On ‘The Ocean’ by Isabel Galleymore

You can read the poem I’m talking about on this page here. ** The grammar of the opening sentence of Isabel Galleymore’s ‘The Ocean’ – and therefore the opening gambit of her book Significant Other – is designed to trip us up and then to catch us as we fall. At the end of the…

Spreadsheet Politics

In which the clash of quantitative data with literature makes bad politics happen, and I’m sorry.

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.

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…