A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Omnidawn Publishing Life in a Field – Poems
Book SynopsisThis is a comedy about climate change, in which a girl and a donkey become friends, then decide to marry time. A lyric fable, Life in a Field intersperses Katie Peterson’s slow-moving, cinematic, and sensual writing with three folios of photographs by Young Suh. Introspection, wish, dream, and memory mark this tale, which is set in a location resembling twenty-first-century California—with vistas and orchards threatened by drought and fires. This is also a place of enchantment, a fairy-tale landscape where humans and animals live as equals. As the girl and the donkey grow up, they respond to the difficulties of contemporary civilization, asking a question that meets our existential moment: What do you do with the story you didn’t wish for? A narrator’s voice combines candor with distance, attempting to find a path through our familiar strife, toward a future that feels all but impossible, and into what remains of beauty and pleasure. Life in a Field tries to reverse our accelerating destruction of the natural world, reminding us of “the cold clarity we need to continue on this earth.”Trade Review"Peterson collaborates with her photographer husband for this experimental pseudo-narrative. Rife with paradoxes and conceits that will leave some readers confounded and others enraptured, Peterson’s collection is driven by a detached and unhurried eloquence. . . . As for Suh’s photography, the images soundly compliment the milieu of the text. Peterson’s incontestable innovation and wit will stir the imaginations of readers, expanding their sense of what is possible in poetry." * Publishers Weekly *"Despite the darkness that hems the story, [Peterson's] language is so joyful and ecstatic that I was willing to follow her to each new vista. And she destabilizes the environment. Her touch is light, but the details are there: 'The firefighters in her town are never overworked until the end of the season.' Time is the 'unwilling melter of glaciers that surround us, as we sleep.' The world is threatened by irrevocable change, but Peterson’s cold clarity shows us one strategy for survival: to strip our stories down so that we can see their bare truths." * Los Angeles Review of Books *“Peterson’s work finds a new kind of happiness, and Life in A Field leads you on a path that’s exploratory but inevitable, tricky but sturdy, earned and enduring and cerebral and impulsive and lit bright with joy. This book is splendid. It makes me happy. This is a really lovely book.” -- Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up and Bottle Grove“I found the book you are about to read delightfully easy to enjoy, and yet I find it difficult to explain what I love about it . . . Like most great poetry, Life in a Field is impossible to summarize or paraphrase. More than most poetry, it eludes formal categorization. Life in a Field is hybrid, mongrel—part allegory, part parable, part fable, part fairytale, part futurist pastoral set in the past or an alternate reality. . . . Life in a Field delights me in its simple, surprising, exquisite language.” -- Rachel Zucker, author of SoundMachine“It stars a girl, an unnamed donkey with a star mark, and a narrator who warns us to keep our distance so we don’t get in the way. Our job as readers is to acknowledge that we are transients by this American river: to pitch our tent and live in the story, not to relate to it. Devastating is too small a word for the vision of goodness and proximity these poems pursue. Their deft interrogation of empathy, privilege, and the myriad ways that ‘beauty makes you greedy and love repurposes your greed’ builds lyricism out of narrative itself. The journey Life in a Field takes us on makes us strange to ourselves in the best possible ways; we stand in that field and pay attention to the price of living in time.” -- Chiyuma Elliott, author of At Most and Vigil“Let others try to summarize the plot of Peterson’s odd and compelling Life in a Field—I want to tell you my copy of it is rife with sunshine yellow: all the thoughts and phrases I highlighted because they hurled a bolt through me. Like: ‘She imagined consoling a god so scared he hid from visitors in his own house.’ Like: ‘I marry you Time, purger of fortunes, handmaiden of ruin.’ Like a single page empty but for the word ‘Happy’ on it. This is a book about the nature of love, time, friendship, decay, and what storytelling is for. Here, Peterson lets her generosity of mind run free.” -- Dana Levin, author of Banana Palace“Life in a Field is a propulsive, gorgeously written story that, like the best fairy tales, feels both familiar and revelatory. Peterson is a master of image delivery. In her prose we see alternate and concurrent images unfold simultaneously--a lemon is both ripe and rotten, a girl is both in love with a donkey and has decided to love no one, a friend is both emotionally luminous and incapable of crying honest tears. Life in a Field is a triumph of language’s unique ability to show us double-exposed ideas with deft and sparkling energy.” -- Rita Bullwinkel, author of Belly Up"Life in a Field exists, in my mind, as a painting, or as a detail—or as two dovetailing details—in a painting (like one by Bruegel, but seen through a glass lightly) that is as long as life, and as fleeting. When you reach the end, and when you reach the beginning of wondering how, you will want to return, as I—and the pictures that passed through your mind—did, not only to the beginning, but all at once to the whole panorama." -- Brandon Shimoda, author of The Grave in the Wall and The DesertTable of ContentsPART ONEPART TWOPART THREEPART FOURDEBTSGRATITUDE
£15.20
Kent State University Press The Spectral Wilderness
Book SynopsisIt s a joy. . .to come nearer to a realm of experience little explored in American poetry, the lives of those who are engaged in the complex project of transforming their own gender... Oliver Bendorf writes from a paradoxical, new-world position: the adult voice of a man who has just appeared in the world. A man emergent, a man in love, alive in the fluid instability of any category. – Mark Doty, from the Foreword
£13.56
Penguin Books Ltd Mythos
Book SynopsisPenguin presents the unabridged audio CD edition of Mythos written and read by Stephen Fry.THE TIMES AUDIOBOOK OF THE WEEK''Perfect for the 21st Century. Ebullient, funny, Fry retells the Greek myths with elegance'' The Times''A cracking good story'' The Times Literary Supplement ''A wondrous new immersion in ancient stories we only thought we knew. Page to page, Mythos is brilliant, funny, erudite, inventive, surprising and enthralling'' Richard North Patterson''Fry''s lively writing certainly conveys his lifelong passion for Greek myths . . . It''s a rollicking good read'' The Independent_________No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly and brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses. They are like us, only more so - their actions and adventures scrawled across the heavens above. From the birth of the univTrade ReviewThe Greek myths are told to you here by the ever-soothing voice of Stephen Fry, who takes you from Zeus to Athena with his typical humour. The Greek gods of the past become relatable as pop culture, modern literature and music are woven throughout. It is joyfully informal yet full of the literary legacy threaded through so much of the tapestry of contemporary Greece * The Guardian *Wit and erudition are impressively evident . . . Read by Fry with his accustomed ebullient showmanship [he] gives the legends modern resonance by telling them with a contemporary colloquial twist' -- AUDIOBOOK of the WEEK * The Times *Mythos is the best thing he's written since his superb first novel . . . it is entertaining and edifying - one cannot really ask for more than that * The Telegraph *Fry's lively writing certainly conveys his lifelong passion for Greek myths . . . It's a rollicking good read * The Independent *Fry reimagines the Greek myths with wit, warmth and humanity, bringing them into the modern age. A welcome addition to any bookshelf * Book Bag *Mythos is Stephen's vivid retelling of the Greek myths. Bringing to life the Gods, monsters and mortals of Ancient Greece, he reimagines their astonishing stories for the modern world. * Express and Star *Perfect for the 21st Century. Ebullient, funny, Fry retells the Greek myths with elegance * The Times *A wondrous new immersion in ancient stories we only thought weknew. Page to page, Mythos is brilliant, funny, erudite, inventive, surprising and enthralling -- Richard North Patterson * - *[Fry] exhibits prodigious learning, a great facility with words, and enormous erudition and enthusiasm * Mail on Sunday *Lively, humorous and intimate, this retelling has real charm * The Guardian *Fry takes us from Zeus to Athena with humour. The Greek gods of the past become relatable as pop culture, modern literature and music are woven throughout. Joyfully informal yet full of the literary legacy * Guardian *Fresh revivals of the myths of ancient Greece. In his own imitable style, Fry takes an erudite look at the doings of gods, goddesses, kings, queens and ordinary mortals * The Bay *I quite like Mythos, Stephen Fry's book on the Greek myths - he makes them amusing. I like people that illuminate the past with humour -- Jools HollandMythos has the gripping nature that one would hope for from a modern blockbuster. Filled with a sharp and delightful sense of humour, Stephen Fry's many witticisms making it an even more enjoyable read. I would recommend it for so many reasons * The National *Brilliant . . . Stephen Fry's writing style makes it appealing to all. There's something for everyone * The Herald *Reimagines the lives of ancient Greek gods and goddesses through a humorous lens, using casual language and making valuable comparisons to modern characters or events. It's also just really, really funny * American Express Essentials *Arguably the greatest living Englishman * Indendent on Sunday *The patron saint of British intelligence * Daily Telegraph *National Treasure: noun - someone or something regarded as emblematic of a nation's cultural heritage, such as Stephen Fry * Oxford English Dictionary *
£24.00
Modern Language Association of America The Arab Renaissance: A Bilingual Anthology of
Book SynopsisIn the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance, from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Arab culture and politics for the first time responded to European modernity and face the challenges to Arab power, tradition, and identity posed by the industrial, colonial nations of the West. In the process, Arab society both imitated and innovated, translating contemporary foreign texts, adopting new genres, developing journalism, creating a new publishing industry, and building new educational systems as it changed under conflicting forces: nationalism, secularism, Islamic revival, and language reforms. Collected in this anthology are texts by intellectuals, writers, clergy, and political figures that deal with authority, social norms, conventions and practices both secular and religious, gender roles, class, travel, and technology. Presented in the original Arabic and in English translation, they will be of interest of students of Arabic language and culture, history, cultural studies, gender studies, and other disciplines.
£34.36
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Top Girls
Book SynopsisMarlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill's play prompts us to question our notions of women''s success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women''s choices and restrictions regarding career and family.This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: A chronology of the play and the playwTrade ReviewTop Girls has a combination of directness and complexity, which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time, feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind. -- John Peter * Sunday Times *The work builds to a superb emotion-draining climax that sent me out of the theatre convinced that this is the best British play ever from a woman dramatist -- Michael Billington * Guardian *[Churchill's] play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme -- Bryan Robertson * Spectator *Table of ContentsChronology (Churchill's life and work, alongside significant political, social and cultural events) Contexts * Historical contexts (women’s rights/advancement; Thatcher’s Britain) * Theatrical contexts (The Royal Court; Max Stafford Clark; production history; critical responses) * The play today (an interview with David Shirley, director of the play in 2014) Themes * Women and work * Female Genealogy: Mothers and daughters (killing your mother; giving up your daughter); sisters (and sisterhood); 'Herstory'/re-finding women's histories * Women’s ability/freedom to occupy multiple/conflicting roles * Women aping masculine behaviour/dress/passing as men * 'Getting away'/freedom/travel/social mobility * Class (individualism vs socialism; economic/social mobility; materialism vs human compassion; 'successful' women ignoring the plight of less fortunate women) Dramatic Technique * Language * Structure * Characterisation/multi-roling Academic Debate (including suggestions for further reading) Related Work Play Text (with on-page glossing/notes) Glossary of Dramatic Terms
£10.99
Central Avenue Publishing Shades of Lovers
Book Synopsislove comes in many colors.this is a storyof breaking and healing,of forgiving but not forgetting,of understanding and balance.it is not only something to enjoy,but something to learn from.here are the things i did right,and the many things i did wrong.i give them to you,so that when love comes knocking,you will have a sense of what to dowhen you open the door.Explore the experience of six different relationships in this moving collection that dives into the highs and lows of love.Shades of Lovers is a BookTok favorite, and fans are saying "amazing", "beautiful", "love it" and "a MUST READ for all poetry lovers"Find Catarine's other book, sometimes I fall asleep thinking about you -- a story of heartbreak and finding solace, even when it feels you won't ever find it.
£13.25
Smith|Doorstop Books The Last Dinosaur in Doncaster
Book Synopsis
£6.00
Harvard University Press Carmina Burana Volume II
Book SynopsisCarmina Burana, the largest surviving collection of secular Medieval Latin verse, features poems on subjects ranging from sex and gambling to crusades and corruption. This new, two-volume presentation of the medieval classic makes the anthology accessible in its entirety to Latin lovers and English readers alike.Trade Review[Traill] brings to this ambitious project deep knowledge of medieval Latin poetry and the Carmina Burana manuscript…These are, indeed, translations worth having…The DOML Carmina Burana is a wonderful resource. -- Thomas C. Moser, Jr. * Speculum *
£25.46
Workman Publishing How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and
Book SynopsisAn Indie Poetry Bestseller! What the world needs now – featuring poems from inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith and more. More and more people are turning to poetry as an antidote to divisiveness, negativity, anxiety, and the frenetic pace of life. How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope offers readers uplifting, deeply felt, and relatable poems by well-known poets from all walks of life and all parts of the US, including inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, and others. The work of these poets captures the beauty, pleasure, and connection readers hunger for. How to Love the World, which contains new works by Ted Kooser, Mark Nepo, and Jane Hirshfield, invites readers to use poetry as part of their daily gratitude practice to uncover the simple gifts of abundance and joy to be found everywhere. With pauses for stillness and invitations for writing and reflection throughout, as well as reading group questions and topics for discussion in the back, this book can be used to facilitate discussion in a classroom or in any group setting.
£11.39
Wave Books Giant Moth Perishes
Book SynopsisWith exquisite detail and humble sensibilities, Geoffrey Nutter’s sixth collection of poetry offers myriad delights in language and the imagination. In cityscapes, nature, books, and color, we find respite in the complexities of the commonplace—from clocks to teardrops to moths. The poems in Giant Moth Perishes teach us how to live in the world with curious attention. And at the heart of this daydreaming is a spectacular earnestness, firmly embedded in the idea that the landscape of poetry is limitless and wild.Trade ReviewFor years now, Nutter has been quietly writing some of the most beautiful poems in America. —John Ebersole, Kenyon ReviewThank goodness for Geoffrey Nutter, whose poetry seems to be powered equally by sunlight, virtue, wonder, and humility. —Nate Pritts, Rain Taxi
£12.34
Andrews McMeel Publishing A Beautiful Composition of Broken
Book Synopsis A Beautiful Composition of Broken is inspired by some of the events expressed artistically by Samantha King in the bestseller Born to Love, Cursed to Feel. It serves as a poetic documentary of the lives of people who have been mistreated, misunderstood, and wrongfully labeled in a way that limits them in this world. The author’s most personal volume yet, A Beautiful Composition of Broken builds a conceptual bridge between r.h. Sin’s earliest work and his forthcoming series, Planting Gardens in Graves. Trade Review"That [past] relationship continues to fuel his writing, which encourages women to dump lesser men, avoid jerks, and stand up for what they want." (Sheila Marikar, The New Yorker)
£13.49
Pan Macmillan All The Names Given
Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2019Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2021'[Raymond Antrobus] has built another beautiful paper house which you can spend a very long and deeply satisfying time inside.' Mark Haddon 'Moving deftly between tenderness and violence, hope and grief, praise and lament, this is a deeply evocative collection that will linger in the reader’s mind.' GuardianRaymond Antrobus’s astonishing debut collection, The Perseverance, won both Rathbone Folio Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, amongst many other accolades; the poet’s much anticipated second collection, All The Names Given, continues his essential investigation into language, miscommunication, place, and memory. Throughout, All The Names Given is punctuated with [Caption Poems] partially inspired by Deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim, which attempt to fill in the silences and transitions between the poems, as well as moments inside and outside of them. Direct, open, formally sophisticated, All The Names Given breaks new ground both in form and content: the result is a timely, humane and tender book from one of the most important young poets of his generation.
£10.44
2Leaf Press NAKED – A New Poetry Collection
Book SynopsisIn his new collection of poetry, Naked, Abiodun Oyewole unveils his thoughts on self-love, forgiveness, lost love, survival, and cultural identity. Known as a founding member of The Last Poets, a spoken word performance group that arose out of the black nationalism movement in East Harlem in the late 1960’s, Oyewole brings his revolutionary voice to this collection. His writing is straight-forward, engaging, and intense, with the poems taking on the shape of various emotions. Inspired by the “naked poetry” of Juan Ramón Jiménez, Naked is rooted in a striving for freedom, for an essential natural state devoid of all external adornment, turning sensations into concepts that express the concrete realization of nature itself. Written in free form, the brief transcendental poems of Naked convey the character of Oyewole, who has evolved into a master poet of his generation. Trade Review"Founding member of the seminal spoken-word initiative the Last Poets, thought by many critics to be the first hip hop group, Oyewole is a sublime force of scholarship and creativity. A born storyteller, he has infused his newest collection with a powerful sense of humanity. . . . With an exuberant and informative introduction by Lyah Beth LeFlore, Naked is a solid and universal volume by a masterful poet." -- Raúl Niño * Booklist *
£13.30
Nick Hern Books Follies
Book SynopsisSondheim's landmark musical about a reunion of showgirls, with a book by James Goldman. New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs, and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as ‘Broadway Baby’, ‘I’m Still Here’ and ‘Losing My Mind’, James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical was originally staged in New York in 1971, and received its British premiere in 1987. This edition was published alongside the major revival at the National Theatre, London, in 2017, directed by Dominic Cooke and starring Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee, Philip Quast and Imelda Staunton.Trade Review'A stunning musical... a pastiche so brilliant as to be breathtaking' * New York Daily News *'A landmark musical... a work of art' * New York Times *'A grand and lilting pastiche of legendary musical styles... the songs are cunning, melodic motifs laced with provocative lyrics that dutifully define each character with clarity and purpose... merges past and present with resonating counterpoint' * Variety *'Uniquely powerful and evanescent' * Los Angeles Times *
£9.89
Nick Hern Books Out of Love
Book SynopsisA tale of friendship, love and rivalry over thirty years from award-winning playwright Elinor Cook. Lorna and Grace do everything together. They share crisps, cigarettes and crushes. That's what happens when you're best friends forever. But when Lorna gets a place at university, and Grace gets pregnant, they suddenly find themselves in starkly different worlds. Can anything bridge the gap between them? Elinor Cook's play Out of Love was first produced in 2017 by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, in a co-production with Theatr Clywd and the Orange Tree Theatre. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.Trade Review'An emotional rollercoaster, at times very funny, sometimes devastatingly moving... a beautiful, poignant play about female friendship and the ties that run deep' * British Theatre Guide *'Wickedly vibrant, a gloriously ribald sum of its intimately explored private parts, Out of Love combines shamelessly kitsch and tell kitchen-sink comedy with heart pumping pathos' * The Reviews Hub *'A stinging portrait of intense, mutually dependent female friendship in all its messy, maddening, loving glory' * WhatsOnStage *'A fiery, tender story of female friendship... Elinor Cook's sharp new play about the intensities of bonds forged in childhood is neatly constructed... It's also very good about sex, but not in a giggly, coy way... This may look like a small play, but it is big in scope. It confirms Cook's willingness to write about women's lives with unruly honesty' * Guardian *
£11.69
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Mama Amazonica
Book SynopsisMama Amazonica is set in a psychiatric ward and in the Amazon rainforest, an asylum for animals on the brink of extinction. It reveals the story of Pascale Petit's mentally ill mother and the consequences of abuse. The mother transforms into a giant Victoria amazonica waterlily, and a bestiary of untameable creatures - a jaguar girl, a wolverine, a hummingbird - as she marries her rapist and gives birth to his children. From heartbreaking trauma, there emerge luxuriant and tender portraits of a woman battling for survival, in poems that echo the plight of others under duress, and of our companion species. Petit does not flinch from the violence but offers hope by celebrating the beauty of the wild, whether in the mind or the natural world. Mama Amazonica is Pascale Petit's seventh collection, and her first from Bloodaxe. Four of Pascale Petit's previous six collections have been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Winner of the inaugural Laurel Prize in 2020, Mama Amazonica won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize 2018 - the first time a poetry book has won this prize for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry best evoking the spirit of a place, was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize 2018, and was the Poetry Book Society Choice for autumn 2017.Trade ReviewMama Amazonica is an unforgettable read - rich with metaphor, the poems explode on the page with the multiple narratives of motherhood, illness, pain, and redemption. All of this set in a rainforest that is both mythic and vividly alive. This is a book that feels almost magical in its unlikeliness, and that for me is what made it a clear winner. -- Tahmima Anam * 2018 Ondaatje Prize judge *Petit won [the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2018] for her glittering and breathtakingly fearless book of poems, Mama Amazonica, which marks the first time that poetry has beaten novels and travelogues in this category… In just 112 pages, Petit creates a work of indelible power and tragic, dramatic force. -- Nilanjana Roy * Financial Times *Since 2001, when Pascale Petit published The Zoo Father, her greatest, most singular achievement has been to tackle difficult subject matter head-on while simultaneously distancing herself from it through the use of exotic metaphor. The distancing is crucial. It lies at the core of her method, and has enabled her to procure poems of a raw, almost ecstatic, beauty and, to paraphrase Ruth Padel, to write the unwritable. In this, her seventh extraordinary collection, possibly her most integrated book so far, this sort of elongated lens is much in evidence... This is a major literary feat, and this a brilliant sequence of poems. It burns in its own supranatural light. -- Tim Liardet & Vona Groarke * PBS Bulletin *Table of Contents11 Mama Amazonica 14 Jaguar Girl 17 Rainforest in the Sleep Room 19 Macaw Mummy 20 Taxidermy 21 Love Charm 22 My Mother's Wedding Dress 23 Chaplet 24 Something Blue 25 Bestarium 26 Bandaged Bambi 27 Love Charm II 28 He Gives Her a Nightdress Sheer as a Mist-Net 29 Giant Jewel Beetle Ear-Pendants 30 Miscarriage 31 Serpentarium 34 El Hombre Caiman 36 Precious Goliath Beetle 37 Buck 38 The Birth of Jaguar Girl 40 My Amazonian Birth 44 Hummingbird Birth 47 L'Assistance Publique 48 Harpy Eagle Mama 49 Baby Caimans 51 Musica Mundana 52 Limed Blossoms 54 My Mother's Dressing Gown 56 Square de la Place Dupleix 57 Her Harpy Eagle Claws 58 Madre de Dios 60 Fossa 63 Anaconda 64 Black Caiman with Butterflies 65 Extrapyramidal Side Effects 68 Terribilis 69 Jaguar Mama 72 Bottled Macaw 74 Waterlily-Jaguar 76 Scarlet Macaws 78 Rio Tambopata 79 Uirapuru and the Tangarana Tree 80 Corpse Flower 81 My Mother's Love 82 When My Mother Became a Boa 84 Mama Ferox 86 The Hospital Haircut 88 Zarafa the First Giraffe in France 90 Great Grey Owl 91 Ocelot 92 Kapok 93 Ah Puch 95 Snow Leopard Woman 96 In the Giraffe House 97 Mama Macaw 98 Rebirth of the Rainforest 99 My Wolverine 100 The Hummingbird Whisperer 101 Mama Oceana 102 Musician-Wren 103 King Vultures 106 The Hummingbird Nest 109 Acknowledgements
£10.80
Vintage Publishing Don't Call Us Dead
Book Synopsis*WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION 2018**A Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry 2017**A Financial Times and Telegraph Book of the Year 2018*‘[Smith’s] poems are enriched to the point of volatility, but they pay out, often, in sudden joy’ The New Yorker Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a ground-breaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don’t Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith turns then to desire, mortality – the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood – and an HIV-positive diagnosis. ‘Some of us are killed / in pieces,’ Smith writes, ‘some of us all at once.’ Don’t Call Us Dead is an astonishing and ambitious collection, one that confronts, praises, and rebukes an America where every day is too often a funeral and not often enough a miracle.Trade ReviewThis book is poetry as fierce fire. There is such intelligence and fervor in these poems about black men and their imperiled bodies, gay men and their impassioned bodies, what it means to be HIV positive, and so much more. Every poem impressed me, and the level of craft here is impeccable -- Roxane GayTremendously moving, an exalting and longed-for acknowledgement of historical pain ... Smith’s ability to look death squarely in the eye and seize from it language that is fertile with myth, beauty and intellect is astonishing -- Sandeep Parmar * The Guardian *A powerful and moving read. Smith pays tribute to the young black men America has lost to police shootings, racism and injustice, and writes disarmingly about life and sex with HIV, all in a restless verse -- Maria Crawford * Financial Times, **Books of the Year** *Haunting … This material is necessarily bleak, but Smith’s mercurial invention means it’s never merely grim … The visionary 23-page opener, “summer, somewhere” […] is something truly remarkable; a song from a sunlit afterlife, an “unpopular heaven” for black boys killed young, all delivered in taut couplets …Memorable, moving and imbued with moral purpose. I read and re-read this collection (particularly its opening poem) over several weeks… “summer, somewhere” is, by any measure, a brilliant poem -- Tristram Fane Saunders * The Telegraph, Poetry book of the month *[Danez Smith’s] poems are enriched to the point of volatility, but they pay out, often, in sudden joy… they also know the magic trick of making writing on the page operate like the most ecstatic speech. And they are, in their cadences and management of lines, deeply literary. I hear Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit priest who jury-rigged his verse to express personal turmoil, and Hart Crane, whose gentleness was expressed in an American idiom full of thunderclap, and Allen Ginsberg, who loved and learned from them both. The addition of Smith’s star turns a random cluster of points into a constellation, the way new work of this calibre always does… In this moving, unsettling work, the question is not simply one of craft. It’s about how the body and its authority can be manifested in writing, with only the spindly trace of letters to stand in for it -- Dan Chiasson * The New Yorker *Danez Smith is angry, erotic, politicized, innovative, classical, a formalist, an activist, and blends all of this without seeming to strain... This will be one of the year's essential books -- Craig Morgan Teicher * NPR, 2017 Poetry Preview *Danez Smith's is a voice we need now more than ever as living, feeling, complex, and conflicted beings. These poems of love extend beyond the erotic into the struggle for unity—not despite the realities of race but precisely because of what race has caused us to make of and do to one another. Don't Call Us Dead gives me a dose of hope at a time when such a thing feels hard to come by. This is a mighty work, and a tremendous offering -- Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Life on Mars[An] achingly gorgeous poetry collection by the brilliant Danez Smith ... There is a hope here, pleas and prayers; these poems pierce and they burn, they work as incantations, they lift you up, but refuse to settle you back down. They are miraculous, sublime; if you do one thing for yourself this summer, let it be to read this book, and linger over each and every word * Nylon *What is so extraordinary about this collection is its lyricism, its humanity, and its urgency. Don’t Call Us Dead is an historical commentary, a scientific document, a personal narrative, and a formal poetics. Smith uses every tool of craft at a poet’s disposal to deliver powerful, urgent, deliberate, crucial poems. Don’t miss this book * The Rumpus *Elegy meets celebration of the black male body on every page . . . Smith can’t help but be breathtaking in style and substance -- Porochista Khakpour * Virginia Quarterly Review *Where the stakes of living are high, Danez Smith puts their body right on the front line—‘i survived yesterday,’ they write, ‘spent it ducking bullets.’ In an America that conspires against black, brown, queer, and trans bodies, Danez writes poems of insistence and resistance; they anticipate a better world for all of us ‘where everything is sanctuary & nothing is a gun.’ -- D. A. PowellSmith transcends elegy in this intimate, humorous, and biting collection in which he writes of desire, mortality, white supremacy, and more -- Top 10 Poetry for Fall 2017 * Publishers Weekly *Danez Smith is an original – that rare blend between raw blinding light, an instinct for the well aright line, the courage to walk into his own love and pain armed only with the fragile hope of words, and a fire so unique it’s all his own. In Don’t Call Us Dead he demands we stand only in the truth of our own fear and build a love that’s so redemptive and real. If you have ever lost faith, if you want to believe in life, then you must read this book – it will humble and uplift you, leave you understanding that in the face of it all, there is only awe -- Chris AbaniPart indelible elegy, part glorious love song to ‘those brown folks who make / up the nation of my heart,’ Smith’s powerhouse collection is lush with luminous imagery, slick rhythms, and shrewd nods to Lucille Clifton, Beyoncé, and Diana Ross. Incandescent, indispensable, and, yes, nothing short of a miracle -- starred review * Booklist *The content as well as the writing is transcendent -- starred review * Library Journal *
£10.44
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Unknown Soldier
Book SynopsisThe stimulus for these poems is a collection of photographs taken of the poet’s father, originally from colonial Sri Lanka, who was serving as a radio operator in an otherwise all white platoon in the 1939-45 desert war in North Africa. As for so many who came back from war to start or resume a family life, there was a great gulf of silence, an unwillingness to speak of those experiences. The collection begins and ends in an imaginative recreation of the life suggested in those photographs, many reproduced in this collection. There is connection with a much-loved father, but also a sense of the unknowable. Speaking in the voice of the father and of the unknown photographer, poems explore the mix of male camaraderie and casual racism of that experience, but also the deep affection hinted at in the way the photographer has framed “Snowball” in his lens. From this imaginative core, poems move out to make connections with the remembered and known life of a father who died too soon, to self-reflections on the poet as remembrancer, creator and actor in the world. There are moving poems on the meaning of inherited objects – a paper-knife, letters – and inherited ways of being – the birdwatching that provides a rich source of imagery. The personal moves out to the resonances of what was, in its origins, a story of migration. Here the father’s success in finding of a home in Yorkshire is seen to contrast sharply with the tragedies of migrant deaths in the face of fortress Europe. This is a work of great beauty, whose lucid simplicity of language is married to a rich complexity of structure and the bird-flight of images that connect poem to poem. There is humour, too, in the revenant voice of the mother who inserts herself into the poet’s memory and demands in her “broad Yorkshire vowels […] ‘Why is your dad getting all the attention?’”
£9.49
Samuel French Ltd My Left Nut
Book Synopsis
£11.63
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Paradiso
Book SynopsisLike his groundbreaking Inferno (Hackett, 2009) and Purgatorio (Hackett, 2016), Stanley Lombardo's Paradiso features a close yet dynamic verse translation, innovative verse paragraphing for reader-friendliness, and a facing-page Italian text. It also offers an extraordinarily helpful set of notes and headnotes as well as Introduction—all designed for first-time readers of the canticle—by Alison Cornish.Trade Review"Lombardo makes Dante's verses come alive in so many ways that this crowning achievement stands on its own as inspired poetry, readily comprehensible and reliably attentive to the many different registers that the Florentine poet incorporates in his text. Despite its reputation as the most challenging of the three canticles, the Paradiso, in Lombardo's dramatically charged version, becomes remarkably transparent. . . . As is characteristic of his previous translations, Lombardo addresses his version of Paradiso not only to readers but also to listeners and succeeds in recreating the various stages on which the Comedy was originally received and presented: private readings at home and more public oral performances either for small, intimate groups within the palazzo walls or before large crowds in the town square. . . . In her fine Introduction, instructive headnotes to individual cantos, and extensive explanatory endnotes, Alison Cornish provides all the information necessary for a profitable reading of the Paradiso. . . . This handsome bilingual edition is a welcome addition to the large and ever increasing number of annotated translations of Dante's Comedy." —Christopher Kleinhenz, Carol Mason Kirk Professor Emeritus of Italian, University of Wisconsin–Madison"The distinctive combination of Lombardo's lucid rendering of Dante's poem with Cornish's judicious commentary will make this volume a remarkable resource for both new and seasoned readers. It not only provides the necessary coordinates to comprehend Dante's daring description of eternity but also offers new insights about the work’s relation to its historical, philosophical, and literary contexts." —Martin Eisner, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University"This translation and commentary are an essential contribution to Dante's reception in English. Stanley Lombardo's translation is accurate, elegant, and transparent, a mirror of the original text. Alison Cornish's commentary is lucid, graceful, and precise, with just the right level of detail; it penetrates and opens the Paradiso's philosophical, scientific, and theological dimensions with authority, balance, sensitivity, and simplicity. Perhaps now more readers will follow Dante to Paradise." —Christian Moevs, Associate Professor of Italian, University of Notre Dame"Unlike the crowd-pleasing, visceral and eviscerating Inferno, the Paradiso is not exactly a page-turner. It's rather a quiet journey that demands we slow down, think, and feel before attempting to assimilate higher wisdom, more divine geometry, choreography, and optic theory, and before we meet more of the heroes from the Christian canon, cherishing their divine placement (Look how high Augustine made it. Great to see Joachim of Fiore!, etc.). Lombardo's and Cornish's book, as a book, is engineered to inspire and facilitate this sort of reading, with ample access to the language, ingenuity, creativity and care that Dante summons as he attempted, as far as a poet ever could, to express God's justice and His grace. This is a great classroom text, a tremendously useful parallel-text edition for students, general readers, and anyone at any level studying Dante. "Parallel texts serve best in the modern multicultural classroom where multilingual and monolingual speakers alike can directly engage with the majestic text. I have been teaching Dante for 25 years in a historically Hispanic institution and always cherished them because my bilingual students hear the roots of their own linguistic cultures in the Italian and experience both joy and empowerment in doing so. "One should never underestimate how timely and important are the many themes that one encounters in the Paradiso, such as the experiences of the holy women in the early cantos who were forced into marriage and away from their monastic vows, a stunning episode that explores human and particular female agency in shaping one's own personal and spiritual destiny. Also the depictions of equity, equality, and diversity in heaven will be of great interest to modern readers concerned with social order and social justice. What fascinating class discussions can arise from contemplating the medieval and the modern—and the divine and earthly—urges for justice! Such questions help keep Dante alive and relevant at a time when many teachers fear for the future of the Humanities. To this labor of preserving the past and its great Humanist writers, Lombardo and Cornish have contributed mightily. "Lombardo in his Translator's Preface (xxix) says that his translation of the Inferno has been accused of sounding something like the dialogue in a Scorsese movie. And there are in fact some Scorsese-esque moments even here in paradise, such as when Charles Martel lists various illustrious figures born to great destiny during a discussion of how both birth and divine influence play a part in shaping human destiny: "So one is born a Solon, another Xerxes, / one Melchizedek, and another the one / who flew through the air and lost his son" (81: VIII 124-126), lines directly modeled on the Wizard's rundown of human vocational differences to Travis in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Among a thousand gems, that is, moments when the translation just nails the moment in mood, diction, tone and or register, I would note some favorites: XII.91-94 (p. 119); XII.70-74 (p. 117); and XII.37-39 (p. 95). "Cornish's notes to each canto, judicious and hyper-clear, are in the back of the book, supporting undistracted reading. The notes guide and mentor the reader, reinforcing what we just read and providing historical information or identification of figures and concepts. Cornish begins each canto with an overview of the characters and content, and uses key words in the original Italian to introduce major terms and concepts. Her introduction is particularly warm and welcoming, emphasizing the themes of knowledge and most of all love that animate Dante's journey and his relationship with Beatrice. The entire apparatus forged by Cornish breaks down many barriers to reading Dante, in part by directly addressing the traditional preference for the Inferno. One could build a course on Dante out of her economic survey of the liberal arts authors she nimbly weaves into the discussion of cosmology, justice, order, and heaven. After the Introduction a spatial map with an elegant rose and spread sheet of canto, location, class of the blessed, and major characters helps readers to chart their personal journey upward. "This publication will help ensure that new generations of readers are welcomed into this unique and ineffable journey. I look forward to teaching it as soon as possible." —Michael Calabrese, California State University, Los Angeles, in The Medieval Review
£18.89
Andrews McMeel Publishing Stuff Ive Been Feeling Lately
Book SynopsisA poet, journalist, and activist, Alicia Cook offers a soundtrack of survival.Structured like an old-school mix-tape, Stuff I''ve Been Feeling Lately is Alicia Cook''s lyric message to anyone who has dealt with addiction. "Side A" touches on all aspects of the human condition: life, death, love, trauma, and growth. "Side B" contains haunting black-out remixes of those poems.Trade Review"...written in the style of an old mix tape (OMG, miss those). Side A is all about life, love, death, hurt, endings, beginnings, family, relationships, and so much more. Side B takes readers on a different journey, utilizing blackout poetry to 'remix' the work Cook compiled on Side A. Pretty cool." (E. CE Miller, Bustle)Named one of the "25 Best Poetry Books for Teens" (TeachThought)
£9.49
Mango Media Happy, Okay?: Poems about Anxiety, Depression,
Book SynopsisPoetry to Confront Depression, Anxiety, Grief, and LossAre the usual anxiety books helping you find a path to healing? No? Try this collection of poetry specially crafted for those dealing with mental health and the people closest to them. Poetry meets mental health. Paloma is faking it. On the outside, she’s A-Okay. She’s electrified at work, there is a cadence in her step as she walks her dog, she posts memes on Facebook, and she keeps up with most relationships. Looks can be deceiving, however. Inside, Paloma is just going through the motions, and she feels like things are spiraling out of control. But when things are at their darkest, dawn arrives with clarity and focus, and with it, healing. Paloma learns to value small glimmering moments of joy rather than searching for constant happiness, thus building hope for her future. A manifesto for life. An electric roadmap to healing and a manifesto for wholeness, Happy, Okay?: Poems about Anxiety, Depression, Hope, and Survival, is written in a contemporary style reminiscent of Rupi Kaur and Pierre Alex Jeanty. But this poetry book is not simply a narrative spun in verse. It is an invitation to readers to shake off the stigma and silence of mental health and find strength in the only voice that matters: your own. Whether exploring self-care, social anxiety, or anxiety in relationship, in this inspiring and heartwarming book, you will: Understand how to make happiness a decision, even when you don’t feel it in your bones Find out how to exercise patience and self-acceptance Attract hope and purpose back into your life If you enjoy poem books or books like Her, Black Girl Magic, Pillow Thoughts, Milk and Honey, or The Sun and Her Flowers, then you will love Happy, Okay? by M.J. Fievre.
£11.66
Faber & Faber My Country a work in progress in the words of
Book SynopsisBritannia calls a meeting, to listen to her people. Caledonia, Cymru, East Midlands, North East, Northern Ireland and the South West bring the voices of their regions. The debate is passionate and opinions divided. Can there ever be a United Kingdom?In the days following the Brexit vote, a team from the National Theatre of Great Britain spoke to people nationwide, aged 9 to 97, to hear their views on the country we call home. In a series of deeply personal interviews, they heard opinions that were honest, emotional, funny, and sometimes extreme.These real testimonials are interwoven with speeches from party leaders of the time in this play by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and director Rufus Norris.My Country opened at the National Theatre, London, in March 2017 before playing at venues around the UK.
£9.49
Copper Canyon Press,U.S. Night Sky with Exit Wounds
Book SynopsisThe New Yorker, The Best Books of Poetry of 2016 New York Times, Critics Pick Boston Globe, Best Books listing Miami Herald, Best LGBTQ Books San Francisco Chronicle, Top 100 Books of the Year Library Journal, Best Books of 2016?There is a powerful emotional undertow to these poems that springs from Mr. Vuong?s sincerity and candor, and from his ability to capture specific moments in time with both photographic clarity and a sense of the evanescence of all earthly things.??New York Times?From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion.??New Yorker"Extraordinary."?Los Angeles Times"Ecstatic, bawdy, haunted, and brilliant with the pressures of its arrival."?Boston GlobeOcean Vuong?s first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial ?big??and very human?subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant."Torso of AirSuppose you do change your life. & the body is more than a portion of night?sealed with bruises. Suppose you woke & found your shadow replaced by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful & gone. So you take the knife to the wall instead. You carve & carve until a coin of light appears & you get to look in, at last, on happiness. The eye staring back from the other side? Waiting.
£18.05
University of Minnesota Press This Wound Is a World
Book SynopsisThe new edition of a prize-winning memoir-in-poems, a meditation on life as a queer Indigenous man—available for the first time in the United States “i am one of those hopeless romantics who wants every blowjob to be transformative.” Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut poetry collection, This Wound Is a World, is “a prayer against breaking,” writes trans Anishinaabe and Métis poet Gwen Benaway. “By way of an expansive poetic grace, Belcourt merges a soft beauty with the hardness of colonization to shape a love song that dances Indigenous bodies back into being. This book is what we’ve been waiting for.” Part manifesto, part memoir, This Wound Is a World is an invitation to “cut a hole in the sky / to world inside.” Belcourt issues a call to turn to love and sex to understand how Indigenous peoples shoulder their sadness and pain without giving up on the future. His poems upset genre and play with form, scavenging for a decolonial kind of heaven where “everyone is at least a little gay.” Presented here with several additional poems, this prize-winning collection pursues fresh directions for queer and decolonial theory as it opens uncharted paths for Indigenous poetry in North America. It is theory that sings, poetry that marshals experience in the service of a larger critique of the coloniality of the present and the tyranny of sexual and racial norms.Trade Review"This Wound Is a World is a decolonial wildfire from which the acclaimed writer Billy-Ray Belcourt builds a new world and it’s the brilliant, radiant, f*cked up Indigenous world I want to live in. . . . [His book] redefines poetics as a refusal of colonial erasure, a radical celebration of Indigenous life and our beautiful, intimate rebellion. This is a breathtaking masterpiece."—Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer and musician"This book is a monument for the future of poetic possibility. It is rare to be able to call a book something so grand and full—and have it be utterly true. That's what This Wound Is a World affords us: myth and hyperbole pressed into a lived and realized life. A reckoning for and of the wreck—bravely buoyant, alive, and finally here."—Ocean Vuong, author of Night Sky with Exit Wounds"This Wound Is a World is a wonder. It is filled with humor, sadness, sadness about sadness, sex, profound and profane lyricism, and above all power. Billy-Ray Belcourt’s voice is uniquely plangent and self-aware. The book is a world with worlds inside it. It means to de-colonize any possible reader’s pre- or mis-conceptions about what it means to be alive and Indian today."—Tommy Orange, author of There There"This luminous collection’s formal experimentation arises from an urgent need to address the complexity of learning “how to love and be broken at the same time.” As the title suggests, woundedness is a resource for forging avenues toward a yet unimagined future."—Star Tribune"This collection is an answer to and a reckoning with story and with sadness itself: its ever-presence in the telling of the Indigenous body, the queer body, the body moving through stages of love and loss."—American Poets"Belcourt makes good on the promise of his title through poetry in which sadness, grief, and death are seamlessly entwined with love, sex, and cruising both within and across racial lines."—Native American and Indigenous Studies Table of Contents
£13.29
Little, Brown Book Group Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald The
Book SynopsisThe Wizarding World journey continues . . .The powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was captured in New York with the help of Newt Scamander. But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escapes custody and sets about gathering followers, most of whom are unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.In an effort to thwart Grindelwald''s plans, Albus Dumbledore enlists Newt, his former Hogwarts student, who agrees to help once again, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second screenplay in a five-film series to be written by J.K. Rowling, author of the internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. Set in 1927, a few months after the events of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and moving from New York to London, Paris and even back to Hogwarts, this story of mystery and magic reveals an extraordinary new chapter in the wizarding world. Illustrated with stunning line art from MinaLima with some surprising nods to the Harry Potter stories that will delight fans of both the books and films.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on
Book SynopsisErudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world’s most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime' – The TimesClive James was a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James's writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time.The greatness of Larkin's poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin's poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin's letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin's reputation in the years since his death.Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin's genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin's poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality.'A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James' – Financial TimesTrade ReviewFew contemporary critics display the passionate commitment to the idea of poetry, and to the idea of poetry's centrality to civilized life, that James does -- John Banville * New York Review of Books *To read a major critic on a major poet is one of the great pleasures. Clive James’s passion for the work of Philip Larkin, his intense scrutiny which reveals an extraordinary empathy makes Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin an outstanding book. -- Melvyn Bragg * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2019 *One of the most important and influential writers of our time -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *In Somewhere Becoming Rain, Clive James’s collected essays on the poetry of Philip Larkin, the brilliance of James’s analysis, his clear-sighted view of Larkin’s solitude and humanity, and the fragile friendship between the two recorded in the book’s final pages, provide a monument to human connection and isolation together. It’s a perfect example of the “almost instinct” Larkin managed to prove “almost true” (hedging his bets to the end) – that what will survive of us is love. -- Andrew Hunter Murray * Guardian *A collection of witty essays by a great critic about a great poet . . . What will survive of Larkin is the work, and this small book is a joyful immersion in it. This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime * The Times *This slim collection of Clive James’ writings on Philip Larkin demonstrates both a life-long passion for the poet’s work and a deep critical endeavour to rehabilitate his reputation as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James -- Best Books of 2019 * Financial Times *This is a tribute to Larkin’s poems. James is good at reminding us why and how they were powerful, multivalent and memorable . . . He is also unusually observant. His parallels between Larkin and Montale are elucidating * TLS *[James] was what you might call a massive Philip Larkin fan. His specific fandom was feverish and absolute – and also, because he was Clive James, deeply considered and beautifully expressed . . . it’s a privilege to look back at Larkin – all of Larkin – through the prism of [James’s] appreciation * Atlantic *Perceptive . . . This volume also allows the reader to delight in James’s own prose, which surely rivals Larkin’s in the wit and insight stakes * The Crack *The late Clive James had much in common with Philip Larkin . . . In verse and prose, both blazed with wit and wrote scores of memorable lines . . . although their work was laced with sadness, few writers since have written with such beauty and gratitude about the world * Review 31 *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing Kalevala
Kalevala is the poetic name for Finland: ‘the land of heroes’. Here you’ll find the cultural essence of a young country but an old land, the stories, songs and poems that recount the mythical adventures of humankind. Ambition, lust, romance, birth and death can all be found within its pages, as well as the sampo, a mysterious talisman that brings great happiness to its possessor and over which great battles will be fought.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HORATIO CLARE
£10.99
Seagull Books London Ltd Three Plays
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Samuel French Ltd The Time of the Cuckoo
Book SynopsisLeona Samish, a single American woman of a 'certain age' takes a long-planned European vacation from her job as a secretary and finds herself in a pensione in Venice, Italy. At a street market, she meets the handsome proprietor Renato DiRossi, entering into a casual flirtation which turns into an affair. Her complacency is jolted when she discovers he is married, has several children and is quite happy with the arrangement as is. Long-dormant frustrations and anger come to the surface as Leona faces the harsh reality of this new found infatuation and her own romantic notions of love. Shirley Booth and later Katharine Hepburn ('Summertime') played the leading role.
£10.99
The New Press The World Will Follow Joy
Book Synopsis
£11.39
Alma Books Ltd The Government Inspector: New Translation: Newly
Book SynopsisThe mayor and local officials of a small provincial town in Russia have got it made: corruption is rife and they have all the power. Yet, when they learn that an undercover government inspector is about to make a visit, they face a mad dash to cover their tracks. Soon, the news that a suspicious person has recently arrived from St Petersburg and is staying in a local inn produces a series of events and misunderstandings that lead to a hilarious dénouement. Often quoted as Russian literature’s greatest comedy, The Government Inspector is a trenchant satire of the corruption, greed and stupidity of petty officialdom, and the crowning achievement of Gogol’s skills as a playwright.Trade ReviewRoger Cockrell’s freer and livelier versions, of which there are many more examples, mean that any company planning a new production of the play would be well advised to use this fresh, highly actable (and, for good measure, attractively produced) translation of Gogol’s timeless classic. * East-West Review *Roger Cockrell goes straight for the funny bone. His characters speak their truths in intoxicating, colourful English. […] This reader of Roger Cockrell's lively and hilarious Government Inspector cannot wait to see it staged. * TLS *
£7.59
At Bay Press TreeTalk
Book SynopsisDuring the heatwave of July 2017, Ariel Gordon spent two days sitting on the patio of downtown Winnipeg''s Tallest Poppy, writing snippets of poems which she hung from the boulevard tree using paper and string. Passersby were invited to TreeTalk too -- their secrets / one-liners / meditations / haiku were also hung from the tree. By the end of the weekend, the elm had a second temporary canopy of leaves: 234 poems, 111 written by Gordon, 107 written by passersby, and 16 from other sources. Gordon has assembled all these voices into a long/found poem that asks: what does it mean to live in the urban forest? What does it mean to be in relationship with each other but also with the more-than-human? The book also includes pen and ink illustrations by Winnipeg artist Natalie Baird. Since 2017, Gordon has also hung poems in trees at the Sage Hill Poetry Experience in Muenster, SK, the Prairie Gate Literary Festival in Morris, MN, and at the Winnipeg Folk Festival as part of the Prairie Outdoor Exhibition. Stay tuned for more TreeTalk-ing!
£15.19
Aiora Press C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems
Book SynopsisCavafy is by far the most translated and most well-known Greek poet internationally. His work exists in multiple translations in a wide range of languages and major 20th-century poets as diverse as Auden, Brecht, Brodsky, Durrell, Milosz and Montale have all paid tribute to Cavafy, either by writing poems in the style of Cavafy, or by openly admitting their debt to his poetry in their own work. Whether his subject matter is historical, philosophical or sensual, Cavafys unique poetic voice is always recognizable by its ironical, suave, witty, world-weary and aesthetic tones. It is a voice which lends itself to translation. Indeed, translations of Cavafys poetry are the best possible counter to the often quoted platitude that poetry is what is lost in translation. Cavafys is a poetry that not only survives but actually thrives in translation.Trade Reviewhe inventor of a modernity and an Alexandrianism of his own, so pungent and of such sad, dry elevation that his work transcends his language and his century. Robert Fitzgerald Poet and Translator; Cavafy is for me not only the great poet of the Levant, but of all culture in decline which makes him universal in this century. John Fowles Novelist; His complete sincerity, his angular stance to the world, his tenderness that is combined with the accuracy of a surgeon, his awareness of the past in the present and of the present in the past, his meticulousness, his grandeur these are some of the qualities which no reader can fail to observe and which, singly and together, make him one of the greatest writers of our times. Rex Warner Classicist and TranslatorTable of ContentsIntroduction; The City; The Satrapy; The God Forsakes Antony; Ithaca; As Far As You Can; Dionysus Entourage; Ionic; One Night; Return; He Vows; I Went; Aristobulus; Caesarion; Remember, Body; Voices; Candles; The Souls of Old Men; Thermopylae; Che fece il gran rifiuto; Walls; Waiting for The Barbarians; To Remain; Young Men of Sidon (A.D. 400); So They May Come ; I Brought to Art; In The Boring Village; Sophist Leaving Syria; Two Young Men, 23 or 24 Years Old; Days of 1901; He Asked About the Quality ; Chronology of Cavafys Life; English Translations of Cavafys Canon; Index of Greek Titles
£12.34
Medieval Institute Publications The Assembly of Gods: Le Assemble de Dyeus, or
Book SynopsisThe Assembly of Gods, which was published near the end of the fifteenth century, is an allegorical dream vision poem. It is notable for its strange mixture of both classical and Christian sources, in which the classical pantheon debates over the moral state of an individual, in an attempt to bring Reson and Sensualyte into balance in the individual. This text is suitable for all levels of students with its introduction explaining the cultural and linguistic context of the text, as well as a gloss and notes. This volume is invaluable to those teaching courses on late medieval allegory and dream poems.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Select Bibliography The Assembly of Gods The Interpretation of the Names of Gods and Goddesses (Table of Gods and Goddesses) Banquet of Gods and Goddesses Explanatory Notes Textual Notes Glossary
£16.62
Milkweed Editions Bright Dead Things: Poems
Book SynopsisBright Dead Things examines the chaos that is life, the dangerous thrill of living in a world you know you have to leave one day, and the search to find something that is ultimately "disorderly, and marvelous, and ours." A book of bravado and introspection, of 21st century feminist swagger and harrowing terror and loss, this fourth collection considers how we build our identities out of place and human contact--tracing in intimate detail the various ways the speaker's sense of self both shifts and perseveres as she moves from New York City to rural Kentucky, loses a dear parent, ages past the capriciousness of youth, and falls in love. Limon has often been a poet who wears her heart on her sleeve, but in these extraordinary poems that heart becomes a "huge beating genius machine" striving to embrace and understand the fullness of the present moment. "I am beautiful. I am full of love. I am dying," the poet writes. Building on the legacies of forebears such as Frank O'Hara, Sharon Olds, and Mark Doty, Limon's work is consistently generous and accessible--though every observed moment feels complexly thought, felt, and lived.Trade ReviewLong list selection for the National Book Award for poetry Best Poetry Book of 2015: New York Times and Buzzfeed Praise for Bright Dead Things "Effortlessly lyrical."--New York Times "These poems are, as my students might say, hella intimate. They are meticulously honed and gorgeously crafted. They marry the lyric poem's interior emotional intensity with its exterior mode of social conveyance and aesthetic beauty... The best compliment one can give a book of poems is that the book loves the reader. Bright Dead Things doesn't just love poetry; it loves the reader. My hunch is, Reader, you'll love it too."--The Huffington Post "Bright Dead Things, the fourth book of poems by Ada Limon, breeds a particular mixture of wildness. The mixture is by turns melodious and tight. Limon's poems are like fires: charring the page, but leaving a smoke that remains past the close of the book."--The Millions "Limon's work is destined to find a place with readers on the strength of her voice alone. Her intensity here is paradoxically set against the often slow burn of life in Kentucky, and the results will please readers."--Flavorwire "Poet and Critic Stephen Burt says, 'Prose sense is to poetry as tonality is to music.' And I see that sense of prose cushioned in each poem included in this leguminous compilation. The works wear complexity on their sleeves with reassuring accessibility on their faces; to say it more succinctly, there's a tough grilling of the soul and champagnes served to the measure of each one?s taste."--The Rumpus "In Ada Limon's Bright Dead Things, there's a fierce jazz and sass ("this life is a fist / of fast wishes caught by nothing, / but the fishhook of tomorrow's tug.") and there's sadness--a grappling with death and loss that forces the imagination to a deep response. The radio in her new, rural home warns "stay safe and seek shelter" and yet the heart seeks love, risk, and strangeness--and finds it everywhere."--Gregory Orr "Ada Limon doesn't write as if she needs us. She writes as if she wants us. Her words reveal, coax, pull, see us. In Bright Dead Things we read desire, ache, what human beings rarely have the heart or audacity to speak of alone--without the help of a poet with the most generous of eyes."--Nikky Finney "Limon does far more than merely reflect the world: she continually transforms it, thereby revealing herself as an everyday symbolist and high level duende enabler. At the end of one poem she writes, "What the heart wants? The heart wants/ her horses back," and suddenly even this most urban reader feels wild and free."--Matthew Zapruder "Both soft and tender, enormous and resounding, her poetic gestures entrance and transfix."--Richard Blanco Starred Review "In her newest volume of poems, Limon (Sharks in the Rivers) delves into the divided self--self separated by geography, by loss, by change, by circumstance. VERDICT Generous of heart, intricate and accessible, the poems in this book are wondrous and deeply moving."--Library Journal "A poet whose verse exudes warmth and compassion, Limon is at the height of her creative powers, and Bright Dead Things is her most gorgeous book of poems."--Los Angeles Review of Books "Richly written and felt."--Publishers Weekly
£11.39
Siete Cuentos Editorial La Muerte y la Doncella
Book SynopsisLa muerte y la doncella, la obra latinoamericana mas representada en la historia del mundo, ha llegado a constituirse en un clasico sobre la justicia y el perdon, la memoria y el olvido. Dorfman se ha propuesto a explorar preguntas pocas veces hechas en voz alta: "¿Como pueden los represores y los oprimidos cohabitar una misma tierra, compartir una misma mesa?" preguntas que hoy dîa siguen tan vigentes como cuando Dorfman escribia esta obra.
£12.71
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Poetics: with the Tractatus Coislinianus,
Book Synopsis
£13.29
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Roman Comedy: Five Plays by Plautus and Terence:
Book SynopsisThis anthology contains English translations of five plays by two of the best practitioners of Roman comedy, Plautus and Terence. The plays, Menaechmi, Rudens, Truculentus, Adelphoe, and Eunuchus, provide an introduction to the world of Roman comedy. As with all Focus translations, the emphasis is on a handsomely produced, inexpensive, readable edition that is close to the original, with an extensive introduction, notes and appendices.
£18.89
Samuel French Ltd Fun Home Vocal Selections
Book SynopsisContains the following songs:It All Comes Back (Opening)Welcome to Our House on Maple AvenueCome to the Fun HomeChanging My MajorMapsRaincoat of LoveRing of KeysDays and DaysTelephone WireEdges of the WorldFlying Away (Finale)Bonus Song: Pony Girl
£19.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Wild Duck
Book SynopsisA new version of
£9.99
Spark Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare): Volume 4
Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary
£7.59
Cambridge University Press Hamlet
Book SynopsisThe third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare''s transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play''s cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrationsand helpful appendices, this editionalso features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the verybest in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; List of characters; The play; Reading list; Appendices.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster Twelfth Night
Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the incredible comedy about unrequited love, both hilarious and heartbreaking, now presented by the Folger Shakespeare Library with valuable new tools for educators and dynamic new covers.Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; previously caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino’s service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia—only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles, these relationships. The authoritative edition of Twelfth Night from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes: -The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference -Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently linked to the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading -An essay by a leading Shakespeare expert
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Downstate
Book SynopsisIn downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes against minors share a group home where they live out their lives in the shadow of the offences they committed. A man shows up to confront his childhood abuser – but does he want closure or retribution? Bruce Norris's provocative play Downstate zeroes in on the limits of our compassion and what happens when society deems anyone beyond forgiveness. Downstate received its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in March 2019, in the same production which had its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, in September 2018.Trade Review'You can hear a pin-drop for most of the evening – except when you are laughing in shock or reeling in surprise... an astonishing piece of writing, which fulfils art's profound function of making you look and think hard about complex, difficult moral issues’ * WhatsOnStage *'A haunting vision of sex abuse by a playwright with a gift for unsettling… Norris handles the subject matter nimbly… an uncomfortable experience, flecked with humour but bleak and haunting. It raises deeply awkward questions about revenge, revulsion and forgiveness' * Evening Standard *'A smart, acutely funny, important piece of work… Bruce Norris has a lightness of touch which prevents the grim subject matter from a descent into preachiness… in an arena where reasoned debate is routinely shouted down, Bruce Norris has proved to be a necessary voice' * Telegraph *'An unsentimental act of compassion and a devastating entertainment, a wry polemic and the darkest of dark comedies' * Chicago Reader *'[An] audacious, highly charged play' * Daily Herald *
£9.89
University of Arkansas Press The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring
Book SynopsisThe Golden Shovel Anthology celebrates the life and work of poet and civil rights icon Gwendolyn Brooks through a dynamic new poetic form, the Golden Shovel, created by National Book Award–winner Terrance Hayes.An array of writers—including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the National Book Award, as well as a couple of National Poets Laureate—have written poems for this exciting new anthology: Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Danez Smith, Nikki Giovanni, Sharon Olds, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Doty, Sharon Draper, Richard Powers, and Julia Glass are just a few of the contributing poets.This second edition includes Golden Shovel poems by two winners and six runners-up from an international student poetry competition judged by Nora Brooks Blakely, Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter. The poems by these eight talented high school students add to Ms. Brooks’s legacy and contribute to the depth and breadth of this anthology.
£24.71
Rowman & Littlefield InVerse 2012: Italian Poets in Translation
Book SynopsisPoetry by Sebastiano Aglieco Annelisa Alleva Elisa Biagini Elisa Davoglio Alessandro De Francesco Sonia Gentili Giuliano Mesa Luigi Nacci Elio Pecora Maria Luisa Spaziani Andrea Zanzotto Federico Zuliani Edited by Brunella Antomarini Berenice Cocciolillo Rosa Filardi On the occasion of John Cabot University’s fortieth anniversary, we are proud to present the fifth edition of the InVerse poetry anthology. In publishing InVerse, the University is true to its deepest mission and commitment: to bring together Anglo-American and Italian cultures. Franco Pavoncello PresidentTable of ContentsIntroduction The Task of the Translator Today Translators Credits Andrea Zanzotto Giuliano Mesa Frederico Zuliani Elisa Biagini Luigi Nacci Alessandro De Francesco Elisa Davoglio Maria Luisa Spaziani Elio Pecora Annelisa Alleva Sebastiano Aglieco Sonia Gentili Biographies
£25.50
