Abigail Parry Readings
‘I Think We’re Alone Now is a tour de force. Parry’s poems burst off the page, playing with marginalia, footnotes, references to a broad range of culture. It's joyful and, when it needs to, it displays a mastery of formal structures. Parry's at the top of her game.’ – John Field, T S Eliot Prize 2023 reviewer
Abigail Parry's second collection I Think We're Alone Now was published in November 2023 and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. The poems explore intimacy and failures of intimacy, and deal in pop music, etymology, surveillance equipment, church architecture and beetles.
Her debut collection Jinx, published by Bloodaxe Books in March 2018, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2018 and for the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize 2019, and was named a Book of the Year in The New Statesman (Marina Warner), The Telegraph (Tristram Fane Saunders) and the Morning Star (Kate Wakeling).
'What makes this collection thrilling is Parry's relentless and immense curiosity, often signalled by her breaking into asides and parentheses ... for all its allusiveness and its continual sidelong glances, I Think We're Alone Now is entirely companionable.' – Ian Sansom, The Daily Telegraph
‘The book I’d like to recommend is Abigail Parry’s I Think We’re Alone Now. I first heard Abigail Parry perform her work at this year’s Penarth Literary Festival Poetry Showcase and was caught by her vivid voice and the intelligence of her rhythm and clarity. She can shock you and skin you with her wit, yet her poems feel strangely merciful, cleverly observant, and filled with references to everything from Rilke and Shakespeare to Richie Cordell and Radiohead.’ – Katie Munnik, Wales Arts Review (Books of the Year 2023)
Abigail Parry took part in the T S Eliot Prize Readings at London's Southbank Centre on 14 January 2024. Audio extracts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's The Verb on 19 January 2024, introduced by Ian McMillan, who also hosted the event at the Royal Festival Hall on 14 January. Listen via BBC Sounds here. Scroll down to watch a video of the full T S Eliot Prize Readings at the Royal Festival Hall.
FORTHCOMING READINGS
Saturday 13 April 2024, 7pm
The Hastings Bookshop
5 Trinity St, Hastings TN34 1HG
Three Bloodaxe Poets: Matthew Caley, Amali Gunasekera and Abigail Parry
Joint reading by three Bloodaxe poets: Matthew Caley, Abigail Parry and Amali Gunasekera.
Free event, but booking required via Eventbrite here.
An interview with Abigail Parry was posted on Hastings Online Times ahead of this event. Read here.
Interviews with Amali Gunasekera and Matthew Caley are on Hastings Online Times here.
Thursday 9 May, 6.30pm
Newcastle Poetry Festival (in person and online)
Abigail will be reading alongside fellow Bloodaxe poet Jane Clarke. Both Abigail Parry's new collection I Think We're Alone Now and Jane Clarke's A Change in the Air were shortlisted for the 2023 T S Eliot Prize.
Tickets: £8/£6/£3. Day and weekend passes (including digital-only attendance) also available. More information and ticket booking here. (Tickets on sale from 4 April)
Tuesday 25 June 2024, The Melville Centre for the Arts, Abergavenny, Wales
Pen-y-Pound, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire NP7 5UD
Abigail Parry will be reading from her second collection I Think We're Alone Now at the Melville Centre in Abergavenny.
Details to follow: https://melvillecentre.org.uk/events/
T S ELIOT PRIZE VIDEOS
Abigail Parry talks about her work
Abigail talks about her work and her shortlisted collection I Think We're Alone Now.
Abigail Parry reads 'Axonometric'
Abigail reads 'Axonometric' from her T S Eliot Prize-shortlisted collection I Think We're Alone Now, published by Bloodaxe Books.
T S Eliot Prize Readings, Royal Festival Hall, 14 January 2024
All ten poets nominated for the T S Eliot Prize 2023 read from their shortlisted collections. Abigail Parry is introduced by Ian McMillan at 1:22:45. Fellow Bloodaxe poet Jane Clarke's reading followed immediately after Abigail's and is introduced at 1:35:19.
PAST READINGS
Tuesday 21 November 2023, 7pm (YouTube Live)
Live-streamed launch reading by Matthew Caley, MacGillivray and Abigail Parry
This joint launch reading by Matthew Caley, MacGillivray and Abigail Parry celebrating the publication of their new poetry books was livestreamed on 21 November 2023. They were reading live and discussing their work with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event is now on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/XmwI5yCOU60. Abigail read last in each set.
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Abigail Parry: I Think We’re Alone Now
Abigail Parry reads eight poems from I Think We're Alone Now: ‘In the dream of the cold restaurant’, ‘Some remarks on the General Theory of Relativity’, ‘Speculum’, ‘Whatever happened to Rosemarie?’, ‘The Fly Dressers’ Guide’, ‘Giallo’, ‘The brain of the rat in stereotaxic space’ and ‘It’s the lark that sings so out of tune’. Neil Astley filmed her reading from her new collection at her home in Cardiff in May 2023 ahead of the book’s publication in November 2023.
[18 October 2023]
