The tile of his new book Heard-Hoard, derived from the phrase “word-hoard” which appears in the poem ‘North’ in a book of the same name by Seamus Heaney (North, Faber and Faber, 1975) is perfectly coined. It positions Riley as a recorder and hoarder of words but also of stories, place and sounds.

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A poetic exploration of the dual experiences of extrication and loss; youth and survivor guilt; connection and dissipation, Tracy Fuad’s debut poetry collection about: blank—so titled as this is the URL for a blank web page—problematises belonging, as a concept and a practice. While remaining loyal to her diasporic experience as a woman of mixed heritage (Kurdish-American), the book has universal scope.

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When the poetry book inãianei/now by Vaughan Rapatahana was given to me to review the cover, by Pauline Canlas Wu, not only intrigued me but also surprised me. Why? Because it portrays a group of men showing anger and two women with a resigned look on their faces and a hand expression that I interpreted as “What can we do?”. Once I read the book the cover made sense to me.

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Brian has always been a poet, but he is one of those people who also has a wide variety of artistic interests: he was lead singer for the post-industrial band, Distant Locust, together with being their lyricist – there is an earlier book of song lyrics; he is a painter (as you can see from the cover) and a photographer.

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