishers WeeklyArguably the most emotionally resonant of Meister’s late trilogy, this collection carves out a much-needed space for an essential and often overlooked poet. —Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsN/A
£12.34
Fence Magazine Inc, Division of Fence Books Exchanges of Light
Book SynopsisCast as a dialogue among six interlocuters, this lyric blend of poetry and prose considers light from a variety of perspectives - philosophical, physical, ethical, and metaphorical.Trade Review"Six voices dialogue across centuries. Their delightful - and delightfully translated - exchanges range through philosophers, poets, and scientists as far apart as Aristotle and Lord Kelvin. As the voices follow each other in sestinalike permutation, they encircle - now by propositions, now by poems - "the sum of light [that] is the world." ROSMARIE WALDROP"
£11.25
Dedalus Press On A Turning Wing
Book SynopsisPaddy Bushe''s latest collection of poems opens with a stirring suite on music and art, seeing them not as rarefied experiences but as fundamental and nourishing encounters for both their makers and their audience. The distinction between here and elsewhere is blurred, and the playing of an Irish piper seems echoed by that of other musicians in far-flung parts where the poet''s enthusiasm for travel and hill-walking takes him.The transition from such open, light-filled spaces to the more uncertain areas of Irish political life makes perfect sense in Bushe''s work, the poet''s freedom bringing with it a responsibility to engage. And Bushe''s defence of a local arts centre is lifted far above what might have been a parochial dispute into a passionate argument for access to the arts beyond favouritism or political interference.On a Turning Wing contains some of Bushe''s finest sketches of the natural world, as well as touching lyrics on the birth of a grandchild and the joy and consolation of companionship and love.
£9.50
Dedalus Press Geomantic
Book Synopsis
£10.45
Uniformbooks The Book of the Green Man
Book Synopsis
£10.00
Aurora Metro Publications A Girl With a Book: And Other Plays
Book SynopsisA Girl with a Book and Other Plays brings together four plays for young people by acclaimed playwright Nick Wood. Topical and wide-ranging, they concern refugees, friendship, loss and courage.Trade Review“The easy option when hearing the news of Malala Yousafzai’s shooting is to think that Pakistan is somewhere so distant, inhabited by people so different, that you could never understand why it happened. Wood rather invites us to better understand Malala, her father, and her kinsmen.” On Religion journal “…a journey into empathy and imagination coolly and cleanly done. A crucially important tale well told with great humanity.” Stephen Lowe, playwrightTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION THE PLAYS A GIRL WITH A BOOK A DREAM OF WHITE HORSES BIRDBOY MIA PRODUCTION IMAGES
£12.34
Vintage Publishing Falling Awake
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2017 Griffin PrizeWinner of the 2016 Costa Poetry AwardShortlisted for the 2016 T. S. Eliot AwardShortlisted for the 2016 Forward PrizeA Daily Telegraph / Guardian / Herald / New Statesman / Sunday Times / Times Literary Supplement Book of the YearAlice Oswald’s poems are always vivid and distinct, alert and deeply, physically, engaged in the natural world. Mutability – a sense that all matter is unstable in the face of mortality – is at the heart of this new collection and each poem is involved in that drama: the held tension that is embodied life, and life’s losing struggle with the gravity of nature.Working as before with an ear to the oral tradition, these poems attend to the organic shapes and sounds and momentum of the language as it’s spoken as well as how it’s thought: fresh, fluid and propulsive, but also fragmentary, repetitive. These are poems that are written to be read aloud.Orpheus and Tithonus appear at the beginning and end of this book, alive in an English landscape, stuck in the clockwork of their own speech, and the Hours – goddesses of the seasons and the natural apportioning of Time – are the presiding figures. The persistent conditions are flux and falling, and the lines are in constant motion: approaching, from daring new angles, our experience of being human, and coalescing into poems of simple, stunning beauty.Trade ReviewShe says that poetry is what happens when language becomes impossible. If you’ve never read her – get this collection now. -- Jeanette Winterson * Guardian, Book of the Year *[A] modern classic. -- Jeremy Noel-Tod * Sunday Times, Book of the Year *A miraculous collection. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer, Book of the Year *A liminal text… Unmistakably original. -- Craig Raine * Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year *A sublime poet of the natural world. -- Rupert Thomson * Herald, Book of the Year *An astonishing book of beauty, intensity and poise – a revelation…The collection’s title is spot on. I cannot think of any poet who is more watchful or with a greater sense of gravity. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *Stunning. Is she now our greatest living poet[?]… Her work is commanding… She is less twinkly-eyed than Simon Armitage, more committed to experimentation than Duffy and just as playful…as Don Paterson. For sheer, sustained invention and intellectual rigour, her work is perhaps closest to Kei Miller… If there’s any justice in the poetry world, the title [Poet Laureate] should be offered to this gardener-classicist who is bringing the British landscape to life in poetry again. -- Charlotte Runcie * Daily Telegraph *The pieces included here are held together by Oswald’s luminous, almost alien powers of observation. -- Yasmine Seale * Literary Review *Magic, the music of nature, the resurrection of the dead: all these feel real when you read Alice Oswald. Her stunning new collection deserves the Forward Prize. * Sunday Telegraph *[It] confirms her as one of the most gifted English poets of the past 20 years. -- Jeremy Noel-Todd * Sunday Times *She is a classicist and a gardener, an expert in the epic tradition and a riverside wanderer… Falling Awake provides the notation for an immersive aural experience; its current existence as a printed collection is not the incarnation for which it will be most celebrated, should Oswald choose to record it as a performance… It is certainly a strong contender in this year’s Forward Prizes, and a highly compelling meditation upon transience. -- Phil Brown * Huffington Post *She not only makes some startlingly original imaginative leaps, but also manages to find the word to describe the scene when she lands. -- Roger Cox * Scotland on Sunday *It does not disappoint… Fierce in the quality of her attention, often metaphorically dazzling, Oswald earns our trust through her authority. -- Fiona Sampson * Guardian *Falling Awake continues to mine a fresh, inventive seam of observational poetry, tuned in to revelation and a feeling for those moments when the world seems to become strangely, truly itself. Oswald’s best poems bear comparison with D. H. Lawrence’s late work. -- John McAuliffe * Irish Times *[It is] Terrific. -- Mark Ford * Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year *
£11.40
Smith|Doorstop Books Landlocked
Book Synopsis
£9.45
Enitharmon Press Sonnets of Dark Love
Book SynopsisFederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), wrote The Tamarit Divan and the Sonnets of Dark Love in the last years of his life. Both books were published posthumously and explore passionate love. The setting for The Divan is the poet's Granada, while the Sonnets are a solitary, intimate voice speaking to one person. In translating these powerful poems, Jane Duran and Gloria Garcia Lorca have tried to remain as close as possible to Lorca's words and to his emotional and sensuous intensity.This bilingual edition also includes essays by two acclaimed Lorca scholars. Christopher Maurer's essay, 'Violet Shadow', explores Lorca's relationship with Arabic poetry in the Divan. Andres Soria Olmedo's essay, 'Dark St Valentine', studies the implications and resonances of 'dark love' in the Sonnets.
£12.34
BOA Editions, Limited The Orchard
Book SynopsisRichly allusive, the poems in Brigit Pegeen Kelly's The Orchard evoke elements of myth in distinctive aural and rhythmic patterns. Her poetic strength lies in her ability to cast poems as modern myths and allegories. Propelled by patterned repetitions and lush cadences, the poems move the reader through a landscape where waking and dream consciousness fuse. Brigit Pegeen Kelly teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her poetry collections are Song (BOA Editions), the 1994 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets and a finalist for the 1995 Los Angeles Times Book Award, and To the Place of Trumpets, selected by James Merrill for the 1987 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize.
£12.34
NeWest Press Documentaries
Book Synopsis
£12.79
Currency Press Pty Ltd Radiance
Book Synopsis
£20.57
HarperCollins Rumi The Book Of Love Poems of Ecstasy and
Book Synopsis
£19.19
Mariner Books Sophocles the Oedipus Cycle
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Classical Comics Midsummer Night's Dream the Graphic Novel
Book SynopsisThe entire Shakespeare play - unabridged! "The course of true love never did run smooth;" With its mix of real people who stumble into a fairy kingdom (with it's own problems!) it's little wonder that this play is one of the best loved and most performed of all Shakespeare's masterpieces.
£10.79
Pighog Postcards from the 7th Floor
Book Synopsis
£12.00
Dedalus Press Piano
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Arc Publications Six Estonian Poets
Book SynopsisThis anthology features the work of six of Estonia's most celebrated poets. They write from their oral tradition and folklore, explore new forms of poetry through music, marginalia and note-making.
£10.44
