Here are links to my reviews of the collections shortlisted for the 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize
Jason Allen-Paisant, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, 2023
Self-Portrait as Othello
‘A son’s search for a father, an exploration of identity and a search for belonging’ in this ‘shimmering, dazzling’ collection.
Joe Carrick-Varty
More Sky
‘Raw, but warm. Somehow, Joe Carrick-Varty has marshalled language to articulate a howling pain — and its enduring legacy.’
Jane Clarke
A Change in the Air
A precise and moving exploration of family, loss, consolation and community.
Kit Fan
The Ink Cloud Reader
A virtuosic exploration of ambiguity, play, indelibility and truth.
Katie Farris
Standing in the Forest of Being Alive
Personal history and the state of America converge brilliantly in this ‘Memoir in Poems’.
Ishion Hutchinson
School of Instructions
An exploration of the legacy of Empire, lost lives and histories with the vividness of a dream vision.
Fran Lock
Hyena!
A Hogarthian portrait of the nation, with some added therianthrophy.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
The Map of the World
‘The Stories we choose to tell, the stories we choose to hear, usually focus on misfortune… but the light ‘also falls when there’s nobody there to see it.”
Sharon Olds
Balladz
Framed by her experiences living in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the murder of George Floyd, Balladz deals in abuse, ageing, isolation and death.
Abigail Parry
I Think We’re Alone Now
‘A gloriously perverse take on intimacy.’
Poor Rude Lines 