Bloodaxe Books of the Year 2024
Monster by Dzifa Benson, shortlisted for the James Berry Poetry Prize 2021
‘In a strong year for debut collections, two stood out in particular. Monster by Dzifa Benson (Bloodaxe) dazzles in its range, technique and imagination, while Camille Ralphs’s After You Were, I Am (Faber) brings a medieval spirituality vibrantly into the modern world.’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (The best poetry books of 2024)
Read the feature in full here.
‘Historical figures inspired two distinctive debuts: Elizabeth I’s court magician John Dee is ventriloquised with dizzying wordplay in Camille Ralphs’s metaphysical After You Were, I Am (Faber); while Dzifa Benson’s impressive Monster (Bloodaxe) finds belated justice for the “Hottentot Venus” Sarah Baartman, a Khoekhoe woman brought to 19th-century London and displayed as a curiosity.’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph (Best poetry books of 2024)
Available online by subscription here.
‘Benson's debut explores the Black female body as both a site of oppression and resilience. Anchored by poems on Sarah Baartman’s life, Monster presents Benson’s own experiences with lyricism, Ewe mythology, and Shakespearean echoes.’ – Brittle Paper (100 Notable African Books of 2024)
Read online here.
'British-Ghanaian poet Benson’s history of Sarah Baartman gives Baartman a voice and some agency within the constraints of her terrible abduction and exploitation. This is, in the words of
the publisher, “a bold and lyrical exploration of the Black female body as a site of oppression and resistance". – Jacqueline Nyathi, The Continent (The Year in Books), on Monster
Read via PDF here. Scroll down to page 19.
Poems 2016-2024 by J H Prynne
'There's been so much lively poetry this year that it's been hard to choose my favourites. To begin with, two massive yellow bricks - J.H. Prynne's late work in one convenient volume, and Mimi Khalvati's long-awaited Collected Poems.' – John Clegg, London Review Bookshop (John's Books of the Year 2024)
Read here.
'J.H. Prynne’s Poems 2016-2024 is an essential addition to his Poems (third edition, 2015) as he continues to open new paths into liberating the English lyric and contesting global power structures. The range of innovation is fully evident as is his tireless rereading of texts we might take for granted.' – John Kinsella, Australian Book Review (Books of the Year 2024)
Read here.
Collected Poems by Fleur Adcock
‘Fleur Adcock, who died in October aged 90, was easy to underestimate … Her Collected Poems contain many small moments of truth, even when that truth might seem strange or unflattering.’ – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times (Poetry Books of the Year 2024)
Available online by subscription here.
What the Earth Seemed to Say: New & Selected Poems by Marie Howe
‘What the Earth Seemed to Say: New & Selected Poems by Marie Howe is a compelling compendium of the poet’s piercingly steady gaze at the painful truths of our lives with poems rich in forthright lyric insight.’ – Paul Perry, Sunday Independent (Poetry Books of the Year 2024)
In print only.
The Penny Dropping by Helen Farish, shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2024
‘I savoured Helen Farish’s tracing of the break-up over time of a loved relationship in The Penny Dropping. Each of the intimate, single-stanza poems acts as a window in this gripping, elegantly achieved, and ultimately very poignant book.’ – Moniza Alvi, The Poetry Society (Books of the Year)
Rhizodont by Katrina Porteous, shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2024
'...this is just stunning. Ideas cover time, deep time - and her deep connections to the place - her place in Northumberland on the north east coast of England. You do not need to know her home to become utterly absorbed in the stories she tells.' – Hugh Warwick, Shepherd Books (Top 3 Books of 2024)
Read here.
We Go On by Kerry Hardie
‘I love Kerry Hardie – she’s an incredible poet, and this collection is just extraordinary writing. To me she is the Tomas Tranströmer of Irish poetry, which is the highest accolade […] she has this stark, plain-spoken precision, but this lyrical depth, and you just know that this is a collection you’re going to read for the rest of your life.’ – Adam Wyeth, Books for Breakfast (Books of the Year)
Kerry Hardie is discussed from 33:30. Listen here.
2023 TITLES CHOSEN IN 2024
The Wrong Person to Ask by Marjorie Lotfi, winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize 2021 and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2024, shortlisted for Scottish Poetry Book of the Year (Saltire Book Awards 2024)
'...my stand-out book of the year is Marjorie Lotfi’s award-winning debut collection of poems, The Wrong Person to Ask. [...] Shaped by her migrations from Iran to America to Scotland, her poems are meditations on the themes of exile, refuge, memory, place, and the pressing grip of what has gone. They are beautiful.' – Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, Church Times (Books of the Year 2024)
Read online here.
[03 December 2024]
