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ConjurorsPoemsJulian OrdeEdited by James Keery
Categories: 20th Century, British, Women
Imprint: Carcanet Classics Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (180 pages) (Pub. Sep 2024) 9781800174559 £14.99 £13.49 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Sep 2024) 9781800174566 £11.99 £10.79 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions.
In Conjurors, a major poet is revealed for the first time. Julian Orde (1917–74) published only in magazines during her lifetime. A friend of Stevie Smith and an intimate of Dylan Thomas and W.S. Graham, she was one of those 'peripheral figures' who turns out to be a centre in her own right. Her evolving worlds and changing landscapes as a writer come alive in these substantial, unexpected poems. Her lyrical surrealism is prophetic and retains its charge:
The speckled water rippled into minnows,William Empson celebrated her. 'Wonder at nature, wonder at all experience, is her note, and she gets a great deal of variety into it; also she has a beautiful ear, and a supply of unforced humour.' The editor of PN Review said, 'It's hard to imagine the middle of the twentieth century now without Julian Orde.' Carcanet's recovery of her work – thanks to the patient archaeology of James Keery and V. Beatson – proves that the past, even the relatively recent past, is at least as rich in resource and surprise as the present.
Awards won by James Keery
Short-listed, 2021 The Scottish Poetry Book of the Year (Apocalypse)
Praise for James Keery
'The book is a maze of the unexpected and the good, I hope it will be around for a long time.' Fred Beake, Acumen 'The sheer range of voices on display in Apocalypse: An Anthology is as thrilling as the poems are at times challenging, even difficult'
'Apocalypse is a litany of the lost, and offers up various and distinct categories of the poetic undead... [it] redefines modern British poetry with exemplary panache.'Chris Moss, The Poetry Review David Wheatley, The Guardian 'The wealth of talent on offer is simply extraordinary... What Keery does show, regardless of labels, is a wealth of almost unknown work - work of such high standard that history books of poetry with their neat categories and vast omissions might need extra chapters that tease out the sheer quantity of good poems, rather than assuming that what has fallen through the cracks of time is best left there.' David Hackbridge Johnson 'Apocalypse is passionate. It represents a raised pitch and extended conceptual scope, a turn towards biblical and epic tone if only momentarily, and an amplification of address by which words may transcend even an excessive figurative function which remains controlled, such as Surrealism, and appear to violate the dialect itself, momentarily or consistently. There is also a characteristic rhythmic drive, frequently empowering a first-person declaration ... Keery's anthology proposes a spread of ability beyond the relevance of experts or judges, poems which are sent out into the world to fend for themselves, enlivened by attachment to a strong history.This anthology must have taken an immense amount of dedicated work; in fact I can't imagine how he managed to uncover so many worthwhile poems hidden away in forgotten poetry magazines and old small-press books. The history of British poetry in the twentieth century will never be the same again.' Peter Riley, Fortnightly Review 'It's incredible. Right into my favourite anthologies of all time.' Max Porter 'Can I find fault with this anthology? I tried, but I was overwhelmed - it gives everything you could possibly ask for and travels to places which this reviewer did not know existed... Keery has found poets we didn't even know about... This recovery of the real story of the Forties is a unique achievement, but is also a rehearsal for the even larger project of recovering the whole history of 'alternative' poetry since 1937, and for the first time drawing a map of modern British poetry which is based on information rather than a wish to control the market' Andrew Duncan, Tears in the Fence |
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