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Shortlisted for the EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards
At the centre of Emery's third collection are a series of narrative poems that reveal an astonishing range of personas, from the set of Mission Impossible, an extra from Gojira, porn stars, bombers and executioners - even Charles Bukowski turns up to take a leak. There are Pennine journeys, war zones, the Norfolk coast, the Suffolk coast, riots, bad hotel rooms and crazy conventions. Even the secret life of peas. Interspersed among all these are poems concerning the mysterious 'M'.
List of contents
- Snails
- On the Making of Entrances
- The Departure
- The Gathering
- Lake Watching
- Dandelions
- Carl's Job
- The Destroyers' Convention
- On Leaving Wale Obelisk
- Duke Bluebeard
- Rita's Creatures
- The Interrogation
- Southwold
- Sunday Fathers
- The New Play at The Astoria
- The Goose Moon
- No. 1 Cowboy Song
- Shrimpies
- On Great Endings
- Theology
- M1 3LA
- The Canal
- Oh, the Day
- Afterwards
- Apollo at Celaenae
- On Great Cities
- Boys' Town
- Guest Starring
- Bukowskis
- The Naming Convention
- Unlit Minor Fog
- The Museum of TV
- Willow
- The Publisher's Desk
- Cropping
- All Our Yesterdays
- Ending Up
- On the Small Print
- Lost Brother
- From the Frontline
- Damaged Enamel
- Fat Diaries
- A Northern Icarus
- Down at Jim's Place
- A Short History of the Manchester Riots
- The Victorian Amusement
- Coast
- Motel Sentences
- Promenading
About the author
Chris Emery is a director of Salt. He has published three collections of poetry, a writer's guide, an anthology of art and poems, and edited editions of Emily Brontë, Keats and Rossetti. His work has been widely published in magazines and anthologised, most recently in
Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe). He is a contributor to
The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing, edited by David Morley and Philip Neilsen. He lives in Cromer, North Norfolk.
Summary
Emery’s new book presents a dazzling array of voices: art dealers, TV stars, killers, cowboys, poets, coat check boys, checkout girls, composers, priests, gods, angels, winners, losers, lovers, the newly born and the dearly departed.
