Carcanet Press - Everything Is Strange

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Everything is always strange in the poetry of Frank Kuppner. His first Carcanet book was a single poem, A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty (1984, Scottish Arts Council Book Award), running to 511 Oriental Quatrains, a kind of Procrustean Bed of Ware accommodating a multitude of four-line feelings, experiments, jests and characters. Then came The Intelligent Observation of Naked Women (1987), with five substantial poems including the `Five Quartets' and much else besides. In the 1989 collection Ridiculous, Absurd, Disgusting!, with its oblique glance at Rimbaud, he managed to include three poems, one in prose, one in verse, and one half-way between.

Everything is Strange consists of a collection of shorter poems and `In a Persian
Garden', `being a radically altered version of that Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which Richard La Gallienne paraphrased
"from several literal translations" before the Great War; here now . . . revised, edited, rewritten and
re-ordered'.

Frank Kuppner was born in Glasgow in 1951. He has written eleven Carcanet collections. The first, A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty, was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Book award in 1984. Second Best Moments in Chinese History received the same award in 1997. A novelist as well as ... read more

Praise for Frank Kuppner 'Kuppner has the capacity to state the obvious as if it were the most peculiar phenomenon... Kuppner truly is the laureate of the earnestly and charmingly bamboozled.'

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

'Goodsir Smith, who drew from poetry from the Far East, shares Kuppner's nimble and fluid ability to code-switch and move from the sublime to the ridiculous in the space of a line or two. The difference is that Kuppner has managed to sustain this for the length of a book of some 120 pages, which is a feat to be marvelled at, and of course enjoyed.'
Richie McCaffery, The Bottle Imp
'He writes with the bemused urgency of someone who has only just noticed that nothing whatsoever makes any sense... Kuppner risks playing with bathos and sarcasm, outright silliness and sheer smut...'
Sunday Herald 'Kuppner's poetry invites us to reflect on human knowledge and the ineffable, trivial nature of existence; it is true philosophy. He makes us think about what it means to be alive.'
The Independent

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Everything Is Strange Frank Kuppner Categories: 20th Century, Scottish Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (32 pages) (Pub. Jul 1994) 9781857540710 Out of Stock Description Author Reviews Everything is always strange in the poetry of Frank Kuppner. His first Carcanet book was a single poem, A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty (1984, Scottish Arts Council Book Award), running to 511 Oriental Quatrains, a kind of Procrustean Bed of Ware accommodating a multitude of four-line feelings, experiments, jests and characters. Then came The Intelligent Observation of Naked Women (1987), with five substantial poems including the `Five Quartets' and much else besides. In the 1989 collection Ridiculous, Absurd, Disgusting!, with its oblique glance at Rimbaud, he managed to include three poems, one in prose, one in verse, and one half-way between. Everything is Strange consists of a collection of shorter poems and `In a Persian Garden', `being a radically altered version of that Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which Richard La Gallienne paraphrased "from several literal translations" before the Great War; here now . . . revised, edited, rewritten and re-ordered'. Frank Kuppner was born in Glasgow in 1951. He has written eleven Carcanet collections. The first, A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty, was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Book award in 1984. Second Best Moments in Chinese History received the same award in 1997. A novelist as well as ... read more Praise for Frank Kuppner 'Kuppner has the capacity to state the obvious as if it were the most peculiar phenomenon... Kuppner truly is the laureate of the earnestly and charmingly bamboozled.' Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman 'Goodsir Smith, who drew from poetry from the Far East, shares Kuppner's nimble and fluid ability to code-switch and move from the sublime to the ridiculous in the space of a line or two. The difference is that Kuppner has managed to sustain this for the length of a book of some 120 pages, which is a feat to be marvelled at, and of course enjoyed.' Richie McCaffery, The Bottle Imp 'He writes with the bemused urgency of someone who has only just noticed that nothing whatsoever makes any sense... Kuppner risks playing with bathos and sarcasm, outright silliness and sheer smut...' Sunday Herald 'Kuppner's poetry invites us to reflect on human knowledge and the ineffable, trivial nature of existence; it is true philosophy. He makes us think about what it means to be alive.' The Independent You might also be interested in: Poems, Stories and Writings Margaret Tait, Edited by Sarah Neely All The Poems Muriel Spark Collected Poems Edwin Morgan	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog Not a Moment Too Soon: Frank Kuppner read more Coco Island: Christine Roseeta Walker read more that which appears: Thomas A Clark read more Come Here to This Gate: Rory Waterman read more Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall read more The Silence: Gillian Clarke read more
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