W.N. Herbert Readings
‘A weird mix of Desperate Dan, MacDiarmid and Dostoyevsky…a rare and fantastic voice.’ – Fiachra Gibbons, Guardian
W.N. [Bill] Herbert is a highly versatile poet who writes both in English and Scots. Twice shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, his collections have also been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, McVities Prize, Saltire Awards and Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award. Four are Poetry Book Society Recommendations. In 2014 he was awarded a Cholmondeley Prize for his poetry, and an honorary doctorate from Dundee University. In 2015 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was Dundee's inaugural Makar from 2013 to 2018.
His latest collection The Wreck of the Fathership was published by Bloodaxe in 2020.
‘WN Herbert’s new book, The Wreck of the Fathership, is a series of studies in public disaster and private grief. Written while working as Dundee’s first Makar (official laureate) from 2013-18, the book cleverly and movingly folds together several overlapping narratives – the illness and death of the poet’s father, the referenda on Scottish independence and the EU, the election of Trump and Johnson, the sinking of the Mona lifeboat in 1959 and the long, slow shipwreck of the post-war consensus. It’s a hugely entertaining and inventive collection…’ - Andy Croft, Morning Star
PAST EVENTS
Bill Herbert launched his latest collection, The Wreck of the Fathership, at an online event in November 2020 alongside fellow Bloodaxe poets David Constantine and Kerry Hardie. (Bill reads from 19:28.)
[16 October 2023]
