Dear Reader, You'll be no doubt pleased to hear that our industrious publishers have managed to squeeze in a few books between bank holidays this month. I've picked out a few of my favourites, because what's the use of free time if you've got nothing interesting to fill it with? You can use the code MAYDAY30 at the till to get 30% off any of the books listed, so let's see if any of these take your fancy... First up is All the Journeys I Never Took by Rebecca Tantony (Burning Eye Books), a snappy, modern collection from the author of Talk You Round 'Til Dusk. Her website has a glowing testimonial from a Year Nine student that I've found difficult to top: "Rebecca Tantony was funny, good and cool. Her poems were very, very good." Well then! You might have heard Inua Ellams, author / sort-of-editor of #Afterhours (Nine Arches Press) on Front Row the other week and if not, you can listen to him reading a poem on their website here. This is a collection with a bit of twist, drawing on the archive of rare books at the Poetry Library to tell the life story of the poet, creating a dialogue between past and present. A much better description awaits if you follow the link! To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press) is collection by British Jamaican poet, Raymond Antrobus. After the death of his father, the poet travels around the UK trying to connect with a sense of grief bigger than his own. The result is this brilliant little pamphlet that Hannah Lowe quite rightly says, "brims with visual imagery and a close care of language." Emily Blewitt's debut This is Not A Rescue (Seren) had several possible feline cover-stars, but I think they made the right choice - this one is very soulful. And soulful this book is, it's a lively collection from a young poet with a distinctively Welsh voice that never strays into cliche. (For more in depth cat reviews, please join my personal mailing list.) I'll wrap things up with honourable mentions to Evening Primroses, a posthumous collection of the work of Nancy Sandars, Borderlands by Donna Kirstein, an excellent debut pamphlet about place and belonging, and Kingdom of Gravity by Nick Makoha, the latest release from Peepal Tree Press. Enjoy May Day comrades, Rebecca P.S. Sorry about the lack of Poem of the Month, will make up for it with two (TWO!) next time. Book of the Month"Leonora Carrington has unswervingly followed the intensity of her own particular vision and way of being . . . Her work bristles with a fierce, unconventional brand of feminism; anger gives it its final edge of irony and power." Angela Carter Event of the MonthThere's still time to get your ticket to our very grandly titled Northern Poetry Symposium at the Sage Gateshead on the 9th of May. Expect lively debates, inspirational talks and panel discussions. Mixtape of the MonthKhairani Barokka’s Lilac Mood Mixtape for the Poetry Society takes us to poems in translation, poems with thoughts of home, poems to steady and to feed us. Her latest collection, Indigenous Species, was published by Tilted Axis Press. |