This new collection tells some bold stories. There is the Nativity of Christ, the Communion of Saints, a Resurrection that even includes the skeleton of poor Yorick, and a life ever after in the celebrations of fiction. A group of allegorical stories about desire, lust, sex, love and frustration is followed by a group of ‘true’ stories, exploring themes both personal and historical, political and environmental.
“Schmidt is always a stringent poet, never shy of painful truth.”
– Helen Dunmore, The Observer
“His work offers pleasure, argument and a complex expression of feeling.”
– James Sutherland-Smith, Poetry Review
Michael Schmidt OBE is the founder and editorial director of Carcanet Press and PN Review. A high-profile figure in contemporary poetry, his Selected Poems (1997; ISBN 9781869961824), Resurrection of the Body (2006; ISBN 9781902382869), and Collected Poems (2009; ISBN 9781902382005) are all published by Smith Doorstop. His awards include a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation, and he has been shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the New York Times Book of the Year. He is Professor of Poetry at the University of Glasgow.