[This review first appeared in Poetry Wales]
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on ‘Lines starting with La Rochefoucauld’ by Denise Riley
In which I talk about Denise Riley’s poem ‘Lines starting with La Rochefoucauld’
on ‘Eagle Eating a Flamingo’, by Amali Rodrigo
In which I discuss Amali Rodrigo’s poem ‘Eagle Eating a Flamingo’
Spreadsheet Politics
In which the clash of quantitative data with literature makes bad politics happen, and I’m sorry.
Music, Scores, Muldoon, Connection
In which a hungover morning listening to Radio 3 prompts me to ramble about why Paul Muldoon teaches me about connection in poetry.
Rebuttal: Tom Bamford, Cryptozoology
In which I conclusively rebut the poetic debut of a close friend of mine.
A (Brief, Highly Subjective) Introduction to Kei Miller
In which the mask of impartiality probably slips too much. Read Kei Miller.
Written for Wild Court.
The Glittering Prizes
In which I talk about the problems (and, a bit, the values) of prize culture in the UK.
Written for The Poetry Review.
Progress and Form in Dear World & Everyone In It and New British Poetry
[the following was first given as a paper at the British and Irish Poetry Conference, at the University of Manchester, in 2012 (and, as a result, it’s really quite academic and dry – I promise you I can be more fun than this). An edited version also appeared in Oxford Poetry] ☺ “Poetry and progress…
Review: Sheenagh Pugh, Short Days, Long Shadows
[This review first appeared in Poetry Wales] * Sheenagh Pugh, Short Days, Long Shadows (Seren) The blurb of Sheenagh Pugh’s twelfth collection Short Days, Long Shadows describes her as a poet who ‘considers “too accessible” to be the best sort of compliment’. So often the back of a book of a book of poetry sells…
Review: Lawrence Sail, Peter Hughes, J. O. Morgan, Brendan Kennelly
[This review first appeared in PN Review.] * Lawrence Sail, The Key to Clover and other essays (Shoestring Press) Peter Hughes, Allotment Architecture (Reality Street) J.O. Morgan, At Maldon (CB editions) Brendan Kennelly, Guff (Bloodaxe) Running through Lawrence Sail’s The Key to Clover and other essays is a division of the world into that which can…
Review: Mir Mahfuz Ali, Midnight, Dhaka
[this review first appeared in Poetry Wales] * Midnight, Dhaka by Mir Mahfuz Ali (Seren) It’s unclear whether the publicists for, and previous commentators on, Mir Mahfuz Ali’s collection Midnight, Dhaka have radically misread the book, or whether they’ve consciously shied away from mentioning what is certainly the central tenet and most striking feature of…
