Aoife Mannix's latest full collection begins with a series of poems that chronicle her recovery from cancer and surgery. In the wake of physical and personal transformation, the seemingly reliable constant of the outside world is in turn transformed by the global pandemic. Between these two antagonising poles of personal health and a world shut ......
Set in 1792, amongst the merchant princes and cut-throat backstreets of Liverpool, in the Palace of Westminster in London and aboard the Blackamoor Jenny - a guineaman making its sixth "African voyage" Abolition gives us the voices of people caught up in the original sin of slavery and fighting to survive it, profit from it, ignore it, or end it.
** 15-YEAR EDITION ** Fizzing with the irreverence of ZZ Packer, the time-bending antics of Borges and the layered mystery of Alice Munro, the tales in 29 Ways to Drown grip by their absolute logic and the sheer absurdity of the inevitable truths they unravel.
It's 1970s Ireland: Jack O'Connell saves the life of an American sailor, Troy, who repays him by unwittingly stealing the love of his life, Kate O'Rourke. Jack fights to win Kate back, but his perfect life falls apart when she dies. In the fall out, he loses custody of their son, Cathal, to his embittered sister-in-law, but many questions remain ......
Breathe explores Fidel Castro-era Cuba; in nine stunning stories, Segal captures a fast-fading era with emotional brushstrokes. A beautiful example is the penultimate story, Leaving Cuba, with its haunting closing image of Havana's night sky; an eloquently rendered a tale of the lives of everyday Cubans: whichever path one takes, something is ......
Drawn from Agnes Agboton's two Spanish collections in a single volume for the first time ever, Voice of the Two Shores was originally written in Gun, a language of Benin, the musicality of which is faithfully reproduced through the net of two translations. Many of the poems are rooted in Benin, while others confront the absence of the living ......
ARTICULATIONS FOR KEEPING THE LIGHT IN is an anthology of the work of the 2022 Barbican Young Poets (BYP) cohort. In a dazzling array of poetics and forms, ranging from prayer to the personal dynamics of light, these poems continue to extend the legacy of the decade-old BYP programme and showcase the potency and integrity of contemporary poetry.
BEFORE THEM, WE explores the lives of migrant elders from Africa, unpacking the intimate details of their lives - their loves, obsessions and motivations - before the families they went on to establish. A collaborative act of sharing by poets of African descent, BEFORE THEM, WE is a revealing meditation on how we engage with the practice of ......
Written originally in Me'phaa, First Rain is a selection of poems that emerged from the poet responding to the death of his grandmother who declared to him in 2005: I will die in the days when the first rains come. The work mourns both the loss of a grandmother, and the fading away (like her sight in later life) of a culture and language that hold ......
