Luke Kennard

  • If I was to have a holiday, which is always my intention but I never seem to get around to it, I would take my usual six pack of books. They are made up of one novel, one biography/autobiography, one classic and three books of poetry. I will quickly run through my non-poetry books: The

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  • Eleanor Rees was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in 1978. Her pamphlet collection Feeding Fire received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002 and her first full length collection Andraste’s Hair (Salt, 2007) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards. Salt published her second collection, Eliza and

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  • In the past few days, this year’s Forward Prize shortlists have been announced. Here they are in full: Main PrizeJamie McKendrick – Crocodiles & Obelisks (Faber)Sujata Bhatt – Pure Lizard (Carcanet)Mick Imlah – The Lost Leader (Faber)Jane Griffiths- Another Country (Bloodaxe)Jen Hadfield – Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)Catherine Smith – Lip (Smith Doorstop) First Book Simon Barraclough –

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  • The sharp eyed among you will have noticed that, despite previous posts on the Forward prize shortlists, I’ve not yet commented on the results. The main reason for this, aside from the usual time pressures, is that so far I’ve read only one of the shortlisted collections in each of the book lists–John Burnside’s Gift

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  • Fringe First!

    It looks like my dulcet tones will be gracing the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time ever* this year: I have a 10-minute reading slot in the Postscript show at Diverse Attractions on Monday 20th August and Wednesday 22nd August. The show starts at 7.15pm and lasts roughly an hour and a half, but

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  • Salt has started a blog of coverage, readings etc connected to its Forward shortlisted authors. Can’t help but be chuffed to see they’ve linked to my comments on the shortlist. I’ll add the blog to the sidebar. Keep an eye on it: there seems to be something new every half hour or so! The latest

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  • The shortleet for this year’s Forward prizes is out and I haven’t read a single book on it. No surprise there, as I don’t ever seem to keep well abreast of these lists. I don’t own any of the titles yet either, although John Burnside‘s Gift Songs should already be in the post from the

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