'Balance' by James Womack is Poem of the Week, as chosen by Carol Rumens in the Guardian. In her ever-thoughtful discussion, Rumens considers the poem as a tactful, response to the September 11 attacks in New York, ten years ago.


James (who also contributes to our brand-new Carcanet Blog) will appear in the fifth volume of Carcanet's acclaimed New Poetries Anthology, which will be published next month. Carol Rumens, a successful author in her own right, choses a poem each week for the Guardian, and accompanies it with an original commentary. She was also kind enough to contribute to the lively debate on the future of poetry publishing in magazines, at our recent Manchester celebrations for the 200th issue of PN Review.

Click here to see what Carol thought of James' poem.



James Womack (Cambridge, 1979) studied Russian and English at university, and has lived in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Conil de la Frontera. He currently lives in Madrid, where he teaches English Literature at the Universidad Complutense and with his wife runs Nevsky Prospects, a publishing house which produces Spanish translations of Russian literature. His first collection will be published by Carcanet.