RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LIBRARIANS
new titles recommended in 2014
SINGLE AUTHOR
The Cream of the Well: New and selected poems
Valerie Gillies
Luath Press, ISBN 978-1910021682, 30 November 2014, £9.99, pbk
From former Edinburgh Makar, Valerie Gillies, comes a selection of works from over eight collections of
poetry, including previously uncollected poems and a new selection of poems, 'A Year as an American Bird'.
Thomas Lux: Selected Poems
Bloodaxe Books, ISBN 978-1780371153, £12, pbk, 7 November
Covering this US poet's career from earlier surrealist poems to his later, direct voice. 'One of the few poets
writing today who fills me with envy' - Billy Collins.
An Aviary of Small Birds
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Carcanet, ISBN 978 1 906188 14 6, October 2014, £9.95, pbk
A first collection of poems that is both elegy to a stillborn son and testament to the redemptive qualities of
poetry as a transformative art.
Sack
John Kinsella
Picador, ISBN ISBN: 9781447259435, £9.99, November, pbk
This major Australian poet uses an old Welsh stanza form to explore the exploitation - or sacking - of the
human relationship with the land.
When God Is A Traveller
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1780371160, £9.99, 20 November, pbk
Shortlisted for the 2015 T S Eliot Prize, this Bombay-based poet's second collection with Bloodaxe is about
'the long dangerous route to recovering what it is to be alive and human'.
Scapegoat
Alan Gillis
Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1852356095, €11.95 pb, €18.50 hb, 1 October
Belfast-born Alan Gillis now lives in Edinburgh, where he edits Edinburgh Review and teaches at the
University. His last collection was a knockout, and you can confidently expect this one will be too.
Ritual Lighting
Carol Ann Duffy, artwork by Stephen Raw
Picador, ISBN 978-1447274506, September 2014, £16.99, hbk
Carol Ann Duffy is halfway through her Laureate post, and this book gathers together many of the public
poems written since 2009. It accompanies the Poetry from the Palace: From Dryden to Duffy exhibition of
work by poets laureate at the Palace of Holyrood.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
2
Hold Your Own
Kate Tempest
Picador, ISBN ISBN: 9781447241218, £9.99, October, pbk
The sensational Kate Tempest's poetry explodes in performance but lives on the page too. This first fulllength collection is an ambitious, multi-voiced work based around the mythical figure of Tiresias.
Two Countries
Katrina Porteous
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1852248307, £12, 23 October, pbk
Katrina Porteous, born in Aberdeen and living in Northumberland, draws on Border ballad and Northumbrian
story-telling and song to explore the 'debatable lands'.
Gumiguru
Togara Muzanenhamo
Carcanet, ISBN 978-1847772572, £9.95, 31 October, pbk
Gumiguru is the tenth month of the Shona calendar - a month of dryness and heat before the first rains fall
and rejuvenate the land. This cycle of poems distils the experiences of a decade into one calendar year,
framed through the landscapes of Zimbabwe; an elegy for the poet's father and a hymn to the veldt.
Mimi Khalvati, The Weather Wheel (Carcanet)
Kerry Hardie, The Zebra Stood in the Night (Bloodaxe)
John Fuller, The Dice Cup (Chatto & Windus)
Martha Kapos, The Likeness (Enitharmon Press)
Dennis O’Driscoll, Update: Poems 2011-2013 (Anvil Press Poetry)
Richard James Jones, Little Man (Parthian Press)
Michael Laskey, Weighing the Present (Smith/Doorstop)
James Russell, A True-Dream Run (Knives Forks & Spoons)
Lesley Saunders, The Walls Have Angels (Mulfran Press)
Agnieszka Studzinska, What Things Are (Eyewear)
Sailing the Forest: Selected poems
Robin Robertson
Picador, ISBN 9781447231554 hbk, £20, 9781447274049 pbk, £14.99, September
A first Selected from this major Scottish poet.
Over the Moon
Imtiaz Dharker
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978144726344901, August 2014, £14.99, pbk
The fifth collection from Pakistani-Glasgow-London poet Imtiaz Dharker, focusing on London rather than the
poems of India in her previous collection.
Pirate Music
Miriam Gamble
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 113 6, £9.95, September, pbk
Miriam Gamble, now based in Edinburgh, takes the title of her second collection from pirate radio, and
explores a world where people are 'steered rather than steering'.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
3
Not All Honey
Roddy Lumsden
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 112 8, £9.95, September, pbk
Roddy Lumsden 'fathoms the ingredients for happy' in this collection, which includes 'The Bells of Hope', 51
short and exuberant 'kernel poems' which record the poet's first ever year lived alone.
Fault Line
Gerry Loose
Vagabond Poets, ISBN 978-1908251343, £8.95, September, pbk
Gerry Loose, poet and garden maker, maps the 'fault line' dividing man from his environment, here
particularly the Faslane submarine base.
The Whole and Rain-Domed Universe
Colette Bryce
Picador, ISBN 978-1447263432, £9.99, September, pbk
Colette Bryce was born in Derry and this riveting fifth collection is about growing up there during the
Troubles.
Paper Aeroplane: Selected poems 1989-2014
Simon Armitage
Faber, ISBN 978 0 571 31067 8, £14.99, September, hbk/ebk
Simon Armitage's own selection from twenty-five years of work, from his debut to the latest, uncollected
work.
Eavan Boland, A Woman Without a Country (new collection), Carcanet
Pascale Petit, Fauverie (Seren, September 2014)
Martin Anderson, Obsequy for Lost Things (Shearsman, September 2014)
Jon Thompson, Landscape with Light (Shearsman, September 2014)
Lucy Tunstall, The Republic of the Husband (Carcanet, September 2014)
Togara Muzanenhamo, Gumiguru (Carcanet, September 2014)
John Wilkinson, Schedule of Unrest: Selected poems 1974-2008 (Salt, September 2014)
Concerning the Atlas of Scotland and other poems
Tom Pow
Polygon, ISBN 978-1846973017 pbk, £12.99, August
Inspired by Tom Pow's recent residency at the National Library of Scotland's Map Library; poems
interspersed with images of unusual maps, in a beautiful book design from Polygon.
Selected Poems
Kate Clanchy
Picador, ISBN 978144726344901, August 2014, £14.99, pbk
A selection from three books of poetry by Scottish-born poet and novelist Kate Clanchy.
The Stairwell
Michael Longley
Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0224102063, £10, August, pbk
The tenth collection from one of the most respected and widely-read poets of his generation, The
Stairwell combines elegy (war, personal loss) and life-affirming warmth.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
4
Short Days, Long Shadows
Sheena Pugh
Seren, ISBN 978-1781721568, £9.99, June, pbk
Sheenagh Pugh's twelfth collection explores a new landscape for this noted and popular poet - Shetland.
Black Country
Liz Berry
Chatto & Windus, ISBN 978-0701188573, £10, August, pbk
Primary school teacher Liz Berry's first collection is about the place she was born, the West Midlands' Black
Country. This collection is shortlisted for the Forward First Collection and comes pre-recommended with an
unusually high level of impressive reviews..
David Harsent, Standing Shadows, Faber
David C Ward, Call Waiting, Carcanet
Marcus Kociejowski, God’s Zoo, Carcanet
Testament
Robert Crawford
Jonathan Cape, ISBN 9780224098076 pbk, 9781448163229 ebk, £10, July
What matters most? From love to politics by way of the New Testament, Robert Crawford's seventh
collection is about the important things.
Dante's Inferno
Philip Terry
Carcanet, ISBN 978-1847772206, June 2014, £12.95, pbk
Philip Terry transplants the story of Dante's Inferno to the University of Essex...
Learning to Make An Oud in Nazareth
Ruth Padel
Chatto & Windus, ISBN 9780701188160, £10, ebook ISBN 9781448161553
Through images of conflict and craftsmanship, Ruth Padel’s (The Poem and the Journey; 52 Ways of Looking
At a Poem) powerful new collection on the Middle East traces a quest for harmony in the midst of
destruction.
And You, Helen
Deryn Rees-Jones, Charlotte Hodes
Seren, ISBN 9781781721728,15 July 2014, hbk, £14.99
Helen Thomas was widowed with three young children when her husband the war poet Edward Thomas was
killed at the battle of Arras in 1917. And You, Helen explores her loss, and the loss of all war widows,
through Deryn Rees-Jones' long poem and the art of Charlotte Hodes.
Faber Poets of the Great War Series:
Wilfred Owen, Selected Poems; Siegfried Sassoon, The War Poems; Robert Graves, Selected Poems; Edward
Thomas, Selected Poems; Rupert Brooke, The Poetical Works
All Faber, 7 July 2014, hbk, £10
Five of the most significant poets of WWI republished in this hardback series from Faber.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
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Jon Silkin, Complete poetry, ed Jon Glover, Kathryn Jenner, Carcanet
Kelly Grovier, The Lantern Cage, Carcanet
Marcus Kociejowski, God’s Zoo, Carcanet
Cairn
Richie McCaffery
Nine Arches Press, ISBN 978-0-9927589-1-2, £8.99, pbk, June
First full-length collection from Stirling-based poet Richie McCaffery.
One Day in the Life of Jimmy Denisovich
Graham Fulton
Smokestack Books, ISBN 9780992740917, £7.95, pbk, June
Graham Fulton's widely-published poems may reference Glasgow, but - the title's a giveaway - they've got
international roots.
Hoyoot: Collected poems and songs
Tom Pickard
Carcanet, ISBN 978 1 847772 54 1, £19.95, pbk, June
Tom Pickard was born in Newcastle, and founded the legendary Morden Tower readings there in 1963; he's
going back to source with this selection from a life of writing.
Terror
Toby Martinez de las Rivas
Faber, ISBN 978-0571296828, £9.99, pbk, June
First collection from this poet whose influences range from archaeology and the landscape of
Northumberland to love, sex, betrayal.
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
Kei Miller
Carcanet, ISBN 978-1847772671, £9.95, pbk, May
A fourth collection by the blisteringly eloquent poet and novelist Kei Miller, based in Glasgow and Jamaica.
Dry Stone Work
Brian Johnstone
Arc, ISBN 978-1908376-05-3, £9.99, pbk (also available hbk), June
Brian Johnstone, based in Fife and a big figure on the Scottish poetry scene, follows up on his 2009 collection
from Arc, The Book of Belongings.
Bright Travellers
Fiona Benson
Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0224099493, £10, pbk, May
First full-length collection from Fiona Benson, previously published in the Faber New Poets series.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
6
Eavan Boland: A Poet's Dublin
ed Paula Meehan and Jody Allen Randolph
Carcanet, ISBN 978 1 847774 47 7, £8.95, pbk, May
Renowned Irish poet Eavan Boland's 70th birthday is celebrated with this selection of photographs to
accompany her poems about her home city of Dublin.
Merchant in Feathers
Tanya Shirley
Peepal Tree Press, ISBN 9781845232337, £8.99, pbk, May
Jamaican poet Tanya Shirley is taking part in our Commonwealth Poetry exchange - hear her 'poetry
postcard' on BBC Scotland's podcast.
Tom Paulin: New Selected Poems
Faber & Faber, ISBN 978-0571307982, hbk, £14.99, May
The Moon Before Morning
W S Merwin
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 101 2, pbk, £12, May
P J Kavanagh: New Selected Poems
Carcanet, ISBN 978 1 847772 52 7, pbk, £12.95, May
Elsewhere Or Thereabouts
Alasdair Paterson
Shearsman, ISBN 9781848613270, £8.95, pbk, 15 January
Born in Edinburgh and now living in Exeter, Alasdair Paterson returned to writing after a gap of 20 years. His
poem 'In The Library' was selected for the SPL's Best Scottish Poems 2010.
Selected Poems
Paul Farley
Picador, ISBN: 9781447220428 13 February, £16.99 pbk
Manual
Richard Berengarten
Shearsman, ISBN 9781848613256, 15 February, £8.95 pbk
Elder
David Constantine
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1780370989, £9.95, pbk, March
The tenth collection from this poet and translator informed by European influences.
All One Breath
John Burnside
Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0224097406, £10, pbk, Feb
John Burnside's new collection, his first since T S Eliot prize-winning Black Cat Bone, considers shared
experience. (A prose memoir, I Put A Spell On You, is out in May, also from Jonathan Cape.)
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
7
Taking Mesopotamia
Jenny Lewis
Carcanet, ISBN 978 1 906188 11 5, £9.95, pbk, March
Rooted in the author's discovery of her father, a soldier in the Mesopotamian campaign in World War I; but
brought up to the present, connecting WWI fragments to war in Iraq. Contains poems translated into Arabic,
as well as exploring diary, prose, free verse and formal poems.
Grun-tu-molani
Vidyan Ravinthiran
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 099 7, £9.95, pbk, 27 March
A first full-length collection from Vidyan Ravinthiran, with poems about Sri Lanka, as well as poems in
translation.
The Sparkling Jewel of Naturism
Selima Hill
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 103 9, pbk, £9.95, March
Northern Soul
Ron Silliman
Shearsman, ISBN 9781848613195, pbk, £8.95, 15 March
Openings: A European Journal
Jeremy Hooker
Shearsman, ISBN 9781848613041, pbk, £13.95, 15 March 2014
Reassembling Still — Collected Poems
David Miller
Shearsman, ISBN 9781848613317, pbk, £14.95,15 March
The Dustbowl
Jim Goar
Shearsman, ISBN 978-1848613218, pbk, £8.95, April
ANTHOLOGIES
The Evergreen: A New Season in the North
Wordbank
hbk, £15, October, direct from Wordbank
Edinburgh publishing collective Wordbank is updating theEvergreen periodical last produced 120 years ago
by Allan Ramsay and Patrick Geddes, with an impressive roster of contributing poets and authors. The
new Evergreen aims to ‘revive local colour’ in Edinburgh and explore how literature and the arts support
community – in any locality.
Out There
ed Zoë Strachan
Freight Publishing, ISBN 978-1-908754-68-4, pbk, £8.99, September
A definitive new anthology of poetry and prose writing from Scotland’s leading and emerging LGBT writers,
including the likes of Ali Smith, Louise Welsh, Jackie Kay, Ronald Frame, Toni Davidson, Kerry Hudson, Val
McDermid, Damian Barr, and edited by Zoe Strachan.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
8
Forward Book of Poetry 2015
intro Jeremy Paxman
Faber, ISBN 978-0571315246, pbk, £8.99, 30 September
Selections from the books and poems shortlisted in the three categories of this year's Forward Prize shortlist to your right.
Best British Poetry 2014
ed Mark Ford, Roddy Lumsden
Salt, ISBN 978-1-907773-68-6, £9.99
Exactly what it says on the tin.
Poetry By Heart: Poems for learning and reciting
ed Andrew Motion, Dixon
Viking, ISBN 978-0241185544, pbk, £16.99, also hbk, 2 October
Coincides with the third Poetry By Heart competition, and - of course - National Poetry Day 2014.
Look Up Edinburgh: World-Class Architectural Heritage That's Hidden in Plain Sight
ed Adrian Searle, David Barbour
Freight Books, ISBN 978-1908754776, £25, hbk, 31 October
Following Look Up Glasgow, this book explores Edinburgh's extraordinary rooftop architectural heritage.
Features full colour photography, annotations, and occasional verse from some of the city's leading poets.
Be The First to Like This: New Scottish poetry
ed Colin Waters
Vagabond Voices, ISBN 978-1-908251-35-0, pbk, £9.95, September
Be the First to Like This features 40 poets, mostly under 40, who have made Scotland their home. It’s a
survey, a yearbook, a celebration and a promise of things to come.
Songs of Other Places: New writing Scotland 32
ed Gerry Cambridge, Zoe Strachan
ASLS, ISBN 978-1906841195, pbk, £9.45, July
The annual selection of new writing, prose and poetry, from established and emerging writers. Full contents
list on the ASLS site.
Ten: The new wave
ed Karen McCarthy Woolf
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1780371108, £9.95, pbk, September
Ten poets, selected for The Complete Works 2 mentoring project, a groundbreaking initiative to promote
diversity and quality in British poetry, initiated by the writer Bernardine Evaristo.
Poems Dead and Undead
ed Tony Barnstone, Michelle Mitchell-Foust
Everyman, ISBN 978-0375712517, £9, hbk, September
A spine-chillingly (and in good time to be Hallowe'en-appropriate) collection of poems about the living and
the dead and the world between.
Scotia Nova: Poems for the Early Days of a Better Nation
ed Alistair Findlay and Tessa Ransford
Luath Press, ISBN, 9781910021101, pbk, £8.99, August
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
9
Scotia Nova is a collection of poetry addressing social and political issues in Scotland.
Blame Montezuma!: An assortment of chocolate poems
Happenstance Press, August
From Happenstance, the small Scottish pamphlet press, this tantalising promise: an anthology of chocolate
poems. Poems about chocolate. It may have sent the publisher a little dotty, though: do read her blog, you'll
see what I mean.
Poems Of The American South, ed David Biespiel, Everyman Classics (US)
Arabic Poems, ed Marle Hammond, Everyman Classics (US)
Tools of the Trade: Poems for new doctors
ed Lesley Manson, John Gillies, Ali Newell, Lilias Fraser
Scottish Poetry Library, pbk, £5, 978-0-9562191-6-9
A pocket-size book, given free to every new doctor graduating in Scotland this year, with poems to help
them do the job and stay in one piece. We have a small proportion of the print run for sale. Read more
A Doctor's Line
ed Kenneth Calman
Sandstone Press, hbk, £16.99, 978-1-908737-89-2
Professor Sir Kenneth Calman looks at public health and the practice of medicine, using Scottish literature
from the 18th century to the present, the developing role of doctors in society and their relationship
with their patients.
Ten Poems from Scotland
ed Don Paterson
Candlestick Press, ISBN 978 1 907598 25 8, pbk, £4.95, April
A lovely micro-selection of Scotland in 10 poems from the excellent Candlestick Press, containing some
unexpecteds and some favourites - see the full list here.
The Emma Press Anthology of Fatherhood
ed Rachel Piercey, Emma Wright
The Emma Press, ISBN 978-1910139004, pbk, £10, April
This small press is establishing itself with attractively designed poem cards and thematic anthologies. Their
'motherhood' anthology came out earlier in the year; 'fatherhood' is nicely in time for Fathers' Day in June.
Poems from the First World War
ed Gaby Morgan
Macmillan Children's Books & Imperial War Museum, ISBN 978-1447248644, pbk, £5.99, May (hbk available
from Sep 2013)
Poetry of WWI by not only the servicemen, but many more affected by the conflict, from nursing staff to
families.
Passionfood: 100 Love Poems
ed Neil Astley
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1852248697, hbk, £9.95, 30 January
A new hardback gift edition of this particularly luscious selection of love poems.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
10
The Poetry of Sex
ed Sophie Hannah
Viking, ISBN 978-0670921836, hbk, £14.99, 30 January
This new anthology, edited by Sophie Hannah who is herself no slouch on the concise skewering of love and
lovers in verse, promises a wide range of poems all about a perfectly sensible topic your web browser isn't
going to like. Order the printed book.
From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914-1945
ed David Goldie and Roderick Watson
ASLS Annual Volumes, ISBN 978-1906841164, £12.50, hbk, 3 February
From the Line brings together the best of Scotland's poetry from the two World Wars: 138 poems, from fiftysix poets, both men and women, from battlefields across the world and from the Home Front.
Paris: Poetry of place
ed Hetty Meyric Hughes
Eland, ISBN 978-1906011314, pbk, £6.99, Feb
Another in Eland's lovely pocket-sized anthologies of poetry about particular places (the one about Scotland
a few years back is also excellent).
The Emma Press Anthology of Motherhood
ed Rachel Piercey, Emma Wright
Emma Press, ISBN 978-0-9574596-7-0, pbk, £10, Feb
With good time for Mother's Day, an anthology of 32 poems about motherhood's complexity and
immediacy.
CLASSICS & ESSENTIALS
Walter De La Mare: Snow
ill Carolina Rabei
Faber, ISBN 978-0571312191, £12.99, hbk, also pbk, 16 October
De La Mare's poem with new picturebook illustrations.
Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin: An anthology
ed Alan Bennett
Faber, ISBN 978-0571321094, £14.99, hbk, also pbk, CD, ebook, 2 October
Containing more than 100 poems from Thomas Hardy, A E Housman, John Betjeman, W H Auden, Louis
MacNeice and Philip Larkin, with Bennett's commentary discussing their style and charting his own reactions
to their work.
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies
Clark Ashton Smith, ed S T Joshi
Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0143107385, £9.99, pbk
A new selection of prose and poetry by the extraordinary Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) - poet, artist, and
author of tales of fantasy and horror, in the circle of H P Lovecraft.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
T S Eliot, illus Rebecca Ashdown
Faber, ISBN 978-0571311866, pbk, £5.99, 6 February
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
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Here it is - the one, the only, in a newly illustrated edition for its 75th anniversary year.
A Ted Hughes Bestiary
Selected by Alice Oswald
Faber, ISBN 978 0 571 30143 0, £14.99, pbk
A chronological selection from Hughes' animal poems.
TRANSLATION
The Finest Music: An anthology of early Irish lyrics
ed Maurice Riordan
Faber, ISBN 978-0571298013, £14.99, October, hbk
A generous anthology of early Irish poetry, in modern translations such as Auden, Graves or Tennyson, but
also in contemporary translations including Seamus Heaney, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Paul Muldoon, Kathleen
Jamie, Ciaran Carson and Christopher Reid.
Archipelago
Antonella Anedda, translated by Jamie McKendrick
Bloodaxe, pbk ISBN 978-1780371085, £12, 23 October
Archipelago is a bilingual selection of poems by the leading Italian poet Antonella Anedda drawn from five
collections she has published in Italy.
Florentino and the Devil
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, translated by Timothy Ades and Gloria Carnevali
Shearsman Press, pbk ISBN 978-1848613485, £9.95, 7 October
One of the most popular poems of Venezuela: Florentino is such a great singer and poet that the Devil gets
jealous and challenges him to a night of singing.
Crimsoning the Eagle's Claw: The Viking Poems of Rognvaldr Kali Kolsson, Earl of Orkney
translated by Ian Crockatt
Arc, pbk ISBN 9781908376602, £9.99, September
A translation of all 33 of Rognvaldr’s verses from the Orkneyinga Saga, by poet and scholar Ian Crockatt
based in Aberdeenshire. While full of highly stylised, often grotesque images, the poems convey the skill,
vigour and daring of the original.
The Poetic Edda
translated by Carolyne Larringon
Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), pbk ISBN 978-0199675340, £9.99, September
A new edition of the famous collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry known as the
Poetic Edda, with fully revised translations and updated introduction and notes.
The Odyssey
trans Barry Powell
OUP USA, pbk, £20.00, 9780199360314, August
A particularly generous book which includes a new translation, maps, images, notes and complementary
recordings at www.oup.com/us/powell.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
12
This Room Is Waiting: poems from Iraq
ed Lauren Pyott and Ryan Van Winkle
Freight Books, ISBN 978-1-908754-49-3, £9.99, pbk, April
Four award-winning UK poets come together with four Iraqi poets to create a truly unforgettable anthology
that sheds new light on real lives in contemporary post-war Iraq. Scotland-based Jen Hadfield, Billy Letford,
Krystelle Bamford and John Glenday collaborate with four contemporary Iraqi poets, including acclaimed
Zahir Mousa, Sabreen Kadhim, Ghareeb Iskander and Kurdish Iraqi, Awezan Nouri. Working with literal
translations of the Arabic and Kurdish poems, the English language poets have created new ‘versions’,
startling works that channel the anger, fear, hurt, hope, joy and fragile optimism of the originals,
reconnecting readers with the realities of real life in post-invasion Iraq.
Louis de Paor: The Brindled Cat and the Nightingale’s Tongue
trans Kevin Anderson, Biddy Jenkinson and Mary O'Donoghue
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 109 8, £12, pbk, June (bilingual)
Leading Irish poet Louis de Paor's Irish language poems are closely translated here into English, and
published in both languages.
My Voice: A Decade of Poems from the Poetry Translation Centre
ed Sarah Maguire
Bloodaxe, ISBN 1 78037 107 1, £12, pbk, June (multilingual)
111 poems translated from 23 different languages (ranging from Arabic to Zapotec: all the original scripts are
included) and representing 26 countries, translated by 45 of the world’s leading poets, including Jo Shapcott,
Sean O’Brien, Lavinia Greenlaw, W N Herbert, Mimi Khalvati and Nick Laird. Founded by Sarah Maguire, the
Poetry Translation Centre aims to transform English verse through engaging with the rich poetic traditions of
the UK’s recent immigrant communities including Somalian, Afghan, Sudanese and Kurdish for whom poetry
is of overwhelming importance.
Ana Blandiana: My Native Land A4
trans Paul Scott Derrick and Viorica Patea
Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1780371054, £9.95, pbk, May
Ana Blandiana is a leading Romanian poet, a dissident during the Communist regime and an opponent of
Ceausescu. This is a translation of her latest collection.
Ice Roses: Selected Poems
Sarah Kirsch, trans Anne Stokes
Carcanet, ISBN 978-1847771513, pbk, £14.95, 27 February
Sarah Kirsch (1935 - 2013) was an important voice in German poetry, living first in East then West Germany.
These new English translations make her work freshly accessible to readers.
Fernando de Herrera: Selected Poems
trans Luis Ingelmo, Michael Smith
Shearsman, ISBN 978-1848613348, pbk, £9.95, 15 February
English translations of the Spanish Renaissance poet, Fernando de Herrera (1534-97).
Euripides: Bacchae
Robin Robertson
Vintage, ISBN 978-0099577379, hbk, £12, Feb
Robin Robertson's new translation of Euripides' play of bacchanalian excess.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
13
A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde
Lavinia Greenlaw
Faber, ISBN 978-0571284542, hbk & ebook, £16.99, 6 March
Lavinia Greenlaw's precision and clarity offers not exactly a translation of Chaucer's poem, but more a new
way of thinking about the poem and its tragic lovers.
SMALL PRESS
Green Fire & Bright Hopes: 12 poems for Christmas
Hamish Whyte and Diana Hendry
Mariscat Press, ISBN 978-0946588763, November 2014, £5.00, pbk
A series of jointly-written Christmas poems, originally sent as Christmas cards by poets Hamish Whyte and
Diana Hendry.
Prodigal
Jim Carruth
Mariscat Press, ISBN 9780946588749, £6, September
Jim Carruth, Glasgow's new Makar, explores the rural family and its tensions in this new pamphlet.
ViewMaster: Chapbook & digital album
Ryan Van Winkle, Dave Gorman
viewmasteralbum.bandcamp.com/releases, £6
ViewMaster is a book and digital album, developed from live performances in 2013 and 2014 in Bristol and
the Made in Scotland Showcase at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ryan Van Winkle and sound artist Dan
Gorman guide you through a playful, surreal, journey to a distant land.
Entomology
Helen Clare
Happenstance, pamphlet
Poems about insects (which are also, of course, about people).
Dat Trickster Sun
Christine De Luca
Mariscat, pamphlet
A new pamphlet collection from the brand new Edinburgh Makar and Shetlandic/English poet, Christine De
Luca.
The Other Creatures in the Wood
Hugh McMillan
Mariscat, pamphlet
Hugh McMillan is based in Dumfries and Galloway, though these poems range across country.
Murder Bear
W N Herbert
Donut Press, ISBN 9780956644572, £10, November 2013
We'll keep claiming W N Herbert as a Dundonian, despite a number of years' residence in Newcastle. This
pamphlet not only has the lovely design values of Donut Press, but promises to be viciously funny and witty.
(Not a cuddly teddy to share with younger readers, though.)
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
14
CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
How The Library (Not The Prince) Saved Rapunzel
Wendy Meddour, ill Rebecca Ashdown Petrie
Frances Lincoln, £11.99, 9781847804327, hbk, 2 October
Oh, this you gotta have... Not even the prince can shake Rapunzel's apathy. But then she gets a new job at
the library! And suddenly life wakes up. “For despite her long hair and her ravishing looks, she loved nothing
better than reading good books!”
My Life As A Goldfish and Other Poems
Rachel Rooney
Frances Lincoln, pbk £6.99, ISBN 9781847804822 2 October
A monster’s lunch, a wolf boy, Monday mornings, monkeys, headlice, Christmas, making friends, goldfish – a
promising new collection from the winner of the CLPE Poetry Award.
Woozy the Wizard: A spell to get well
Elli Woollard, ill Al Murphy
Faber, ISBN 978 0 571 31109 5, £5.99, pbk, 2 October
An easily-confused wizard causes havoc.
Book
John Agard, Neil Packer
Walker Books, ISBN 978-0744544787, £12.99, pbk, 2 October
Part poetry, part reflection - the story of Book, told by the codex itself.
Yanitzia Canetti, ill Patrice Aggs, Uno Dos Tres: My First Spanish Rhymes,
(Frances Lincoln); First Spanish rhymes available with a CD and includes a dual language glossary in the back
Elizabeth Hammill, Over the Hills and Far Away: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes from Around the
World (Frances Lincoln) Double-page spreads illustrated by 76 different artists, who has donated his or her
work to the Collection or Archive at Seven Stories, Britain's National Centre for Children's Books.
Room on the Broom in Scots
Julia Donaldson, James Robertson
Black and White, ISBN 978 1 84502 753 7, August, pbk, £6.99
Just like it says - that best-beloved Julia Donaldson/Alex Scheffler picture book, but in a new Scots version by
James Robertson.
Katie's A Tae Z: A Scots alphabet for wee folk
James Robertson, ill Karen Sutherland
Black and White, ISBN 978-1845027544, July, pbk, £7.99
The newest in James Robertson's Katie series, a Scots alphabet book for very young readers.
Werewolf Club Rules!
Joseph Coelho
Frances Lincoln, ISBN 978-1847804525, August, pbk, £6.99
Lively poems for younger readers and early teens. As far as we know, this young performance-based poet is
not Scottish; but then, he's writing about werewolves, among other things. What more do you want?
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
15
YI ER SAN: My First Chinese Nursery Rhymes
Jie Mu, ill Patrice Aggs
Frances Lincoln, ISBN 9781847805317, August, hbk, £12.99
If your Mandarin is not quite up to this, don't worry - there's a CD to accompany the 25+ nursery rhymes, as
well as the illustration of key words, and a guide at the back on useful phrases.
Dinosaur Rhyme Time, ill Valentina Mendicino, Faber (padded)
Pip Jones ill Ella Okstad, Squishy McFluff: Supermarket sweep!, Faber
T S Eliot, ill Nicholas Bentley, The Illustrated Old Possum (original illustrations, new edition), Faber
Five Nonsense Poems
Five Poems About Teachers
Five Creepy Crawly Poems
Ogden Nash, The Tale of Custard the Dragon
Candlestick Press, £4.95, pbk, March
The wonderful Candlestick Press produce pamphlets of poems that cost about the same as a posh birthday
card but ensure a better read for the recipient. These five are all suitable for those up to 11, as well as their
teachers and anybody else who likes a good read.
Hog in the Fog: A Harry and Lil story
Julia Copus, Illustrated by Eunyoung Seo
Faber, ISBN 978-0571307210, £6.99, pbk, 6 March
A first children's book by poet Julia Copus, and the first new picture book on Faber's children's list. 'This is
the story of Candy Stripe Lil / and Harry the Hog who lived over the hill ... and a foggy March day, roundabout
three, / when Lil had invited Harry for tea.'
Stars in Jars
Chrissie Gittins
Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781408196939, £6.99, pbk, 13 February
New and selected poems from this experienced and popular poet for children.
ABOUT
James Robertson, 365 Stories (Penguin)
Gwyneth Lewis, Quantum Poetics: the Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures (Bloodaxe)
Sylvia Plath, The It-Doesn’t-Matter-Suit and Other Stories (Faber)
Carol Ann Duffy, Faery Tales (Faber)
John Milton, Areopagitica (Penguin Classics)
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
16
Poetry Notebook
Clive James
Picador, ISBN: 9781447269106, £14.99, hbk, 9 October
Clive James' essays on the art form which matters to him most: poetry.
The Poetry and Critical Writings of Katherine Mansfield (The Edinburgh Edition of Katherine Mansfield, vol 3)
ed Gerri Kimber and Angela Smith
Edinburgh University Press, hbk ISBN 978 0 7486 8501 1, hbk, £85.00
Katherine Mansfield’s non-fiction collected in one volume for the first time, bringing together all of
Mansfield’s poetry (some 179 poems and several songs), her literary translations (including letters by Anton
Chekhov as well as those of Dostoevsky to his wife), her witty, sometimes scorching, parodies and pastiches,
her imaginative aphorisms, her many incisive and heartfelt reviews of the novels of the day, and her essays.
Edward Thomas: from Adlestrop to Arras, A Biography
Jean Moorcroft Wilson
Bloomsbury, hbk ISBN 9781408187135, £25.00, September
The first full biography of World War One poet Edward Thomas for thirty years, exploring his early marriage,
his dependence on laudanum, and his enduring friendships with Conrad, Brooke and Frost.
Dylan Thomas: A centenary celebration
Hannah Ellis
Bloomsbury, hbk ISBN 9781472903099, £18.99, September
A collection of specially commissioned essays celebrating the poet’s life and exploring his lasting legacy,
edited by his granddaughter, Hannah Ellis.
Philip Larkin: Art, life and love
James Booth
Bloomsbury, hbk ISBN 9781408851661, £25.00; epub ISBN 9781408851678, £21.99, August
A brand new biography by James Booth, “a literary biography which is both elegant and moving, conveying
the shape of a life – and a love-life – as sensitively as he conveys the shape of the poetic oeuvre ... At the
core of the book is the poetry, which Booth analyses in a reader-friendly manner, without verbosity but with
passion and precision". Carol Rumens
The Symbolist Movement in Literature
Arthur Symons, ed Matthew Creasy
Fyfield Books, ISBN 978 1 847771 25 4, £14.95, pbk, June
First published in 1899, The Symbolist Movement in Literature was a highly influential work of criticism on
French symbolism, and a formative influence on modernist writers such as Joyce, Eliot, Pound and Yeats.
This new critical edition makes available a key text that has been out of print for over 50 years, and includes
the essays that Symons added to the expanded edition of his book in 1919.
Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew
Max Egremont
Picador, ISBN 9781447241997, hbk, £20, May
By the biographer of Siegried Sassoon, this is the history and a chronological anthology of the poetry of
WWI: the poetry of Owen, Graves, Brooke, Gurney, Nichols, Thomas, Sassoon in historical and biographical
context.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians
17
Smith: A reader's guide to the poetry of Michael Donaghy
Don Paterson
Picador, ISBN 9781447281979, October 2014, £9.99, pbk
The electrifying poet Michael Donaghy died unreasonably young in 2004. Here, fifty short and illuminating
essays by his friend and editor Don Paterson accompany fifty of Donaghy's best poems.
Recommended new & forthcoming poetry titles
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/librarians