Fiere

Just a quick note for those interested: my review of Fiere, Jackie Kay's new book of poems and her first with Picador, appears in today's Guardian Review. It's also on Guardian.co.uk. Brief pieces from previous supplements - on books by David Wheatley, Anna Woodford, Brian Turner, John Haynes, Penelope Shuttle, and Dan Wyke - are also in the poetry reviews archive, here.

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Blackbox Manifold and Ink, Sweat & Tears

The fifth issue of literary ezine Blackbox Manifold has just been published, and well worth reading it is too; the usual mix of big names and new voices and poems of all styles, subjects and schools. And so you can read new work from George Szirtes, Sharon Olds, Vidyan Ravinthiran, Carolyn Hart and Susan Wicks, among others. I've a couple of poems included, too. There are also reviews by Vahni Capildeo, an exciting young poet in her own right (check out her stuff in Roddy Lumsden's recent generational anthology, Identity Parade), and by Adam Piette, co-founder and editor of the magazine.

Also worth checking out is the prose and poetry forum Ink, Sweat & Tears, which features a new poem, piece of prose writing or visual artwork almost every day. Recent highlights include Helen Mort's 'The Lovesick', which somehow manages to conjure genuine emotion from a Carry On scene, Helen Ivory's amusing account of her time at Latitude Festival, and Dan Wyke's atmospheric 'Saturday Night in St Ives'. Yesterday, my short version of Eugenio Montale's 'Il Balcone' also appeared there: an absolutely beautiful short poem in the original Italian I'm told. I at least hope I've captured its general feel. In any case, do drop in on the zine's site from time to time: there's sure to be plenty more fascinating stuff added in the future.

More about → Blackbox Manifold and Ink, Sweat & Tears

Recent Issues

Well, here are a few recent issues of magazines that I thought I'd flag up, and no, not just because I've something of my own included in them, which in several cases I don't, but because I've subscriptions to many poetry mags and journals for the simple reason that, in many ways, they're the lifeblood and engine rooms of new writing and, on this slightly gloomy looking Wednesday morning, I'd like to encourage you, dear Wasteland reader, to consider subscribing to a new publication today.

First off, the latest issue of New Welsh Review dropped with a satisfying thud through my letterbox the other week, and aside being excellently produced (nothing superficial about enjoying the look and feel of a stylish book or magazine with high production values, and to be honest, NWR holds its own against most books, never mind journals), it also contains plenty of engaging new writing, including two new poems from Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, fiction from Nii Ayikwei Parkes, plus reviews of Philip Gross's T.S. Eliot prize-winning collection The Water Table, and a new collection of short stories inspired by the work of Jane Austen.

I'd also recommend the latest issue of The Rialto, celebrating 25 years of this major publication's appearances, and including - among new work from Carol Ann Duffy, Andrew Motion, Lorraine Mariner and Rachel Curzon - 'Look Out', the first part of a special feature on new poets under 35 edited by Nathan Hamilton, with poems from Andrew Jamison, Luke Kennard, Chris McCabe, Heather Phillipson, Keston Sutherland and Jack Underwood. Well worth a look.

The latest issue of Orbis, #150, is also packed with poems and reviews of recent books, and its usual 'Lines on Lines' section of candid reader comments on the previous issue. Where the poems in #150 are concerned, highlights for me came in the shape of Rupert Loydell's 'Paper Children', Eoghan Walls's 'Terminal One', and Todd Swift's 'The Port Daniel House'. Reviews include a round-up of recent pamphlets from the indefatigable Smith/Doorstop (the publishing house of the, now Sheffield-based, Poetry Business), including Sally Goldsmith's Singer, a short little book that packs an emotional yet unsentimental punch, and one which I'd recommend getting hold of.

Lastly, the latest issue of the Times Literary Supplement (No 5590, May 21 2010) contains the usual array of incisive, decisive, highly readable and thought-provoking literary reviews, not least a piece on Merrill Chleier's study of architecture and gender in American film, Skyscraper Cinema, and Michael Hofmann's translation of Gottfried Benn's poem, 'Englisches Café'. But I'd like to point you in particular towards the poetry reviews, not only because of pieces on new collections from Selima Hill and Antony Dunn, among others, but because there's a review of my own included of Sian Hughes's excellent debut, The Missing. It's a real shame that this book didn't come away with a prize or two, having been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and chosen as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. As I say in the review, the collection is a short one of, often, short poems: something that perhaps belies its exactitude, hard-won emotional truths, and long road to completion. At any rate, it really is a great debut collection, and one which I've returned to on several occasions recently. So I'll end by saying that, as well as subscribing to a poetry magazine today, you should really push the boat out and go and order The Missing, which you can pick up from Salt's website, here. And if you need any more convincing, you should first read this powerful and emotive elegy, 'The Send-Off', which won Hughes the Arvon International Poetry Competition a few years back. Moving isn't the word.

More about → Recent Issues

The Lengthening Winter

Happy to leave work today and find not only that the bastard ice has melted (thus rendering my hilly walk home a pleasurable one in which I can let my thoughts wander, as opposed to this morning, when I shuffled like some early-to-rise madman with my eyes glued to the treacherous pavements, only occasionally lifting my head to watch the bloke in front march then wobble then flail with desperation), but also, on arrival home, to find that this week's TLS had fallen onto my doormat, and includes two of my poetry reviews, on Carrie Etter's The Tethers, and Lorraine Mariner's Furniture. The issue (no. 5575; February 5 2010) also contains, among other things, two new poems from Simon Armitage, which like all of the recent poems of his which I've spotted here and there (Rialto, Poetry London, and in the excellent online poetry journal Blackbox Manifold), seem to be something of a departure from his characteristic style. Worth checking out.

More about → The Lengthening Winter

Horizon Review

So the third issue of Salt Publishing's online literary journal, Horizon Review, has just been published. Edited by Jane Holland, it's a fascinating, varied, sometimes even satisfyingly infuriating read, and builds on the strengths of its previous issues, proving it can easily compete with the best of the printed mags.

Issue 3 includes new poems by David Morley, Helen Ivory, Barbara Smith, Claire Crowther and Sam Riviere; reviews of many recent collections including Hugo Williams' West End Final, Carrie Etter's The Tethers, and a particularly excellent review of Don Paterson's Rain by John McCullough; and a series of interviews, the most interesting, contentious and quotable of these being Vidyan Ravinthiran in conversation with Craig Raine. In fact, I might well post a separate discussion of some of the stuff which Raine has to say here, finding as I did some bits eminently sensible, some disagreeably caustic, and some just downright antagonistic (not entirely a bad thing). I should also add that what he has to say is on occasion pretty funny, often illuminating, and... hell, just go and read it and I'll stop blathering on.

Also, for those interested (jumping from Don Paterson's aforementioned Forward Prize-winning Rain to Emma Jones's Best First Collection-winning The Striped World) in this week's issue of the Times Literary Supplement (October 16, No 5559) my reviews of both Jones's book and fellow Australian poet Kevin Hart's Young Rain will appear. Do check them out if you can.

More about → Horizon Review

Magma 44

The latest issue of Magma (No. 44, Summer 2009) includes my reviews of Mark Doty's eighth book of poems, Theories and Apparitions, John Agard's Darwin-inspired Clever Backbone, and Rob A Mackenzie's debut collection, The Opposite of Cabbage.

The issue also contains new poems by Alan Buckley, Alison Brackenbury and Sheenagh Pugh, among many other features, including an interview with Jackie Kay (pictured on the issue's cover, above). Find out more here.

More about → Magma 44

Reviews: Jacob Polley & Colette Bryce

For those interested, my review of Picador poet Jacob Polley's first novel will appear in this coming week's TLS (June 12 2009).

In the just-published issue of Stand, vol 9 (1), I'm informed that my review of Colette Bryce's third book of poems, Self-Portrait in the Dark, also appears.

More about → Reviews: Jacob Polley & Colette Bryce

Just One Book - Salt Publishing

As those of you who read other poetry & literary blogs and/or drop into UK poetry forums will know, the enterprising poetry publishers Salt have hit hard times. Partly due to discontinued grants from Arts Council England and the current economic downturn, this is particularly depressing as Salt have always been committed to building a poetry press eventually capable of sustaining itself, something it has worked towards by seeking out and publishing some of the most impressive new poets to emerge in the UK in recent years (Rob A Mackenzie, Julia Bird, Luke Kennard, Mark Waldron and Katy Evans-Bush, to name but a few) as well as more established writers including Jane Holland, Tim Dooley and Tobias Hill. It also has what promise to be strong first collections on the horizon from Abi Curtis, Tom Chivers and Tony Williams.


To help save Salt, then, please consider the following:

JUST ONE BOOK

1. Please buy just one book, right now. We don't mind from where, you can buy it from us or from Amazon, your local shop or megastore, online or offline. If you buy just one book now, you'll help to save Salt. Timing is absolutely everything here. We need cash now to stay afloat. If you love literature, help keep it alive. All it takes is just one book sale. Go to our online store and help us keep going.

2. Share this note on your profile. Tell your friends. If we can spread the word about our cash crisis, we can hopefully find more sales and save our literary publishing. Remember it's just one book, that's all it takes to save us. Please do it now.

With my best wishes to everyone
Chris
Director
Salt Publishing
http://www.saltpublishing.com

It would be a great loss to UK poetry if Salt were to fold. I've just ordered a copy of Tim Dooley's Keeping Time, and would urge anyone who reads and values contemporary poetry to buy a title or two from their list - I'd recommend Rob A Mackenzie's The Opposite of Cabbage and Mark Waldron's The Brand New Dark, my reviews of which are forthcoming in Magma and the TLS respectively.

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Reviews and The Sparks

I was talking with the poet Conor O'Callaghan the other week about the dwindling number of poetry reviews published these days, particularly by the bigger publications and magazines. When his first full collection, The History of Rain, came out in 1993 with Ireland's Gallery Press, it apparently received around 25 reviews; I sincerely doubt many first books - even those published by the commercial presses - receive that kind of critical attention nowadays.

Unsurprisingly, poetry pamphlets and chapbooks (or short collections) receive even less attention from print magazines, with the notable and admirable exception of a few, particularly Poetry London and its autumn round-up of their 'top ten' (or so) pamphlets of the year. Increasingly then, much reviewing of poetry seems to take place online, in magazines like those I mentioned here recently, and on various widely-read literary blogs. And why not? Many of these blog writers are published poets and reviewers for print and online magazines themselves (myself included), so the blog is the perfect vehicle for reviewing books and pamphlets that print magazines don't have the room for.

One such writer is Tony Williams, a poet soon to have his first collection published by Salt, who also keeps a poetry blog featuring occasional reviews. And I was delighted to discover recently that he's written a generous and insightful review of my pamphlet The Sparks, the second to appear this year, on the back of Noel Williams' piece in arts magazine Now Then. Williams' review also takes in Matthew Clegg's sequence pamphlet Edgelands, published last year by Longbarrow Press. Worth checking out.

More about → Reviews and The Sparks

Poetry Feature: Conor O'Callaghan

Conor O’Callaghan, an Irish writer born in Newry in 1968, is one of those poets who critics may lazily – albeit quite rightly – describe as ‘one of the best of his generation’, though he actually seems to fall on the cusp of two generations. Or at least has fallen short, despite having appeared in seminal Irish anthologies, of major British anthologies and promotions – too young for the New Poetry and the PBS’s New Generation campaign; inexplicably missing from the Next Gen and falling short of the cut-off point of Roddy Lumsden’s forthcoming Identity Parade – as inadequate as these may ultimately be at fully checking the pulse, let alone establishing the hierarchy of the literature of a given period (history will do that), they still (usually quite rightly) cement reputations, develop readerships, and give a representative flavour of poetry at the time. This isn’t to badmouth these publications or promotions, but to note that given the inevitable parameters, some genuinely talented and worthy writers often get sidelined or miss out through nothing more than plain bad luck.

This aside, I hope I’m right in reckoning that O’Callaghan’s work will stand the test of time. I can only reach for the usual platitudes in urging you to hunt down copies of his three collections published by Gallery Press to date – The History of Rain (1993) and Seatown (1999), collected together in Seatown and Earlier Poems (2000); and the excellent Fiction, published in 2005 – showcasing the development of an exciting and original poetic voice sounding itself out in poems that are engaged and engaging, witty, smart and sharp, but above all, driven by an energetic music that is as capable of challenging and amusing as it is of moving the reader.

In his review of Seatown in the Times Literary Supplement, Stephen Knight pointed to James Fenton, Robert Frost and Philip Larkin as pronounced influences in O’Callaghan’s work, and for those who are fans of any of these major voices in post-war poetry, you won’t be disappointed by his poems. But at the same time, quite rightly, Knight states that ‘despite the presence of these pungent voices, O’Callaghan’s poetry is marvellously his own’. This is largely to do with the knowingness of the poems, which amounts to more than the winks, nudges, sarcasm and irony that crop up in much contemporary verse. Instead, particularly in Fiction, O’Callaghan’s poetry combines the suggestive, deliberative and symbolic capabilities of verse with the inventive, imaginative qualities most readily associated with fictional prose, often to startling effect. This includes the likes of ‘Out-takes’, exploring the sounds left behind from a recording session (‘leftovers from a cleaned up / final version’; suggesting our polished, distorted view of ourselves); ‘Reception’, where the poet remembers an event from his childhood which turns out to be a story he was told ‘over a glass of ropey Chianti’; ‘Hello’, a sequence of poems exploring the invention of that phrase for ‘the blower, / since some kind of formula / for an opening exchange / had to be agreed upon / to get the ball rolling’; and the excellent vignette ‘The Narrator’, who ‘during the break in chapter / gets up to stretch beneath a skylight’, a theme returned to in ‘The Present Writer’, who ‘gets a kick / inhabiting the third person, as if talking across himself / or forever clapping his own exit from the wings’.

In short, O’Callaghan stuff is the business and deserves a wide readership. And needless to say, his next collection will be well worth waiting for. In the meantime, though, do check out the three poems of his which appear in this month’s issue of Poetry magazine, and the comic ‘The Modern Pastoral Elegy’ in that magazine’s archive. And rather than my blathering on any further here, I’ll let the poetry speak for itself – below is ‘Coventry’, the sonnet that opens Fiction, first published in the TLS.


Coventry


On a night as clear and warm as tonight,
in 1941, a stray German squadron
with a war to win and a radar on the blink
mistook the quays of neutral Seatown
for the lights of greater Coventry.

On a night as clear and warm as tonight –
when she has gone into an almighty huff
and taken the chat over heaven-knows-what
(or something of nothing with a bit of fluff)
and my lot once again is the box-room futon,
the guest duvet –
                                  I am inclined to think
perhaps the Luftwaffe after all were spot on,
and would give my eye-teeth for butterfly bombs
to fall into this silence I have been sent to.


poem by Conor O’Callaghan
republished with permission of the author
first published in the Times Literary Supplement, 20 October 2000
from Fiction (Gallery Press, 2005)

More about → Poetry Feature: Conor O'Callaghan

Raw Light, the Guardian, and death by junk food

For those wanting an introduction to a selection of contemporary poets whose work you might've not come across before, you could do much worse than checking out Jane Holland's Raw Light blog, which is currently enjoying a 'Short Season of Other Poets'.

So far, poems from debut collections by Katy-Evans Bush, Matt Merritt, Angela France and Rob Mackenzie have been featured, a pretty eclectic selection in which you'll no doubt find something of interest. I hear that Claire Crowther, among others, is due to be featured before Raw Light resumes usual service, and at the moment, a poem from the sparks is also up there. Why not wander across, then, before you head out and enjoy a sunny Sunday afternoon?

Also worth a look this weekend for those who haven't spotted them already is Sean O'Brien's review of George Szirtes' New and Collected Poems in the Guardian and, though I'm a week or so late to flag this up, a thoughtful and interesting blog post by Adam O'Riordan on his time spent collecting together the late poet Michael Donaghy's critical prose work.

On a pretty repulsive and totally unrelated note, there's also this website that a friend sent me the link to earlier in the week. Apologies in advance. Though come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that cupcake used to be on the dessert menu at Fatty Arbuckles - and whatever happened to that franchise?

More about → Raw Light, the Guardian, and death by junk food

Leontia Flynn & Zoë Skoulding

My critical perspectives of Leontia Flynn and Zoë Skoulding are now up on the British Council's Contemporary Writers website, and having recently completed reviews of Glyn Maxwell's Hide Now and Colette Bryce's new collection, Self-Portrait in the Dark, these will appear in Stand magazine soon - current issue features new poems by Katy Evans-Bush and Ian Duhig.

More about → Leontia Flynn & Zoë Skoulding

Poetry Magazine

A publication that I intend to start subscribing to in the new year is Poetry Magazine, arguably the poetry journal of the English-speaking world. Published out of Chicago's Poetry Foundation, it's a monthly magazine with a wide, international subscription, and features poetry from a similarly broad selection of poets from across the world. As I understand it, the magazine was founded by Harriet Munro in 1912, and has featured some of the century's greatest poems (I think the poet Conor O'Callaghan told me it was the first place to publish Eliot's Prufrock).

It mainly interests me as an useful introduction to the broad spectrum of contemporary American poetry for a complete novice like myself, but also given that its features always seem lively and interesting, its reviews are often long and rewarding (a year or so back, there was an excellent ten page review of Louis MacNeice's Collected Poems) and it has a yearly translation issue, which is an area I'm growing more interested in of late.

You can also get a feel for the publication before you decide to subscribe (which, at the current deal of buy one gift subscription, get one free is a steal) as a good deal of the stuff in each issue is also featured online. The very recently published December issue, for instance, features new poems by Fred D'Aguiar, an excellent American poet by the name of Todd Boss (among many others), and new work from Roddy Lumsden. There's also an interview with Seamus Heaney by Dennis O'Driscoll which looks interesting.

More about → Poetry Magazine

Published Reviews and Critical Works

Below is a list of my reviews of contemporary poetry collections and novels that have been published to date or are forthcoming.


Guardian profile (details of poetry reviews published in Guardian Review)

Review of Alan Gillis's Here Comes the Night and Jane Duran's Graceline, Times Literary Supplement, No 5638, 22 April 2011

Review of Sam Willetts's New Light for the Old Dark and John Whale's Waterloo Teeth, Times Literary Supplement, No 5630, 25 February 2011

Review of Adam O'Riordan's In the Flesh, Times Literary Supplement, No 5617, 26 November 2010

Review of Katharine Towers' The Floating Man, Guardian, 11 September 2010

Review of Simon Armitage's Seeing Stars, Times Literary Supplement, No 5613, 29 October 2010

Review of Robin Robertson's The Wrecking Light, Times Literary Supplement, No 5603/04, 20 & 27 August 2010

Review of Glyn Maxwell’s Hide Now, Stand, Vol 9 (4), August 2010

'A Wide Compass', review of Jeremy Reed's West End Survival Kit, Michael Schmidt's Collected Poems, Jenny Joseph's Nothing like Love, Carolyn Jess-Cooke's Inroads, and Sheenagh Pugh's Later Selected Poems, Poetry Review, Vol. 100 No. 2, July 2010

Review of Sian Hughes's The Missing, Times Literary Supplement, No 5590, 21 May 2010

Review of Tony Williams's The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street, Times Literary Supplement, No 5584, 9 April 2010

Review of Imtiaz Dharker's Leaving Fingerprints, Jane Ormerod's Recreational Vehicles on Fire, and Sally Festing's Salaams, Magma, Issue 46, March 2010

Review of Lorraine Mariner's Furniture and Carrie Etter's The Tethers, Times Literary Supplement, No 5575, 5 February 2010

Review of Hilary Menos's Berg, New Welsh Review, No 87, Spring 2010

Review of Ros Barber's Material, PN Review 191, Vol. 36 No. 3, January-February 2010

Reviews of Mark Waldron's The Brand New Dark and John F. Deane's A Little Book of Hours, Times Literary Supplement, No 5568/69, 18 & 25 December 2009

Review of Alison Brackenbury's Singing in the Dark, Claire Crowther's The Clockwork Gift, and Matthew Welton's 'We needed coffee but...', Magma, Issue 45, November 2009

Reviews of Emma Jones's The Striped World and Kevin Hart's Young Rain, Times Literary Supplement, No 5559, 16 October 2009

Review of Jacob Polley's Talk of the Town, Times Literary Supplement, No 5541, 12 June 2009

Review of Mark Doty's Theories and Apparitions, John Agard's Clever Backbone, and Rob A Mackenzie's The Opposite of Cabbage, Magma, Issue 44, June 2009

Review of Colette Bryce’s Self-Portrait in the Dark, Stand, Vol 9 (1), June 2009

‘Glistening as it vanishes’, review of Maura Dooley’s Life Under Water, Times Literary Supplement, No 5529, 20 March 2009

‘A Desire to Share’, review of Christopher Middleton’s Collected Poems, Poetry Review, Vol. 98 No. 4, December 2008

‘New Trainers’, review of Moniza Alvi’s Split World: Poems 1990-2005 and Europa, Times Literary Supplement, No.5505, 3 October 2008

‘In Brief’ review of Stephanie Norgate’s Hidden River, Times Literary Supplement, No.5504, 26 September 2008

Review of Paul Abbott’s Flood, Tower Poetry, June 2008

Review of Jean Sprackland’s Tilt, Tower Poetry, January 2008

Review of Nick Laird's On Purpose, The Stinging Fly, Issue 8 Vol. 2, Winter 2007/08

Review of Tim Turnbull's Stranded in Sub-Atomica (Eyewear)

Review of Jacob Polley's Little Gods (The Poem)



Also forthcoming is the following in-depth critical-biographical essay:

“Nick Laird.” - a critical biographical essay. British Writers, Supplement XVII. Ed. Jay Parini. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson-Gale. Due December 2010.



I also write critical perspectives of poets for the British Council's Contemporary Writers website database. Below is a list of authors whose critical perspectives I have completed to date, with appropriate links.


John Agard

Simon Armitage

David Constantine

Julia Copus

Robert Crawford

Leontia Flynn

Jen Hadfield

Michael Hofmann

Mick Imlah

Nick Laird

Patrick McGuinness

Daljit Nagra

Don Paterson

Tom Paulin

Maurice Riordan

Carol Rumens

Penelope Shuttle

Zoe Skoulding

Greta Stoddart

Hugo Williams

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

More about → Published Reviews and Critical Works