AL: Hi Romalyn. How are you? What’s life like where you are? RA: It has been a tough 2020 for everybody. Lockdown happened when my editor and I were putting …
Constant Flux: Rachel Long talks to Ali Lewis
AL: Hi Rachel. How are you? What poetry has been seeing you through these difficult times? RL: Throughout early-to-mid lockdown I couldn’t read a thing. That’s never happened before. I’ve …
No Fixed Points: Inua Ellams talks to Reviews Editor Dai George
DG: How are you? What’s life like where you are, at the time of writing? IE: I’m okay, I’m alright. Life for me at the moment oscillates between intense mundanity, …
Who Language Holds: Bridget Minamore reads a landmark collection on Black friendship
Danez Smith homie Chatto £10.99 homie, Danez Smith’s third poetry collection, is not called homie. Instead, a note on the title informs us that the poems – all 38 of them, …
A flint holds fire: Vidyan Ravinthiran on growing up with a speech impediment
My parents, told already by their GP I was deaf in one ear and developmentally delayed (shown a cartoon horse in a field, I shouted ‘cow!’), reacted sceptically when it …
Cold war spy with a mouth full of gold fillings
Susannah Dickey This is what she was after: a big light-eating slice of butternut squash for a mandible. When people offer you a slice of the action the action is …
Black Seeds and Soil / Roger Casement speaks /
Inua Ellams
She
Hannah Lowe She brought me a glass of orange squash each morning and hers was the strong soothing hand that led me to school, and left me skipping or hop-scotching …
An Interview with Eleanor Penny, winner of the Poetry London Prize 2020
PL: Firstly, huge congratulations on winning 1st prize in this year’s competition! Ilya was extremely impressed by the quality of the entries, so this is a great achievement. Can you …
An Interview with S. Niroshini, 3rd prize-winner in the Poetry London Prize 2020
Poetry London: Many congratulations on winning 3rd prize in this year’s competition! Can you tell us a little about when and why you wrote this poem, and why you felt …
An Interview with Pat Winslow, 2nd prize-winner in the Poetry London Prize 2020
Poetry London: Firstly, many congratulations on winning 2nd prize in this year’s competition! Ilya was extremely impressed by the quality of the entries, so this is no small achievement. Can …
Poetry London Prize 2020: Highly Commended
Sean Cooper δ A democracy in decline has a need for poetry and a democracy in decline has no need for poetry. Our attention span for text has dropped, so …
Poetry London Prize 2020: Highly Commended
Mel Pryor Evening Scene Into a lamb and apricot casserole I am stirring my brother’s rage. I must do this for him because I am in his apartment and he …
Poetry London Prize 2020: Highly Commended
Luke Allan Mantelpiece with Bananas Sometimes a great boredom comes over me when I am naked. Standing at the window watching a man fasten his daughter into the plastic bike-seat, …
Poetry London Prize 2020: 3rd PRIZE
S. Niroshini Letters to Sunny Leone i. Dear Sunny, I want to explain to you how I lost track of my body. Or rather, how I lost the sense that …
Poetry London Prize 2020: 2nd PRIZE
Pat Winslow 1971, Northaw
Poetry London Prize 2020: 1st PRIZE
Eleanor Penny Winter, a biography I’ll admit I was raised in a red house by a woman with red hands on a bare hill, where birds walked on the ground …
