The North Recommends: The Poetry Book Society
In these uncertain times many are seeking solace and inspiration in poetry, so we’ve rounded up seven seasonal selections to put a smile on your face. The PBS Spring Selections include highlights from around the globe and our beloved North. We’re also excited to announce our new PBS Book Selectors will be Newcastle University’s own poet Sinéad Morrissey and Northern Star Andrew McMillan, as well as Nick Makoha, Mary Jean Chan and Ilya Kaminsky.
ESSENTIAL POEMS Anthology
Whether you’re anxious about the state of the world or seeking some escapism, this anthology from one of our region’s finest publishers Bloodaxe will restore those flagging spirits. This life-affirming pocketbook contains 100 essential poems on love and loss; fear and longing; hope and belief to touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit.
Will Harris – RENDANG
Our PBS Spring Choice RENDANG is an exhilarating and experimental debut which innovatively interrogates the poet’s own Anglo-Indonesian identity, migration and memory.
Danez Smith – Homie
This much-anticipated second collection by the American spoken word sensation and Forward prize-winner is a tour-de-force championing friendship, race and queerness.
Carolyn Forché – In The Lateness of the World
The first book for 17 years by US legend and honorary Newcastle University Professor Carolyn Forché. Renowned for her poetry of witness during El Salvador’s civil war, Forché turns her visionary lyricism to the present, urging radical empathy and plastic free oceans.
Claire Crowther – Solar Cruise
A lyrical love story between a poet, a physicist and our planet centred around the belief that solar energy can save us from extinction. Uniting science and poetry in open dialogue, this is urgent eco-poetry for the current climate crisis.
Sarah Wimbush – Bloodlines
We’re delighted to announce the winner of the PBS and Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Prize is Leeds based poet Sarah Wimbush, who also recently won a Northern Writer’s Award. Bloodlines explores the poet’s own Gypsy / Traveller heritage with striking effect.
Anne Stevenson – Completing the Circle
This definitive selection of Durham’s finest transatlantic import, Anne Stevenson, celebrates almost seven decades of poems which are full of poetry wit and humanity.
Don’t forget NWN newsletter readers get an exclusive 10% off PBS Choice Membership HERE. Use the code NWNSPRING20 to claim your year of carefully curated poetry parcels. PBS Members also get 25% off all these books and many more at www.poetrybooks.co.uk