A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Hodder & Stoughton Rise Like Lions
Book SynopsisAn anthology of inspiring political poetry compiled by award-winning poet and novelist Ben Okri.
£9.99
House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology 2025
Book SynopsisThe prestigious and highly anticipated annual anthology of the best poetry in English from the shortlist of the 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize. Each year, the best books of poetry published in English are honoured with the Griffin Poetry Prize, one of the world's most prestigious and richest literary awards. Since 2001, this annual prize has tremendously spurred interest in and recognition of poetry, focusing worldwide attention on the formidable talent of poets writing in English and works in translation. Annually, The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology features the work of the extraordinary poets shortlisted for the awards and introduces us to some of the finest poems in their collections.
£16.99
Pan Macmillan Standing Female Nude
Book SynopsisCarol Ann Duffy's outstanding first collection, Standing Female Nude, introduced readers to all they would come to love about her poetry. From lovers to wives to war photographers, the poems it contains range from the delicately poignant to the fiercely political, exploring memory, gender, childhood and place. Within it are also some of her best-known poems, including 'Education for Leisure', as well as, of course, the poem from which the collection takes its title. First published in 1985 to widespread critical acclaim, Standing Female Nude is a work of startling originality and the starting point of the Poet Laureate's dazzling poetic career.Trade ReviewBreaks the windows of perception in new ways altogether . . . a genuine and original poet -- Robert Nye * The Times *Carol Ann Duffy is a very pure poet . . . it is good to see a crusading sensibility refusing to surrender any touch of art to the urgency of its cause -- Peter Porter * Observer *
£10.44
Skyhorse Publishing Brick Shakespeare: Four Tragedies & Four Comedies
Book SynopsisNever before have Shakespeare’s plays been depicted in LEGO bricks, and now Brick Shakespeare: The Tragedies—Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar and Brick Shakespeare: The Comedies—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew are available in one extraordinary hardcover box set.With over two thousand color photographs depicting the most well-known scenes in some of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays (including a bonus double-sided, full-color poster), this box set is the perfect gift for your LEGO- and Shakespeare-loving friends and family!Fall in love with LEGO Juliet on her balcony as Romeo proclaims his love. See the full effect of Lady Macbeth’s manic “Out, out, damn spot!” in a whole new way. Laugh along with LEGO Puck as he mischievously hassles the lovers in the woods. Cast a storm with brick Prospero as he strands his usurping brother on his deserted island.With this beautiful, two-book collector’s set, you can continue to be amazed by Shakespeare as illustrated by your favorite toy.
£21.25
Graphic Arts Books The Celtic Twilight
Book SynopsisThe Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In “Belief and Unbelief,” a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. “Mortal Help” discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In “A Knight of the Sheep,” an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. “The Devil” discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats’s The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.
£999.99
Andrews McMeel Publishing Every Good Boy Does Fine: Poetry and Prose
Book Synopsis“Glowing with warmth, vulnerability, and a heavy heart, Arsenia’s intimate reflections depict the past and present wrestling within the individual as he endeavors to chart his own course in the world.”—Atwood MagazineBoth a journey of individual healing and a call for action, these poems show that, with a little love and acceptance, anyone can flourish.From one of Kansas City’s most exciting singers Calvin Arsenia, comes a debut book of poetry and prose Every Good Boy Does Fine. Named for the classic mnemonic used to teach the lines of the treble clef (EGBDF), his collection speaks to his passion as a musician and also his deep and tumultuous history in the Evangelical community.Arsenia includes elements of queer poetry, writings on racial awakening, Christian de-conversion, and sexual awakenings in a homophobic community with the hopes that, when finished reading, readers will feel ready to start their own journey of self-expression through music and performance.A profoundly thoughtful and enlightening work, Arsenia uses his lyrical talent to show that there is always somewhere to go no matter where you are coming from.
£8.99
Andrews McMeel Publishing The Gift of Everything
Book SynopsisInternational best-selling author Lang Leav presents The Gift of Everything, a stunning hardcover gift book featuring her finest pieces to date, spanning across her world-renowned poetry and prose titles from Love & Misadventure to Love Looks Pretty on You. In addition, this beautifully conceived clothbound anthology includes 35 new poems as well as original and arresting illustrations by the author.Lang’s evocative words of love, loss, and self-empowerment have inspired millions across the globe to seek their own voice through the healing power of poetry. A definite must-have collection for all lovers of poetry and prose. The Gift of Everything will thrill and delight fans of Lang Leav as well as those yet to discover the enchanting world of one the most celebrated poets in modern history.
£13.49
Andrews McMeel Publishing More Salt than Diamond: Poems
Book SynopsisAn unflinching, heartbreaking collection of poetry about life in the U.S. as a Brazilian immigrant, Aline Mello’s debut poetry collection, More Salt Than Diamond, is a true testament to the power of finding a home.Born in Brazil, Aline Mello immigrated to the United States in 1997. Using her experience as an undocumented woman during a time of incredible flux and tension, Mello’s debut collection of poetry, More Salt than Diamond, speaks to her struggles while also addressing the larger cultural issues on an inclusive and global scale.Lyrical, moving, deeply emotional, and sometimes painful to read, Mello uses exquisitely sharp yet widely accessible language to crack open a life in multitudes. She shines a rare light on what it means to be a Brazilian immigrant in diaspora, stretched thin between borders and fraught family tension yet belonging nowhere. Aline is poised to not only change the face of Latinx poetry in years to come but to redefine the power of undocumented creators and artists. Trade ReviewIf there is an American dream, there are also American delusions. Aline Mello shows us how “beyond the wall / there are only more walls.” When pushed against language, law, and country this poet builds a refuge out of prayer, hope, and family. This debut poetry collection is an important contribution to the growing canon of Undocupoets. (Christopher Soto, editor of Nepantla)In Aline Mello’s More Salt Than Diamond, daughters are made of water, the stars sing, and language returns to the mind, not the tongue. The poet asks, how far is home when it’s a place one can only dream of? In these poems carving space for the country of herself despite the world’s narrow imagining, Mello wonders what will make her beloved here between home and a hard place—grace, God, citizenship, centerfold beauty, unbroken English? No matter. She treasures what others overlook. “Hands filled with seeds and fragile things” are priceless heirlooms. Mello reassembles herself in this deft collection, says “the women who are me do not ask each other questions,” but women dance on the wind of their longing, become otherworldly and love, riddled with loss, still manages enough hope to conjure and tame the distance. (Remica Bingham-Risher)“Aline Mello’s poems are so precise in their probing of diasporic/ immigrant life that it felt like Mello was pulling the poems out of my own soul. MORE SALT THAN DIAMOND is a beautiful book that will resonate with anyone that’s ever felt a little out of place. I wish I could gift this collection to my 13-year-old self. It is perfect.” (José Olivarez, Author of CITIZEN ILLEGAL)
£9.49
Andrews McMeel Publishing The Heart of You
Book SynopsisIn the third and final installment of the Souls Trilogy, acclaimed poet Iain S. Thomas explores what hope feels like after despair.
£14.24
Andrews McMeel Publishing Love Is a Dog That Bites When Its Scared
Book SynopsisAn impressive and though-provoking collection from GRAMMY nominated artist and poet Courtney Marie Andrews.
£12.74
Andrews McMeel Publishing Sometimes Its Heaven
Book SynopsisSometimes It’s Heaven is an inspiring poetry collection from Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Judy Collins.Written with the bold vulnerability that folk singer Judy Collins is best known for, Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss, and Redemption is an timeless collection that reaches audiences right where they are. Throughout her six-decade long career, Judy Collins has encouraged audiences with sublime vocals, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism, this compilation of poetry captures the ethereal and inspiring nature of her artistry in an all-new way. Biographical and relatable, Sometimes It’s Heaven is a must-read for fans of poetry and fans of Judy, old and new.
£12.34
Manchester University Press Five Elizabethan Progress Entertainments
Book SynopsisDesigned to introduce the student or general reader to a largely unfamiliar area of Elizabethan theatrical activity, Five Elizabethan progress entertainments focuses on a group of entertainments mounted for the monarch in the closing years of her reign. Richly annotated, and prefaced by a substantial introduction, the texts enable an understanding of the motives underlying not only the progress itself, but the choice of locations the monarch elected to visit and the personal and political preoccupations of those with whom she determined to stay. Selected for their diversity, the entertainments exhibit the tensions underlying some royal visits, the lavish expenditure entailed for the monarch’s hosts and the overlap in terms of both material and authorship between the progress entertainments and the more widely studied products of the sixteenth-century stage.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE ROYAL PROGRESS THE ENTERTAINMENT AT COWDRAYIntroductionText THE ENTERTAINMENT AT ELVETHAMIntroductionText THE ENTERTAINMENT AT BISHAMIntroductionText THE ENTERTAINMENT AT MITCHAM IntroductionTextAppendixTHE ENTERTAINMENT AT CHISWICKIntroductionTextINDEX
£15.19
Manchester University Press Spenser and Donne: Thinking Poets
Book SynopsisThe names Edmund Spenser and John Donne are typically associated with different ages in English poetry, the former with the sixteenth century and the Elizabethan Golden Age, the latter with the ‘metaphysical’ poets of the seventeenth century. This collection of essays, part of The Manchester Spenser series, brings together leading Spenser and Donne scholars to challenge this dichotomous view and to engage critically with both poets, not only at the sites of direct allusion, imitation, or parody, but also in terms of common preoccupations and continuities of thought, informed by the literary and historical contexts of the politically and intellectually turbulent turn of the century. Juxtaposing these two poets, so apparently unlike one another, for comparison rather than contrast changes our understanding of each poet individually and moves towards a more holistic, relational view of their poetics.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Spenser, Donne, and the trouble of periodization – Yulia Ryzhik1 Caring to turn back: overhearing Spenser in Donne – Richard Danson Brown 2 Comparing figures: figures of comparison and repetition in Spenser and Donne – Christopher D. Johnson 3 Refiguring Donne and Spenser: aspects of Ramist rhetoric – Niranjan Goswami 4 Artes poeticae: Spenser, Donne, and the metaphysical sublime – Patrick Cheney 5 Spenser and Donne look to the Continent – Anne Lake Prescott 6 Ovidian Spenser, Ovidian Donne – Linda Gregerson 7 Cosmic matters: Spenser, Donne, and the philosophic poem – Ayesha Ramachandran 8 ‘Straunge characters’: Spenser’s Busirane and Donne’s ‘Valediction of my name in the window’ – Elizabeth D. Harvey 9 Marriage and sacrifice: the poetics of the Epithalamia – Ramie Targoff 10 Spenser’s and Donne’s devotional poetics of scattering – David Marno 11 Eliot, Yeats, Joyce and the modernist reinvention of Spenser and Donne –Jane Grogan and Anne FogartyIndex
£67.50
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Mothersong
Book SynopsisA lyrical excavation of trauma and healing in the midst of early motherhood - the debut work of an endlessly inventive poet whose work 'fizzes with energy, physicality, and the levitating openness of song' (Rebecca Tamás) **Selected as a book of the year by the Financial Times and Telegraph** 'An essential read, poignant, powerful and provocative. I love the feeling in Amy Acre's poems' Salena Godden Amy Acre’s debut collection is an unforgettable, unflinching excavation of motherhood, what it means to be a female artist, and what it means to be a poet with a deeply integrated community. This is a timeless work the like of which we haven’t seen enough of in the past, primed to last long into the future. 'Amy Acre is one of the best poets of her generation. Pure cinema, raw heart, and unparalleled technique. Read this' Joelle Taylor, winner of the 2021 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry 'Mothers, daughters, lovers, all the thrilling complexity of love and grief that the body must bear; these are poems which set the page aglow and make my heart spin' Liz Berry, winner of the 2018 Forward Prize for PoetryTrade ReviewMothersong is an essential read, it is poignant, powerful and provocative. I love the feeling in Amy Acre's poems, this timeless vulnerability, this ripe truth, these pieces are beautiful, evocative, and everlasting -- Salena GoddenAmy Acre’s powerful collection explores contemporary parenthood and the memory of a childhood marked by grief ... These poems are graced by an exquisite diction and enlightening observation * Irish Times *Acre’s debut collection, takes readers through the frightening, wearying, ecstatic experience of becoming a mother * Daily Telegraph *Amy Acre is one of the best poets of her generation. Pure cinema, raw heart, and unparalleled technique. Read this -- Joelle TaylorAmy Acre’s poems are electric. They crackle and spark with wild feeling, inventiveness and deep sensuality. Mothers, daughters, lovers, all the thrilling complexity of love and grief that the body must bear; these are poems which set the page aglow and make my heart spin -- Liz BerryExpansive and risk-taking * Guardian *This debut collection from the London-born poet is confident, witty and a little addictive. As the title suggests, these poems explore motherhood and mother loss, in verse that manages to be both playfully frenzied and movingly intimate. * Financial Times, Books of the Year *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Precious Impossible Selected Poems
Book SynopsisFeaturing exclusive new work, Precious and Impossible gathers together over three decades of poetry from the T S Eliot Prize-winning Anthony JosephWith an introduction by Lauri Scheyer___________________________________________For over three decades, Anthony Joseph's work has explored the transnational vibrations of the African diaspora. Precious and Impossible brings together thirty years of Joseph's poetry and lyrics cementing his status as one of our greatest living poets and polymaths''Joseph is both a faithful heir and an agnostic rebel; a Black poet haunted by Africa's past as well as a bilingual post-modernist amused by the possibilities of the future'' Ali Alizadeh
£12.28
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Content Warning: Everything
Book Synopsis'A triumph ... A wholly original and creative mind' NEW YORK TIMES ‘A multi-genre phenomena, it’s a triumph of a creative mind’ GLAMOUR ‘Frightens and astonishes ... Combines Maya Angelou’s passion and Sylvia Plath’s devastating self-inquisition' GUARDIAN ‘Emezi is a dream of a writer’ BOLU BABALOLA ________________________ A fiercely contemporary collection which renegotiates the contract between poet and reader in the light of this moment in human history, from the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji Content Warning: Everything concerns itself with the fugitive nature of being in the world especially, but not exclusively, within blackness. The poems reshape possibilities for poetry by paying close attention to the author's rhythm of thought, making a series of durable anthems from the noise of the contemporary moment. In this bold debut poetry collection, Akwaeke Emezi – award-winning author of Freshwater, PET, The Death of Vivek Oji and Dear Senthuran – imagines a new depth of belonging. Crafted of both divine and earthly materials, these poems travel from home to homesickness, tracing desire to surrender and abuse to survival, while mapping out a chosen family that includes the son of god, mary auntie, and magdalene with the chestnut eyes. Written from a spiritfirst perspective and celebrating the essence of self that is impossible to drown, kill, or reduce, Content Warning: Everything distills the radiant power and epic grief of a mischievous and wanting young deity, embodied.Trade ReviewEmezi has combined Maya Angelou’s passion and Sylvia Plath’s devastating self-inquisition to create an edgy music that frightens and astonishes * GUARDIAN *A powerful debut poetry collection -- MARIA CRAWFORD * FINANCIAL TIMES, Best summer books of 2023 *A multi-genre pheonomena, it’s a triumph of a creative mind * GLAMOUR *Emezi’s work is deeply magical, it is stunningly selective, making you feel so much with so little * SNACK MAGAZINE *A triumph of selfhood that painstakingly journeys between belief and becoming. Holding tenderness and rage in one breath, the Nigerian-born nonbinary author excavates trauma, divorce and loss without restraint ... Illuminates a complicated past, expels antiquated what-ifs and allows readers to share in the possibilities underscored by a wholly original and creative mind * NEW YORK TIMES *A bold debut collection delving into Blackness, trauma, sexuality and the divine from the author of The Death of Vivek Oji * GUARDIAN, Best books of 2023 *A puzzle wrapped in beautiful language, raising questions of identity and loyalty that are as unanswerable as they are important * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW *In their poetry debut, Content Warning: Everything eye-catching novelist Akwaeke Emezi envisions a self that can’t be bent or brokeN * LIBRARY JOURNAL *From searing inquisitions of the nature of guilt and sin to radical reimaginings of biblical figures, Emezi operates with the ease of a seasoned poet throughout this visionary book * BOOKPAGE *Incomparable ... Emezi's lyrics radiate raw vulnerability in their exploration of themes of abuse, trauma, mental wellness, and sexuality * BOOKLIST *Emezi returns with a poetry collection that sounds electrifying. Emezi is one of our favourite writers today and we are lucky enough to get blessed with a poetry collection from them * SHEREADS *Swinging from home to homesickness, abuse to survival, grief to rage, and desire to surrender, the poems exemplify the stark power of Emezi’s writing * AUTOSTRADDLE *Dazzling ... Akwaeke Emezi continues to astound with their prolific multi-genre, multidisciplinary work * SHONDALAND *Each poem is stunning, and often feels uproarious immediately upon its completion, demanding another read, another look, a step or two back or to the side, to second guess, question, and feel * NORTH OF OXFORD *I’m excited to read more poems like this - pushing at the boundaries and drawing their content into wilder forms. * POETRY FOUNDATION *Spirit, source and sanctuary * MS MAGAZINE, Poetry for the rest of us 2022 *Emezi is an award-winning author making a big splash in poetry with this collection. Leading with the spirit, these poems celebrate the parts of ourselves that we cannot kill or reduce. Surrender, abuse, survival, and homesickness are all themes in play in these poems that really do need every content warning imaginable * BOOKRIOT *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Owed
Book SynopsisFrom a 2021 Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellow recipient, a 'rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection, which pays homage to everyday Black experience in the US' (New Yorker) Selected as a book of the year by the Telegraph _______________________________ Owed is a book with celebration at its centre. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form - from elegy and ode to origin myth--these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What's more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.Trade ReviewBennett captures the beauty of what really matters in life - the memories, youth sports, family traditions and little moments that many of us take for granted ... [Owed] couldn't have been more timely * Salon *Odes to intimacy and his African-American community ... Bennett has a sharp turn of phrase, too * Telegraph, Best poetry books of 2023 *Themes of praise and debt pervade this rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection, which pays homage to everyday Black experience in the US ... Bennett conjures a spirit of kinship that, illuminated by redolent imagery, borders on mythic, and boldly stakes claim to ‘some living, future / English, & everyone in it / is immortal' * New Yorker *We’re lucky to have Joshua Bennett’s Owed at this hour in America. The resonances of ‘ode’ and ‘owed’ underscore his tremendous acts of invention amid ‘an ever-expanding grand Black Epilogue.’ Lyrical and political fibers are woven through narratives as clear and idiosyncratic as the plastic on your grandmother’s couch. Owed fights for the ‘ground where the children can play & come home whole.’ Bennett swings with song and exaltation; he swings with resistance and defense. I’m glad to have his amazing collection right now. I will be glad to have it tomorrow -- Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future AssassinOwed is an indictment of the state even as it is an ode to the ongoingness of Black imagination. Here, a single moment shimmers with a million resonances of attention. So the world is loved this much. And what has been taken has been taken this much. Bennett insists on repair even as he mourns what is utterly irreparable. This book is part of a breathful, bodied fight for Black life. I am emboldened and sharpened by Bennett's genius and by his love made plain across each of these shimmering pages -- Aracelis Girmay, author of The Black MariaAstonishing poems that explore the past, childhood, family relationships, identity, and memory among many other themes, all expertly rendered through a mixture of forms ... Bennett has a gift for building and setting vivid scenes and complex stories within the small frames of his stanzas * Booklist *Owed intertwines the author’s multifaceted professions as poet, performer, and professor through powerful, crisp poems that celebrate the complexity, joy, and heartbreak of the Black experience in America ... Bennett’s poems are more necessary than ever * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Girls that Never Die
Book Synopsis'Incredibly moving ... Every single poem is stellar' Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women and Hunger ____________________________________________ In Girls That Never Die, award-winning poet Safia Elhillo reinvents the epic to explore Muslim girlhood and shame, the dangers of being a woman, and the myriad violences enacted and imagined against women’s bodies. Drawing from her own life and family histories, as well as cultural myths and news stories about honor killings and genital mutilation, she interlaces the everyday traumas of growing up a girl under patriarchy with magical realist imaginings of rebellion, autonomy, and power. Elhillo writes a new world: women escape their stonings by birds that carry the rocks away; slain girls grow into two, like the hydra of lore, sprouting too numerous to ever be eradicated; circles of women are deemed holy, protected. Ultimately, Girls That Never Die is about wrestling ourselves from the threats of violence that constrain our lives, and instead looking to freedom and questioning: [what if i will not die] [what will govern me then] ____________________________________________ 'Elhillo's is a voice that walks into the future' Ilya Kaminsky 'Brilliant. And fierce' Aracelis Girmay 'An astonishment' Tracy K. SmithTrade ReviewFearless ... has the makings of a breakthrough * LOS ANGELES TIMES *Mixing tenderness and profanity, Elhillo challenges man-made taxonomies, hierarchies and customs – rank and resilient, the book fearlessly illuminates dark contemporary places * GUARDIAN *A fantastically imaginative, powerful and poignant exploration of Muslim girlhood ... A superb book, certain to be one of the year’s standout collections * IRISH TIMES *Elhillo’s poems dig deep into how shame is passed down generations of women ... With these conversations comes power. And the title of Elhillo’s new book sings of the autonomy she imagines for her girls * NPR *Rebellion, liberation, multitudes * MS MAGAZINE *Girls That Never Die is an incredibly moving, and well-structured collection of poetry about being a Muslim girl, about shame, about the silent hurts women carry, about the pressures of cultural expectations, about dangerous silences. The writing here is incisive and intimate and eloquent. Truly, a stunning collection of poems. I particularly appreciated the range of forms across the poems and the structure of the book as a whole. Many of the poems end in ways that will leave you gasping. Loved this book. Every single poem is stellar, no skips as the kids say -- ROXANE GAYWhen I open a new book by Safia Elhillo, I know there will be fearlessness and beauty. There will be a voice that contains multitudes and yet is original and memorable in its daring. There is always lyricism and nuance, and memorable speech that knows how poetry opposes history. Indeed, Girls That Never Die is a book that gives us courage, despite all the despairing records of history. How does Elhillo do this? Perhaps by letting these pages be the space where witness and a new kind of mythology meet. And this meeting gives us strength. Why? Because there is in these poems an endlessly compelling voice that is unafraid to be vulnerable in order to tell the truth, a voice that walks against the current, walks between cultures, between languages, bridging them with honesty. Elhillo’s is a voice that walks into the future -- ILYA KAMINSKY, author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf RepublicSafia Elhillo traces the ongoing devastations of patriarchy while simultaneously making a refuge out of language, kinship, and sound. Electric, violet, plural with girls, this work pulses with memory and refusal, awakening language with its lucid imagination. Girls That Never Die is a book of resuscitations. Brilliant. And fierce -- ARACELIS GIRMAY, author of The Black MariaI am rapt, finding here the hurt and the heft of girlhood. All the old silences, all the unuttered shames are ruptured, tended to, and - finally - named. Elhillo is a poet of wisdom, rigor, and vindicating care. Girls That Never Die is an astonishment -- TRACY K. SMITH, author of Ordinary Light and Wade in the Water
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Fire of Joy: Roughly 80 Poems to Get by Heart
Book SynopsisClive James read, learned and recited poetry aloud for most of his life. In this, the last book he completed before his death, the much-loved poet, broadcaster and author offers a selection of his favourite poems and a personal commentary on each.In the last months of his life, his vision impaired by surgery and unable to read, Clive James explored the treasure-house of his mind: the poems he knew best, so good that he didn't just remember them, he found them impossible to forget. The Fire of Joy is the record of this final journey of recollection and celebration.Enthralled by poetry all his life, James knew hundreds of poems by heart. In offering this selection of his favourites, a succession of poems from the sixteenth century to the present, his aim is to inspire you to discover and to learn, and perhaps even to speak poetry aloud.In his highly personal anthology, James offers a commentary on each of the eighty or so poems: sometimes a historical or critical note on the poem or its author, sometimes a technical point about the poem's construction from someone who was himself a poet, sometimes a personal anecdote about the role the poem played in his own life.Whether you're familiar with a poem or not – whether you're familiar with poetry in general or not – these chatty, unpretentious, often tender mini-essays convey the joy of James's enthusiasm and the benefit of his knowledge. His urgent wish was to share with a new generation what he himself had loved. This is a book to be read cover to cover or dipped into: either way it generously opens up a world for our delight.'Clive James's joyous farewell . . . from Thomas Wyatt to Carol Ann Duffy' – Guardian, Best Poetry of 2020Clive James (1939–2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection Sentenced to Life and a translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, both Sunday Times bestsellers.Trade ReviewA treasure trove of poetic pleasure * The Times *The Fire of Joy is a proper pleasure. Fun and fight-picking, wise and persuasive. James loves a layman and, by the end, the layman certainly loves James . . . “It’s a dipper,” said my husband, reading over my shoulder. If I wasn’t on review duty, that’s the way I’d read it: dipping in at random, at bedtime, a poem a night. -- Laura Freeman * The Times *The Fire of Joy is a set of personal, quintessentially Jamesian commentaries on 80 of his favourite poems. * Guardian *A must for anthology lovers . . . The late, great critic and poet doesn't so much look forward as back; these are old favourites (Byron, Wordsworth, Masefield, Owen) from a lifetime’s reading, with personal notes on each one. I found it moving as well as a joy. -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *A wonderful anthology of 80 or so poems to memorise and read aloud, selected by the late critic and humorist Clive James. Enjoy the poems and his witty, opinionated mini-essays about his choices. * The Times Best Books of 2020 So Far… *Clive James’s joyous farewell . . . from Thomas Wyatt to Carol Ann Duffy, this valedictory volume features 80 poems he learned and loved, each accompanied by an essay to persuade us of their brilliance. -- Rishi Dastidar * Guardian, Best Poetry of 2020 *Clive James was so prolific that he’s still publishing books a year after his death . . . [These] are poems to “murmur under your breath at the bus stop, declaim aloud in the bath, roar from the rooftops”. -- James Marriott * The Times, Best Literary Non-fiction Books of the Year 2020 *A book to lighten the darkness . . . What links them all [the selected poems] are Clive James’ typically witty, sometimes abrasive and always passionate comments. It’s a book to dip into and ponder in this bleak midwinter. -- Piers Plowright * Tablet *Extraordinarily cogent . . . I have read many old men’s books over the years, and even the best writers often lose their flavour . . . But this book shows no diminution whatever of James’s talents, and it’s fueled by his obvious love of the form. -- Marcus Berkmann * Spectator *[This book] is full of boisterous life . . . His farewell is funny, intellectually sharp and a faithful companion for this age of turmoil and uncertainty . . . [it] rings and rhymes with passion and learning from a big brain who found room in his soul for poetry and in his heart for the contentment it can bring in good times and the solace it carries in bad times. -- Hugh MacDonald * Herald *The context of [this book's] composition is inescapable and each choice seems more moving in light of James’ impending demise . . . The Fire of Joy is a generous and genial valediction from one of Australia’s most famous wits. -- James Antoniou * Sydney Morning Herald *A deeply affecting book that blends autobiography with literary criticism, and is filled with James’s trademark breezy erudition and wit . . . It is indeed a joy to read, and savour. -- Troy Bramston * Weekend Australian *
£17.00
Pan Macmillan Happy Hour: Poems to Raise a Glass to
Book SynopsisHappy Hour is a gorgeous gift book of classic poetry which fizzes with poetry about all kinds of drink, drinkers and drinking place. All this and more is introduced by celebrated wine critic Jancis Robinson. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Many of the most famous poets have weaved the delights and temptations of drink into their verse. In Happy Hour: Poems to Raise a Glass To, there are chapters on whisky and beer, celebrations, why we drink and where we go to do it. Robert Burns is here, of course, alongside Yeats, Keats, Emily Dickinson, Hilaire Belloc, Sara Teasdale, Edward Lear, G. K. Chesterton and many more.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Grimoire
Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Highland Book Prize 2020From the author of The Long Take, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of both the Walter Scott Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize.‘I’ve long admired Robin Robertson’s narrative gift . . . If you love stories, you will love this book.’ Val McDermidLike some lost chapters from the Celtic folk tradition, Grimoire tells stories of ordinary people caught up, suddenly, in the extraordinary: tales of violence, madness and retribution, of second sight, witches, ghosts, selkies, changelings and doubles, all bound within a larger mythology, narrated by a doomed shape-changer – a man, beast or god.A grimoire is a manual for invoking spirits. Here, Robin Robertson and his brother Tim Robertson – whose accompanying images are as unforgettable as cave-paintings – raise strange new forms which speak not only of the potency of our myths and superstitions, but how they were used to balance and explain the world and its predicaments.From one of our most powerful lyric poets, this is a book of curses and visions, gifts both desired and unwelcome, characters on the cusp of their transformation – whether women seeking revenge or saving their broken children, or men trying to save themselves. Haunting and elemental, Grimoire is full of the same charged beauty as the Scottish landscape – a beauty that can switch, with a mere change in the weather, to hostility and terror.Trade ReviewRobin Robertson is one of the finest contemporary poets. -- John BanvilleFew writers so expertly pull the curtains back on the many collective fictions, both ancient and new, that constitute our understanding of the world. -- Kevin Powers author of The Yellow BirdsRobin Robertson is a fearless and thrilling poet in what he confronts in himself as well as what he unearths from the commons of myth and balladry * Marina Warner *A major poet… Robertson remains an unequalled guide among the shamanistic roots of poetry. * Fiona Sampson, Independent *Robertson's lines have the luminosity of myth. * Adam Newey, Guardian *Robin Robertson is instantly recognisable as a poet of vivid authority, commanding a surprised, accurate language of his own. * W.S. Merwin *He’s a poet who takes enormous risks, not only as a writer, but as a man and I admire him enormously for that. * Kirsty Gunn, Scotsman *This is a book that will make you awaken at night . . . [Robinson's] poetry is unusual in that it is pointed – the glanced moment – and yet can be propelled narrative at the same time. Grimoire is a perfect encapsulation of both these talents . . . exceptionally impressive -- Stuart Kelly * The Scotsman *In this beautifully spare and distilled poetic form these new Scottish folk tales rise from the page like the supernatural beings they give voice to . . . The illustrations are like beautifully strange phantoms . . . unflinching, brutal and often movingly beautiful . . . With its wonderful illustrations, bold design and sumptuous production, it's also a gorgeous book to handle and treasure. * The Tablet *It is no wonder Roberston’s narrative poem-novel, The Long Take, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018. Grimoire is a collection which revels in this same talent for the tale; the reader is insistently drawn through these poems by the mythical narrative figure. Whether you read for the magic of the story, for the lull of beautiful language, or for the mysteries of the occult, Grimoire is a must-have for your poetry shelf this autumn. * The Skinny *Robertson does something exceptionally impressive with language here, in that the book twists around Gaelic, Scots and English. It does not feel forced, and if it makes a reader check the index, then all to the good. . . Robertson is somehow dapper in just using the right word in the right place for the right line. . . The linguistic inventiveness would mean little or nothing if it did not come with an emotional truth. Robertson doesn’t coax, but he does lure the reader, right up to the point when you are punched in the guts . . .There is a steeliness to Robertson’s work. I would like an audio-book version, as in performance, he is dreadfully still as he tells us dreadful things. This is the poetry of the pause, not the applause. But there is one hand clapping here. * Scotsman *Robertson’s finely wrought poems capture the tradition of shape-shifting inherent in such spirit stories – the slippery interface of human, beast, god/spirit – and explore it in conjunction with dark and troubling narratives that edge on violence, murder and reckoning. These poems are populated by ghosts, witches, selkies, doppelgangers and, as such, read as though they might be reworkings of ancient folktales that have only just been brought to light. The accompanying drawings, in their bold, monochromatic woodcut style, have the feel of cave paintings, or Blakean preliminary sketches for some more colourful works. All in all, it’s a lovely little coffee-table style book of poems, though don’t let that sound too cosy . . . The Robertson brothers’ book is a dark delight; a lexical and narrative cornucopia, full of uncanny and unsettling tales, rendered in a language that treads the line between viscerality and lyricism. * Stride *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book
Book SynopsisWonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book by Ana Sampson is a beautiful collection of poetry with poems inspired by The Natural History Museum. Covering everything from the depths of space to the centre of the earth, this beautiful collection includes poems about the solar system, planet earth, oceans and rivers, birds, dinosaurs, fossils, wildlife, flowers, fungi, insects, explorers and palaeontologists. Each section includes an introduction to the topic with insights into particularly interesting species.The museum has a collection of over eighty million objects and, behind the scenes of its twenty-eight galleries, it holds kilometres of preserved specimens, libraries of rare books and artworks, wonders gathered on some of the most famous voyages in history, rooms packed with pressed plants, warehouses teeming with stuffed animals and freezers full of DNA. As well as a museum, it is a state-of-the-art centre for discovery with over three hundred resident scientists and over ten thousand visiting researchers each year, investigating everything from dinosaurs to life on other planets.This collection is made up of brand new and classic poems, illustrated with botanical drawings and engravings from the museum’s collections.This fantastic collection speaks of the wonder of nature and shows us why we need to look after our incredible planet.Trade Reviewoffers a cornucopia of words about bugs, birds, fossils, fish, plants, people and dinosaurs, of course. Marketed for children, it’s a wonderful, varied collection for all ages -- Bel Mooney * Mail Online *this gorgeously illustrated anthology covers everything from oceans and rivers to fossils. * Red magazine *it’s as awe-inspiring and thoughtful as you’d hope * Indybest *The book is a celebration of our planet and the natural world, and there’s plenty here to inspire children (and adults) to do all that we can to keep it safe, with Gerard Benson’s “A Small Star” and Pascale Petit’s “#ExtinctionRebellion” providing great talking points with our older readers about climate change and what we can all do to help make a difference. -- Sarah Dawson * The Independent *I can't recommend this collection highly enough and will be sharing with colleagues in school as well as suggesting it as a read for our teacher book groups. A WONDERful book! * ReadingZone *the book is a wonder indeed, the poetry giving a genuine sense of the magnificence of the museum’s collections; it’s surprising, inspiring, eye-opening. * Books For Keeps *It would make a wonderful gift for any poetry lover, any animal lover, any planet lover, or anyone with a passion and curiosity for the natural world. It’s a beauty of a book. * Mini Travellers *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Whale Day
Book Synopsis‘Funny but serious, accessible but rich in meaning, consistently surprising – the world looks slightly different after reading a Billy Collins poem. He’s a one-off, an American treasure’ Nick Laird These are poems of whimsy and imaginative acrobatics, but they are grounded in the familiar, common things of everyday experience. Collins takes us for a walk with an impossibly ancient dog, discovers the proper way to eat a banana, meets an Irish spider, and invites us to his own funeral. Facing both the wonders of being alive and the thrill of mortality, these new poems can only solidify Collins’s reputation as one of America’s most durable and interesting poets.Trade ReviewA new collection from Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate and 'America’s favorite poet' * The Wall Street Journal *A writer . . . fully aware of his work’s power to delight * New York Times *A poet of plentitude, irony, and Augustan grace * New Yorker *Billy Collins is one of my favourite poets in the world * Carol Ann Duffy *Funny but serious, accessible but rich in meaning, consistently surprising – the world looks slightly different after reading a Billy Collins’ poem. He’s a one-off, an American treasure * Nick Laird *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Lurex
Book SynopsisA brilliant outing from one of the finest poets currently working in the English language. This is at once a sharply political and deeply personal book which explores just that intersection.‘Wide-ranging, sometimes anguished, her poems are fascinating and often beautiful, and certainly more than usually thought-provoking’ GuardianTrade ReviewIt sometimes seems that contemporary poetry divides into two sorts - those poems that did not need to be written and those written out of necessity. Denise Riley belongs to the second category - her writing is perfectly weighted, justifies its existence. It is impossible not to want to "say something back" to each of her poems in recognition of their outstanding quality. Her voice is strong and beautiful - an imperative in itself . . . remarkable * Guardian *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Sunrise: Poems to Kick-Start Your Day
Book SynopsisIf you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, here’s a poetry collection that’s just right for you. Sunrise is an energizing and rousing collection of classic poetry all about purpose, hope and perseverance. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Susie Gibbs.Wise, reassuring words and magical verses conjure up the promise and possibilities of each new day. With contributions from poets such as William Wordsworth, G. K. Chesterton, Ian McMillan, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Edward Lear, the wonderful poetry in Sunrise will inspire its readers to greet each day with optimism and confidence.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Nature
Book SynopsisOne of the English language’s best-loved living poets, in Nature Carol Ann Duffy presents us with her favourites among her poems on the natural world. Drawing on work written over four decades and arranged chronologically, Duffy also adds to her selection one wholly new poem.
£10.44
Ebury Publishing Pam Ayres on Animals
Book SynopsisA beautiful collection from much-loved poet Pam Ayres, compiling her best verse dedicated to animals, illustrated by Ellie Snowdon. Now a Sunday Times bestseller. 'Oh WHY must you bark at the postman? Why must you batter my ears? I know it seems rum But the postman has come Every morning for SEVENTEEN YEARS.' From her very first encounter with a friendly golden Labrador at just three years old, Pam Ayres has been enchanted by animals. Now, for the first time, in this beautiful new illustrated work, she has gathered together her life's work of poems, new and old, dedicated to her love of them. This definitive collection brings to life the charming characters and voices of all creatures great and small through Pam's poetry over the last five decades. From delightful tales of our British wildlife in 'I'm a Starling Me Darling' and the difficulties of keeping farm animals in 'Fleeced', to her hilarious observations of our pets in 'Ode to a Jack Russell' and poignant reflections on the end of their lives in 'Tippy Tappy Feet', Pam Ayres on Animals is a celebration of animals everywhere.Trade ReviewPam Ayres is essential to British humour * Mail on Sunday *
£15.29
John Murray Press No, Love Is Not Dead: An Anthology of Love Poetry
Book SynopsisSilver Medal Winner for Poetry at the 2022 Nautilus Book Awards.A powerful new anthology depicting how love over the past two-and-a-half millennia has found its expression in the words of the world's greatest poets.No, Love Is Not Dead is a timely affirmation of the great linguistic diversity of poetry and its ability to express passionate love, the most extreme of human emotions. With influential, award-winning poets including Kim Hyesoon, Laura Tohe and Warsan Shire, and languages ranging from Amharic, Akkadian and Ancient Greek to Yankunytjatjara, Yiddish and Yoruba, this unique anthology engages the reader in reflective tales of unlikely love stories and impossible love, love in a time of politics, surrealist love, visual love and free love, offering an intuitive insight into both historical and present-day perceptions of love across cultures. Including over 50 poets, writing on each of the world's continents, this new anthology of poems about love features a diverse range of original poems written in a variety of languages - modern, ancient, endangered and constructed -, accompanied by English translations and commentaries.Poets included in the book: Apollinaire; Nicole Brossard; Augusto de Campos; Catullus; Chaucer; Dante; Robert Desnos; Ali Cobby Eckermann; Goethe; Kim Hyesoon; Louise Labé; Federico Garcia Lorca; Vladimir Mayakovsky; Miklós Radnóti; Kutti Ravathi; Sappho; Warsan Shire; Laura Tohe; Marina Tsvetaeva.Languages included in the book: Akkadian; Amharic; Ancient Greek; Faroese; French; German; Hungarian; Italian; Japanese; Latvian; Maori; Persian; Polari; Portuguese; Russian; Sanskrit; Scots; Scottish Gaelic; Serbian; Spanish; Welsh; Yoruba.Foreword by Laura Tohe, the current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and Professor Emeritus with Distinction at Arizona State University, who has won awards including the 2020 Academy of American Poetry Fellowship, the 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award, and the Arizona Book Association's Glyph Award for Best Poetry.
£11.69
Hodder & Stoughton From the Mouth of the Whale: Winner of the
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY'S NORDIC PRIZE 2023Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award'A terrific read...an extraordinarily accomplished novel' Independent'Kaleidoscopic and mesmerising, comic and poignant' TLSIn this magical evocation of a vanished age, a poet and self-taught healer is banished in 1635 to a barren island off Iceland - a place darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty. With only a purple sandpiper for company, Jónas Pálmason retraces his path to exile, recalling his exorcism of a walking corpse, the massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers and the deaths of three of his children. But amid the cacophony of Copenhagen he will find hope and, finally, recognition of his enlightened ideas.Trade Review'A terrific read...an extraordinarily accomplished novel' * Independent *'Kaleidoscopic and mesmerising, comic and poignant' * TLS *'An extraordinary and original writer' * AS Byatt, Guardian *Hallucinatory, lyrical and by turn comic and tragic-an extraordinary novel. * Hari Kunzru *Sjón's novels are brilliant collisions of history and fable, psychology and fantasy. * Chris Power, Guardian *Wildly comic and incandescent, elegant and brittle. * Keith Donohue, Washington Post *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton You'll Never Walk Alone: Poems for life's ups and
Book SynopsisWords can be a way to unlock our feelings. Poetry allows us to be in touch with our emotions and helps us unlock and explore our vulnerability.You'll Never Walk Alone is a collection of the kind of inspirational texts - mainly poems - that can accompany us, whatever we are feeling, from sorrow to delight. The texts are not just about words which can console us or comfort us - though they often do this too. Rather these are poems that allow us to enjoy a full range of emotions. The poems are organised according to the season in which they 'belong': we all have seasons of our minds, be they wintery and dark, or more spring-like and hopeful. Comprising 52 poems, with analysis by Rachel, You'll Never Walk Alone introduces a poem for each week of the year plus tips on bringing poetry into your life. This book will show you how to bring poetry into your everyday emotional reality, where it can be a new tool for wellbeing. And one that means you'll never walk alone.'Like Rachel Kelly, I passionately believe in the power of poetry to reach the soul. In times of heartache and joy, this wonderful anthology will help and delight all through the year. Kelly's brilliant introduction and explanations of each choice make this an indispensable companion, always.'- Bel Mooney, writer, journalist and broadcaster'Rachel's wonderful book offers a carefully curated and wisely annotated selection of poems designed to offer support and solace during the more heart-stopping, heartbreaking, exhilarating, joyful, and unpredictable times of our life.'-MindHealth 360'Healing words for quiet evenings.'- Culture WhisperTrade ReviewKelly's brilliant introduction and explanations of each choice make this an indispensable companion. -- Bel MooneySweet and soulful -- MetroHealing words for quiet evenings -- Culture WhisperThis beautiful book aims to bring poetry into your everyday life. -- REDA lovely collection of inspirational poetry, designed to help you through every occasion, on good days and bad... insightful. -- HELLOA lovely book and a perfect companion for the dark days of winter. -- Beauty BibleGentle, nurturing and thought-provoking. -- HappinessHubUplifting poetry. A perfect present for Christmas. -- Daily MailDivided into four seasons and emotions, Kelly sidesteps any predictably mellow fruitfulness and picks a writer's lesser-known work. There are some classics but plenty of the contemporary and translated works will be new to many. Each entry is accompanied by a pithy analysis and there's a useful biography of each poet at the back. -- Country Life MagazineIn seeking solace and support, poetry is a wonderful balm, as words unlock our feelings. -- Church TimesOffers companionship during our darker, but also our happy times, on the emotional rollercoaster that is life. She points out that we find comfort in the knowledge that we are not alone with our feelings, and poetry can give us a strong sense of our common humanity. She also points out that neurological research shows that poetry speaks to a part of our brains that is more primitive, maybe because poetry has a long oral tradition, therefore eliciting a more visceral reaction, which tends to be more healing to traumatic emotions. -- MindHealth360One of the 2022 books of the year -- The TabletPoetry can be like a salve to the soul if you find just the right one to read in the right set of circumstances. This inspirational and soothing collection, organised according to the season, not only provides great comfort but acts as a friend, too, when there are times to celebrate. As the title suggests, you'll never walk alone when you have this trusty companion by your bedside. -- My WeeklyA poetry book can be a gift of healing, and Rachel Kelly's anthology You'll Never Walk Alone: Poems For Life's Ups And Downs is the perfect present. A true evangelist for poetry as an aid to wellbeing, the mental health campaigner begins, 'Words can be a way to make sense of our feelings', and divides her choices into the four seasons, representing moods of sadness, hope, joy and reflection. The range is engaging, offering old favourites such as Keats and Derek Walcott as well as songs and new writers. Kelly follows each poem with a beautifully concise explanation which will be welcomed by anyone unaccustomed to reading poetry - and bring fresh delight to those who encounter familiar poems anew. The whole book is an essential companion. -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *We've loved dipping in and out of You'll Never Walk Alone: A poem book for all life's ups and downs by bestselling author, Rachel Kelly. Really inspiring - it's like a hug in book form. If you're looking for thoughtful mother's day gifts, you won't get much better than this. * UK Mums *The fifth book of poetry by writer and mental health advocate Rachel Kelly, You'll Never Walk Alone is a beautiful, collection of poetry, covering a range of styles and topics. Bringing together poems for each moment of life, including the experience of motherhood, this collection is a beautiful addition to any bookshelf. * Happiful *
£15.29
Quercus Publishing Poems as Friends
Book SynopsisThe Poetry Exchange is an award-winning podcast and project that celebrates the role poetry plays in people''s lives. In their first anthology, Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer draw on ten years of archival material to bring together a collection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection. Featuring Brian Cox on John Clare, Andrew Scott on George Herbert, Maxine Peake on Tony Harrison and many more, in this gathering of poems you can reacquaint yourself with old friends, perhaps make some new ones, and enjoy the companionship poetry can offer us. Friends that offer connection and solidarity.Friends that help us wrestle with difficult things.Friends that name our experiences.Friends that comfort and help us move forward.Friends we admire.
£13.49
Vintage Publishing The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
Book SynopsisBooker prize winning author Michael Ondaatje invites you on a brutal, beautiful journey into the American West. . . At twenty-one years old, Billy the Kid has killed a man for each year he's been alive. Roaming the blasted planes of the Wild West, he moves between friends, foes and lovers, fighting to keep just one step ahead of the law. Yet in this twisted wasteland a country of mad dogs, of sweat and gore and blinding heat the sheriffs play dirty too. Melding prose, poetry, imagined interviews and ephemeral photography, Ondaatje weaves together a lyrical reinterpretation of Billy's short, infamous existence, forming a portrait of a young man, and a young country, borne out of violence, threaded through with disaster, yet rich in wonder. Ondaatje's language is clean and energetic, with the pop of bullets. This is literature, art.' Annie Dillard'Ondaatje's eye for detail is wonderful and he uses it poetically, with superb restraint' Larry McMurtry
£10.44
Coach House Books Heady Bloom
Book SynopsisA buddy-cop dramedy starring a bottle of Advil and a headache that won’t quit Imagine you’re standing in a room, and someone on the other side of the door won’t stop knocking – ever. Welcome to Andrew Faulkner’s world of the never-ending, low-grade headache, a medical issue resolved only by striking up a committed relationship with the slippery miracle that is Advil. Through direct address, sideways glances, lyrical interludes and deep consideration of what it means to overcome a condition when living is a part of the condition itself, these poems observe the speaker’s world as it crowds around him, coming into sharper and specific focus, from the hard wisdom of saints on suffering and a slightly unhinged Caravaggio on the metaphysics of painting, through to the deep meaning of a hot dog and a thoroughly botched retelling of a Norm Macdonald joke. Throughout it all, Advil whirls around like an unruly tornado of a sidekick, snapping Polaroids and “searching for a cloud that resembles a plausible end-of-life scenario.” Think of this collection as a meditation on how to deal with pain and uncertainty when life itself is an uncertain, painful mess. These are poems that acknowledge the shakiness of the ground we stand on. The opening poem wonders: “If you stay with the shakiness through its conjugations? Who knows.” But don’t worry. Advil’s on the case and aims to find out."These wry poems cajole the reader into feverish attentiveness. Andrew Faulkner's Heady Bloom is that unusual collection of poems whose aim is generous and profound, but whose means are often comic and provocative, all jagged edges and elbows. Chaplinesque, perhaps, but Chaplin at an all-ages hardcore show, or having been to one and reflecting on it later, in tranquility." —Ed Skoog, author of Travelers Leaving for the City and Run the Red Lights"Among other issues, this book explores how the seizures, hallucinations, and excruciating pain caused by neurological conditions that are now treated clinically were once thought of as visions granted to and endured by saints. Faulkner does this in poems that are filled with seriousness but also humor, unlikely allusions, and exhilarating wordplay. A running conceit is the speaker’s ambivalent relationship—a kind of “bromance”—with Advil, modern medicine personified as his nemesis and doppelgänger, a taunting comedian but also a vital helpmate, a debased version of the saints’ archangelic protectors. Faulkner’s imagery and conceits surprise and delight. A strange and beautiful book. " —Geoffrey NutterTrade Review"These poems grapple with what it means to overcome a condition, when living is part of the condition itself." -CBC Books
£11.04
Copper Canyon Press,U.S. Event Horizon
Book SynopsisWith poems that contemplate the everyday?errands, gardening, dog walks?or confront the white-body supremacy of local sunbathers, Cate Marvin reckons with the hurt of our patriarchal world, facing her own past, toxic relationships and pondering what we can gain by leaving some loved-ones behind. Her brilliant fourth poetry collection exists just outside of calamity. Set between the violent realm of patriarchy and the bright otherworld of female agency and survival, these are poems of pointed humor and quick intellect, radical exposure and (re)vision. At Marvin?s table, the knife of domesticity becomes a threat, sharpened and shined. Misogyny pulls the sheets from the bed; motherhood wails from the backseat of the car; our hero is ghosted (abandoned, haunted) by past friends and beloveds. Event Horizon asks, at what point do we disappear into our experiences? How do we come out on the other side?
£10.19
Copper Canyon Press,U.S. Every Sound Is Not a Wolf
Book SynopsisFrom backyard to Sonoran desert, Every Sound is Not a Wolf explores the tender connection between people, place, and the natural world. Alberto Ríos’ Every Sound is Not a Wolf evokes and awakens the senses—the smell of herbs, “the geckos at their mysterious work.” Even silence grows loud and expansive in its stillness. Told entirely in couplets, and with remarkable lucidity, Ríos balances the harmonies and disharmonies found throughout all of existence—between people and the natural world, between life and death, between spirit and body, between borders real and imagined. What does it mean for a body to house two languages? And what is an imaginary line between countries? From backyard to Sonoran desert, from mining town to river, this collection journeys the human experience, through grief and joy, tuned to the “small buzzing of a live world.” Ríos asks us to feel the connective electric pulse between all things, to find newness, musicality, and beauty in the mundane. That the world keeps moving forward, this is miracle enough.
£12.34
Theatre Communications Group Inc.,U.S. Is God Is / What to Send Up When It Goes Down
Book Synopsis
£16.51
Milkweed Editions Making a Living
Book SynopsisA brilliant and lithe collection of poems making space for the resolve and hope of motherhood amid consumerist dreams and nightmares.Consumerism—its privations and raptures—seeps into all aspects of contemporary life. “Who knows me / as the search bar does, which holds / sacred its grasp of me / as a creature of habit?” probes Rosalie Moffett, reckoning with algorithms, with marketing and capital. But Making a Living isn’t just about the trappings of materialism—it’s also about the fraught trials of trying to bring forth life in a double-dealing America where all sources are suspect.Shrewdly balancing the likes of Scrooge McDuck and HGTV, ancient Roman haruspicy and the latest pregnancy technologies, this collection arcs ultimately toward reinhabiting the present, refusing to look away—on seeing as a method of prayer and a power against capitalism’s threats to love, motherhood, reverence, and nature. Vigilant and profane, gentle and generous, full of desire and cunning, Moffett’s poetry is a singular entry in our conversations around enduring modern life and daring to make new life in the process.
£14.40
Milkweed Editions Small Wars Manual
Book SynopsisSmall Wars Manual is a masterpiece, one of those books I read and know at once I?ll be coming back to the rest of my life.??Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!From award-winning poet Chris Santiago, a far-reaching collection of erasures and original poems examining the long shadow of American militarism and imperialism.Stemming in part from a disturbingly mundane military document of the same name, Small Wars Manual is a how-to for imperialism that critically dismantles itself with each passing line, ?a pidgin // containing elements // of animus and // insubordination.? In its wake, the very boundaries of oppression and resistance, art and justice, and power and truth are exploded.Highly conceptual yet gut-wrenching, this meticulous and visionary masterpiece of erasure poetry and other forms sinks into the cold mechanics of American warfare in the Philippines and Vietnam to reveal a brutal rhetoric. In more autobiographical sections, Chris Santiago?s own Filipino immigrant background reveals hard-lived experiences, where ?stars can guide // either bayonets // or refugees? and ?even small wars waged // on the living room floor? cause trepidation and harm.This righteous collection redeems the vulnerable from the aggressors?empire, army, their systems and tools?and transforms everything in the process. In the hands of Santiago, the deconstructive becomes the eviscerating, condemning all wars that upend countries and mark generations. Here are shining poems that make shelter of chaos, by one of the most skillful and intrepid poets writing today.
£12.34
Hampton Roads Publishing Co A Little Book of Mystical Secrets: Rumi, Shams of
Book SynopsisAt long last, an accessible little book that focuses on the teachings of Rumi''s teacher and inspiration, Shams of Tabriz. Included in this slim, charming volume is a biographical sketch of the great Sufi teacher and mystic and a new translation of 500 of his core teachings that bring into fresh focus the meaning and mysteries of life and love.There are many books on Rumi and many translations of his works and yet most readers are unaware of how Rumi became a mystic. Shams, an Arabic word that means the sun, was the catalyst that converted the rather resolute and ascetic Rumi, the cleric and teacher, into Rumi, the passionate disciple of the religion of love. He was the agent of the propulsive mystical energy that transformed Rumi the reticent into Rumi the ecstatic poet.Rumi lovers, spiritual seekers and devotees of the mystical path will meet this little book of wisdom and mystical secrets with enthusiasm.''I shall not place you in my heart, For you may get hurt by its wounds.I won''t keep you in my eyes,For I may belittle you andexpose you to the ridicule of common men.I will hide you inside my soul, not in my heart or in my eyes,so that you may become one with my breath.
£11.39
Hampton Roads Publishing Co The Book of Rumi: 105 Stories and Fables That
Book Synopsis
£14.39
The New York Review of Books, Inc Poems Of The Late T'ang
Book SynopsisClassical Chinese poetry reached its pinnacle during the T''ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and the poets of the late T''ang-a period of growing political turmoil and violence-are especially notable for combining strking formal inovation with raw emotional intensity. A. C. Graham’s slim but indispensable anthology of late T’ang poetry begins with Tu Fu, commonly recognized as the greatest Chinese poet of all, whose final poems and sequences lament the pains of exile in images of crystalline strangeness. It continues with the work of six other masters, including the “cold poet” Meng Chiao, who wrote of retreat from civilization to the remoteness of the high mountains; the troubled and haunting Li Ho, who, as Graham writes, cultivated a “wholly personal imagery of ghosts, blood, dying animals, weeping statues, whirlwinds, the will-o''-the-wisp”; and the shimmeringly strange poems of illicit love and Taoist initiation of the enigmatic Li Shang-yin. Offering the largest selection of these poets’ work available in English in a translation that is a classic in its own right, Poems of the Late T’ang also includes Graham’s searching essay “The Translation of Chinese Poetry” as well as helpful notes on each of the poets and on many of the individual poems.
£15.29
The New York Review of Books, Inc An Invitation For Me To Think
Book Synopsis“Pussy Riot are Vvedensky''s disciples and his heirs. Katya, Masha, and I are in jail but I don’t consider that we’ve been defeated.... According to the official report, Alexander Vvedensky died on December 20, 1941. We don’t know the cause, whether it was dysentery in the train after his arrest or a bullet from a guard. It was somewhere on the railway line between Voronezh and Kazan. His principle of ‘bad rhythm’ is our own. He wrote: ‘It happens that two rhythms will come into your head, a good one and a bad one and I choose the bad one. It will be the right one.’ ... It is believed that the OBERIU dissidents are dead, but they live on. They are persecuted but they do not die.” — Pussy Riot [Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s closing statement at their trial in August 2012]“I raise[d] my hand against concepts,” wrote Alexander Vvedensky, “I enacted a poetic critique of reason.” This weirdly and wonderfully philosophical poet was born in 1904, grew up in the midst of war and revolution, and reached his artistic maturity as Stalin was twisting the meaning of words in grotesque and lethal ways. Vvedensky—with Daniil Kharms the major figure in the short–lived underground avant-garde group OBERIU (a neologism for “the union for real art”)—responded with a poetry that explodes stable meaning into shimmering streams of provocation and invention. A Vvedensky poem is like a crazy party full of theater, film, magic tricks, jugglery, and feasting. Curious characters appear and disappear, euphoria keeps company with despair, outrageous assertions lead to epic shouting matches, and perhaps it all breaks off with one lonely person singing a song.A Vvedensky poem doesn’t make a statement. It is an event. Vvedensky’s poetry was unpublishable during his lifetime—he made a living as a writer for children before dying under arrest in 1942—and he remains the least known of the great twentieth-century Russian poets. This is his first book to appear in English. The translations by Eugene Ostashevsky and Matvei Yankelevich, outstanding poets in their own right, are as astonishingly alert and alive as the originals.
£13.49
The Library of America African American Poetry: : 250 Years Of Struggle
Book SynopsisA literary landmark: the biggest, most ambitious anthology of black poetry ever published, gathering 250 poets from the colonial period to the present
£34.39
Michigan State University Press Extant
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£18.95
WW Norton & Co The Warped Side of Our Universe: An Odyssey
Book SynopsisNearly two decades in the making, The Warped Side of Our Universe marks the historic collaboration of Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne and award-winning artist Lia Halloran. It brings to vivid life the wonders and wildness of our universe’s “Warped Side”—objects and phenomena made from warped space and time, from colliding black holes and collapsing wormholes to twisting space vortices and down-cascading time. Through poetic verse and otherworldly paintings, the authors explicate Thorne’s and colleagues’ astrophysical discoveries and speculations, with an epic narrative that asks: How did the universe begin? Can anything travel backwards in time? And what weird and marvellous phenomena inhabit the Warped Side? Featuring more than 100 paintings, including a soaring Stephen Hawking, this one-of-a-kind volume, with its multiple gatefolds, takes us on an Odyssean voyage into and through The Warped Side of Our Universe.Trade Review"A fascinating account of our universe's most bewildering phenomena written entirely in verse... Dimension-defying paintings decorate every page. The textual and visual narrative that emerges is something akin to an epic poem about the nature of spacetime.... The enigmatic concepts discussed in ‘The Warped Side of Our Universe’ are some of the most difficult for humans to understand, but Mr. Thorne’s verse and Ms. Halloran’s art bring these far-out concepts down to earth. Even what the eye can’t see can be beautiful." -- Angelina Torre - The Wall Street Journal"Evocative... an ambitious art-science artifact.. grounded in cutting-edge research" -- David Kaiser - Science Magazine"Physicist Kip Thorne and artist Lia Halloran find a novel approach to exploring these topics in startling detail. The collaboration between the two is just as fascinating as the book itself...Written in verse form, Thorne’s writing is perfectly complemented by Halloran’s vivid illustrations in explaining how that research has pierced a universe that is ‘varied and vast.’ The paintings portray a swirling universe of wonders, explaining a black hole’s characteristics with images of Halloran’s wife being bent by its warped spacetime." -- Andrew DeMillo - Associated Press
£35.99
Morgan James Publishing llc Hanging onto Hope: Clinging to Christ in the
Book SynopsisHanging on to Hope is a devotional written about Diane Meyer’s true life’s stories.It is for those who are about to give up during impossible circumstances or trials, for those who are tired of circumstances beyond their control and for those who are discouraged. Diane’s original poetry is intermingled throughout which makes this devotional stand out and even more effective.
£9.89
Omnidawn Publishing Yours, Purple Gallinule
Book SynopsisLyrical satire that imagines mental illnesses as various bird species. Ewa Chrusciel’s fourth book in English, Yours, Purple Gallinule, playfully explores health and illness as they are culturally constructed. Using research into clinical understandings of mental afflictions and their treatments through history, Chrusciel maps various diagnostics onto an array of bird species. A lyrical satire, the book is a reflection on a society that tends to over-diagnose, misdiagnose, and over-medicate. These poems pose questions about what it means to be unique and to accept pain and suffering as a fact of life. On the pages of Yours, Purple Gallinule, we encounter birds, a poet, and a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist undergoes a series of conversions as she realizes that the point is not to classify thoughtlessly, but to “make music instead”—to dwell in astonishment. Birds evade the anthropomorphizing intentions of the human protagonists as the psychiatrist and the poet eventually become one. The anthropomorphizing goes in reverse, and the human being becomes more avian. Like the dove in the biblical Noah’s ark story, the bird proclaims a new covenant, with a twig in its beak and a message: “We are all mad; some more than others, but no one is spared the affliction. And the madder we are, the more sacred.” Trade Review"As we continue to live through our world’s 'chain of unbearable events,' it is time for the sharp and sweet audacity of Ewa Chrusciel’s work. You don’t have to believe a person can become a bird to adore Ewa Chrusciel’s new book, but I dare you to read it without considering it might be true. The book is poetry because you’ll find yourself considering not just that it might happen, but how. Using the world of birds, Yours, Purple Galinulle shows us, in observations and witticisms crisp as the bite of an apple, the limits of our own understanding, as it directs us towards new possibilities we can be grateful for. Paired with illustrations by Nancy Sepe that marry playfulness and sorrow, Yours, Purple Galinulle is both light and dark, comedy and tragedy, agile at both: what Robert Frost would call 'play for mortal stakes.'" -- Katie Peterson, author of Life in a Field"In Yours, Purple Gallinule, Ewa Chrusciel invites us to fall in with birds and be astonished by an aclosural world of mental aviaries and 'tiny throat' diagnoses. Like the poet herself, who is a descendant of birds, our souls are 'winged'. Thus we are transported to a liminal world of mythmaking and identity formation by embracing derangement and creating our own migration. Yours, Purple Gallinule brims with humor, erudition, and, yes!, heresy. It dazzles with a fierce imagination and is a superb addition to Ewa Chrusciel’s already impressive body of work." -- Abayomi Animashaun, author of Seahorses"'A baby titmouse is tucking itself under my elbow,' Poet Ewa Chrusciel says in the first line of her boldly ambitious fourth collection, Yours, Purple Gallinule, in which she weaves an inextricable connection between the lives of birds and our own spiritual and physical lives. Chrusciel wrestles with the definition and meaning of poetry and its relationship to imagination, psychic disorder, fragmentation, exile and history: 'A poem is a ravenous flock of snow buntings, an apocalypse of the air. Mad in its dazzlement,' she notes. Hundreds of birds sing, shit, nest, shed feathers, hide in crevices, mount defenses, create families, search for food for their babies, and soar in these pages. Yours, Purple Gallinule is a book of migrations and transformations, astounding facts and revelations—wise and utterly original." -- Jeff Friedman, author of The Marksman and Floating Tales
£12.80
Akashic Books, Ltd. 82nd Division
£15.29
