The Laureate’s Choice is an annual pamphlet publication project from The Poetry Business working in collaboration with the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. This boxed set contains all four pamphlets selected by Carol Ann Duffy for 2019:
Greg Gilbert, Love Makes a Mess of Dying - Examining the collision between tragedy and hope, these poems follow the struggle to make sense of the prognosis and treatment of a life-threatening disease whilst surrounded by the love and support of friends and family. With cover illustrations by the author. Karen Smith, Schist - Schist is the lovechild of emotion and geology, the product of a childhood with a schizophrenic mother and an anorexic father on a council estate in Croydon. These poems travel to where the land gives way to the sea and family stability is eroded by illness and death. Louise G. Cole, Soft Touch - Sharp and observant, Louise G. Cole’s poems use wry humour to balance the pathos arising from picking holes in life’s day-to-day dramas. She often finds poetry in the mundane, twisting fantasy and truth with a memorable resonance. Yvonne Reddick, Spikenard - Spikenard smoulders with lust and loss. These are poems of separation, assault and revenge, with violence lurking in their margins.