Here are links to my reviews of the collections shortlisted for the 2022 T.S. Eliot Prize
Anthony Joseph, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, 2022
Sonnets for Albert
‘When we’re reading sonnets we’re often reading a poetry of desire or a poetry of loss, but in Anthony Joseph’s Sonnets for Albert, his fifth collection, we’re reading a poetry of absence.’
Fiona Benson
Ephemeron
‘If Vertigo & Ghost explored male violence, then Ephemeron sees Fiona Benson turning her gaze towards the monstrous pain of motherly love.’
Jemma Borg
Wilder
‘Borg’s vision of the natural world crackles with life and beauty.’
Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Quiet
‘In Quiet, Victoria Adukwei Bulley’s debut collection, the poems subvert and problematise the language of the establishment by forcing open old ideas and creating new spaces for thought and dialogue.’
Philip Gross
The Thirteenth Angel
The Thirteenth Angel offers us a ‘divine intervention and the opportunity to step outside of ourselves and to view the world from a fresh angle.’
Zaffar Kunial
England’s Green
‘With it’s fanciful etymology and cautious optimism, Zaffar Kunial’s England’s Green is a joyful exploration of how language and sound shape the self.’
Mark Pajak
Slide
There’s something disquieting about the forensic quality of Slide, but Mark Pajak knows that by focusing on the surface he can leave us to plumb our own depths.
James Conor Patterson
bandit country
In bandit country, James Conor Patterson writes of Newry as a place of the future while acknowledging the power of the past and its ability to menace the present.
Denise Saul
The Room Between Us
Saul’s first collection, The Room Between Us, lifts the veil on those caring for elderly relatives. It is a deeply moving collection in which we see loved ones through the distorting prism of new spaces, distanced from them by doors and glass.’
Yomi Ṣode
Manorism
Yomi Ṣode’s Manorism is an urgent interrogation of double standards and lays bare the doublethink black men and boys are required to negotiate.
Poor Rude Lines 