Suzanna Fitzpatrick's The Deeper Read

In the context of a review culture in which hot takes, pseudo blurbs and cod-academic posturing are rife, it's a huge breath of fresh air to encounter a critic who engages with a poet and their poetry, who gets to grips with the nuts and bolts of every line, who reaches far beyond a mere description of thematic concerns, all without lapsing into jargon or self-aggrandisement.

This is why I'm thoroughly recommending Suzanna Fitzpatrick's The Deeper Read today. It's a regular Substack where she delves deeply into one collection at a time. Her writing and insights are terrific in their clarity, worthy of a wider audience and way more interesting than most reviews that can be found in major journals, even the essay-length ones, so I'm not taking restricted words counts as an excuse here. In fact, Fitzpatrick's showing up a fair few bigger names in The Deeper Read. I suggest you explore its archive via this link, but with one warning: it's likely to provoke you into purchases of poetry books that you'd never heard of and suddenly need...!

Sheenagh Pugh reviews Whatever You Do, Just Don't

Hugely privileged that renowned poet and critic Sheenagh Pugh should have written a terrific review of Whatever Yuu Do, Just Don´t. You can read it via this link, but here's a taster to whet your appetite...

...Brexit and its aftermath do not crop up much in UK poetry, but then few UK poets have this perspective on it...this is an unusual collection, from a viewpoint we do not often see, and correspondingly enlightening.