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Abigail’s Party
London Classic TheatreUntil Saturday, 30th SeptemberDundee Rep Those of us who have had the misfortune of hosting, or attending, a “get to know the neighbours” party will be familiar with the scene:...
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Bad Diaspora Poems (FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION, FORWARD...
Momtaza Mehri(Jonathan Cape 2023); hbk £14.99 To prefix the title of your debut Forward Prize nominated poetry collection ‘Bad’ may seem, at first, to be a brave choice. But Bad Diaspora Poems is...
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ISDAL (FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION, FORWARD PRIZE 2023,...
Susannah Dickey(Picador Poetry, 2023); pbk. £10.99 With two novels, four poetry pamphlets and an Eric Gregory Award already under her belt, the stunning quality of Susannah Dickey’s debut poetry...
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A Change in the Air (SHORTLISTED, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Jane Clarke (Bloodaxe Books, 2023); pbk £ 10.99 This is Jane Clarke’s third poetry collection. Her previous work has been nominated for several poetry prizes, including being shortlisted for the...
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Cowboy (FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION, FORWARD PRIZE 2023,...
Kandace Siobhan Walker (Cheerio Poetry, 2023); pbk, £11 Kandace Siobhan Walker is a writer, artist and filmmaker with exceptional creative dexterity. In 2019 Walker won The Guardian’s 4th Estate BAME...
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Cane, Corn & Gully (FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION, FORWARD...
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa(Out-spoken Press, 2022); pbk, £11.99 Some books are intriguing, puzzling, challenging and yet also exhilarating. You can see patterns, strange, beautiful lines, powerful...
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When The Whooper Swans Came
Jane Picton Smith(Red Squirrel Press, 2023; pbk, £7) Our thoughts are tended shrines within the forest. (‘The Bellbird’) There’s a notion that poems...
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Lori & Joe
Amy Arnold(Prototype, 2023); pbk, £12 Lori & Joe, shortlisted for the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for innovative and experimental novels, is inspired by Amy Arnold’s own walks over the fells and being...
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I Think We’re Alone Now (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Abigail Parry(Bloodaxe, 2023; pbk, £12) And this has always been the case, but no one thought to tell me. (‘some remarks on the General Theory of Relativity’) A title like ‘The brain of the...
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‘where and who we are’: two pamphlets
Litany of CoalJean Taylor(Red Squirrel Press, 2023; pbk, £7) How Do We Talk About KnivesSamina Chaudhry, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir & Rebecca Sharp eds(Matecznik Press, 2023; pbk, £10)...
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Balladz (SHORTLISTED, TS ELIOT PRIZE 2023)
Sharon Olds(Cape Poetry, 2022); pbk, £12 I’ve long been an admirer of the work of Sharon Olds, and I’d venture to say that she has taught me more about women and their relationships with the world...
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Hyena! (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Fran Lock(The Poetry Bus, 2023); pbk, £8.50 ‘This human form where I was born, I now repent’. This quote from Pixies ‘Caribou’ sets the tone for Fran Lock’s Hyena!, an intoxicating blend of the...
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School of Instructions (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Ishion Hutchinson(Faber and Faber, 2023); pbk, £12.99 In a recent interview, Ishion Hutchinson remarked on the invitation to respond to the Imperial War Museum archive that resulted in the discovery...
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The Map of the World (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin(The Gallery Press, 2023); pbk: €11.95 ‘Poetry begins where language starts: in the shadows and accidents of one person’s life.’ (Eavan Boland, A Journey With Two Maps: Becoming...
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More Sky (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Joe Carrick-Varty(Carcanet, 2023); pbk, £11.99 ‘O rain falling on the stillest lake that was all of our futures’ (‘Ode to a Shotgun’) More Sky is Joe Carrick-Varty’s debut poetry collection and the...
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Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize 2023)
Katie Farris(Pavilion Poetry, 2023); pbk £10.99. American writer, poet, academic and translator, Katie Farris delivers her memoir in poems with generosity of spirit and stunning lyrical dexterity,...
View ArticlePoor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos (dir)USA / UK / Ireland, 2023 Poor Things, a continuation of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s creative collaboration (The Favourite (2018) and Bleat (2022)), is a strange yet...
View ArticleThe Holdovers
Alexander Payne (dir)USA 2023DCA, Until 1 Feb 2024 Sentimental, funny and engrossing, The Holdovers hits a captivating balance between the happy and the sad. The movie opens with the sound of a record...
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Westerwick
George Paterson (Into Books, 2023); pbk; £10.99 Westerwick is the second novel from George Paterson, whose sensational 2022 debut The Girl, The Crow, The Writer, The Fighter was always going to be a...
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Eleanor Among the Saints
Rachel Mann(Carcanet 2024); £11.99 Rachel Mann’s second poetry collection, Eleanor Among the Saints, begins in the seamstress’s workshop with the poem ‘Embroidering a Priest’. He I we shall be...
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