New and Recent Poetry from the North: Autumn 2023
As the evenings draw in, cosy up with a new poetry collection from a northern poet this autumn, recommended by our Senior Programme Manager Will Mackie.
I’m looking forward to the second collection by the West Yorkshire-based Ian Humpreys. Tormentil is published this month by Nine Arches and was awarded an RSL Literature Matters award while a work-in-progress. He’s a gifted and engaging poet whose work is frequently moving and revealing – his debut Zebra is also much recommended.
A recent highlight is Emily Zobel Marshall’s collection, Bath of Herbs, another striking and brilliant collection from Peepal Tree Press. Her poems have previously been widely anthologised and her thoughtful and beautiful debut full collection is rich with imagery of the landscapes of Martinique, Wales and Yorkshire.
Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit (Bloodaxe) is the new collection by the North East poet Jen Campbell. I was so affected by these intimate, wildly imaginative and elegant poems exploring disability and illness across personal, contemporary and historical landscapes. The longer sequence ‘The Hospital is Not a Place’ is especially impressive, while many of these poems draw you in so close it feels genuinely immersive.
Fleet Salvage is the debut pamphlet from poet Natalie Sorrell Charlesworth, from Preston, and is published by Broken Sleep Books. These lively and exploratory poems move within the space between the animal and human world and display considerable expertise and artistry.
I’d also like to mention Sing Me Down From the Dark (Salt), the debut collection by the Newcastle-based Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana. These intelligent, reflective and varied poems chart the poet’s journey through relationships, motherhood and marriage in Japan and the UK. She’s able to skilfully move between lightness and darkness in her work.
If you’re a poet based in the north or a publisher with a new collection or pamphlet by a northern poet and would like to be considered for future versions of this round-up, please get in touch with [email protected].
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