New Poetries VII

An Anthology

Michael Schmidt

• Publisher: Carcanet Poetry
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781784105587
• eBook ISBN: 9781784105594
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

From the first New Poetries anthology, published in 1994, through to this seventh volume, the series showcases the work of some of the most engaging and inventive new poets writing in English from around the world. Many have gone on to achieve notable success: Sophie Hannah, Patrick McGuinness, Kei Miller, Caroline Bird, David Morley, Jane Yeh, William Letford, Tara Bergin, and Vahni Capildeo among them. Crucially, the New Poetries anthologies have never sought to identify a 'school', much less a 'generation': the poets included employ a wide range of styles, forms and approaches, and 'new' need not be taken to imply 'young'. Among the twenty-odd poets to be included in New Poetries VII, Zohar Atkins, Ned Denny, Andrew Wynn Owen and Phoebe Power all have first collections scheduled with Carcanet. Among others, new work by Luke Allan, Sumita Chakraborty, Mary Jean Chan, Katherine Horrex, Theophilus Kwek, Rachel Mann and Vala Thorodds will feature. Many of the poets in the anthology have come to Carcanet through the pages of PN Review.

LISA KELLY

The other day I asked my daughter, ‘Can you pass me the thing that opens the door?’ The word key having eluded me. The idea of fluency interests me – and whether we can ever claim fluency in any language. Words and articulacy are power, but words escape me all the time; not only words that I can’t recall or names I’ve forgotten but words I mishear or miss altogether because of my deafness in my left ear. Also, listening to my mother speaking Danish for two weeks every year when my grandparents visited from Copenhagen was fascinating, yet alienating as I couldn’t understand my mother’s tongue. Three members of my family suffered with dementia and journeyed from fluency to the ultimate inarticulacy. To what extent language builds or diminishes identity is a preoccupation. How Danish am I, not speaking Danish? How Deaf am I with my clumsy attempts at British Sign Language? I have to work hard to listen and this requires me to place you to my right side, to watch your lips, to watch your hands, to watch your gestures. How can form not matter? To understand what you say, I must attempt to control our interrelated physical space. Of course, I often fail and confusion, mis-interpretation and annoyance, as well as humour, are by-products. My poems reflect my obsession with form and the physical space that words occupy on the page. Attempting to ‘hang onto’ sound means aids, such as rhyme, are appreciated. Escaping from noise into silence and reading means lines, phrases and fragments from books are often more keenly heard than what is being said to me in everyday life. However, language is as much visual as it is aural. I am excited by the appearance of words, their material quality and the condensed narratives of names. Working as a freelance journalist specialising in technology gives me a level of fluency in esoteric acronyms and a specialist language which masks technophobia. Alternative perceptions offer a relief from the tyranny of pseudo-articulacy. Only politicians’ speeches pretend otherwise. The multiplicity and multifariousness of language, communication and understanding means every interpretation is possible, and possibly wrong. But some fun and perhaps progress towards empathy can be had playing with these ideas along the way.

Apple Quartet

I. JAUNE DE METZ

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• LAURA SCOTT
• NED DENNY
• SUMITA CHAKRABORTY
• ANDREW WYNN OWEN
• ZOHAR ATKINS
• RACHEL MANN
• JAMIE OSBORN
• MARY JEAN CHAN
• HELEN CHARMAN
• TOBY LITT
• LUKE ALLAN
• PHOEBE POWER
• THEOPHILUS KWEK
• KATHERINE HORREX
• JAMES LEO McASKILL
• ROWLAND BAGNALL
• REBECCA CULLEN
• VALA THORODDS
• LISA KELLY
• ANDREW LATIMER
• NEIL FLEMING
• ISABEL GALLEYMORE
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Copyright