Jane Commane

MY 2018 began with Imtiaz Dharker’s Luck is the Hook (Bloodaxe). Subtle and rewarding, it's a gem of a book. I also found much to reward and contemplate in Jonathan Davidson’s On Poetry (Smith/Doorstop), essays which sent me back to Carol Ann Duffy, WS Graham and others. Suzanne Batty’s States of Happiness (Bloodaxe) and Zaffar Kunial’s Us (Faber) were both tender and remarkable reads. The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus (Penned in the Margins) presented a bold, necessary, beautiful debut. And not to neglect to mention notable debuts from Nafessa Hamid (Verve) and Peter Raynard (Smokestack) — distinctive voices to watch out for.
Jane Commane’s new book is Assembly Lines (Bloodaxe).

John Gohorry

FOUR collections stand out for me this year. Clare Crossman’s Blue Hour (Shoestring) is permeated by a vivid sense of time and place, while In The Lover’s Pinch (Arenig) Gareth Writer-Davies celebrates the interplay of sexual and romantic love which is never far from death. Nicola Jackson’s Difficult Women (Indigo Dreams) explores the suffering and celebrates the courage of women exploited in the industrial age and beyond. Coventry poet Jane Commane’s Assembly Lines (Bloodaxe) captures the desolation haunting Midland towns and indeed the whole state as Brexit looms.
John Gohorry’s latest book is Not a Silent Night (Shoestring).

Andy Jackson

TWO very different picks, both of which will warm you on long winter nights. Jim Stewart's posthumous collection THIS (The Voyage Out Press, £10) is the first and, to date, only gathering of the reticent Scottish poet's best work — meditative yet muscular poems examining the quirks and patterns of nature in its everyday form. Tim Turnbull's third collection Avanti! (Red Squirrel Press, £10) is an assembly of smart, scathing and occasionally hilarious poems, neatly jumping between form and voice, with influences from music hall, popular culture and radical politics.
Andy Jackson’s latest collection is A Beginner’s Guide to Cheating (Red Squirrel Press).