Overview

Hastings is a seaside resort with an illustrious poetic history. Once a haven for Pre-Raphaelite poets and Victorian authors, it is still a hub of creativity today. A home to artists, musicians, and renowned contemporary writers. Edited by Richard Newham-Sullivan and with a foreword by Salena Godden, this collection, Poet Town: The Poetry of Hastings & Thereabouts, brings together the best classic, modern and spoken word poets linked to this uniquely creative coastal town. ""Poet Town is a book where some truth is shared, some magical inspiration is found and all the weather is weathered. These poems are from here, they are deep and salty, they are lurking in the crash of sea water around the legs of the pier, as much as they are wafting in the salt and vinegar on your fish and chips."" Salena Godden, from the foreword

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9781836547686

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Reviews

""A song to belonging. To the home towns that never leave us. Tender, uplifting, irreverent and glorious"" Joelle Taylor ""These poems hit you in the eye like an arrow. At turns funny, melancholy and celebratory - there's all of life between these pages"" Luke Wright

Author Information

MODERN POETS: Salena Godden, Henry Normal, Iain Sinclair, Brian Moses, AK Benedict, Penny Pepper, Orna Ross and many more. CLASSIC POETS: Christina Rossetti, Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hood, Edward Lear, Lord Byron and many more. SPOKEN WORD: Exclusive QR link to short film 'Beautifully Unharnessed Poets' Directed by Lauren Estelle Jones Richard Newham-Sullivan is the creator and editor of the Poet Town project. He was born and raised in St Leonards, near Hastings. He has written three collections of poetry: The Zoo Keeper (2003) with photographs by Camilla Stapleton-Hibbert, Orbiting (2009) with illustrations by Ed Boxall, and Things You Don't Know About You (2020). His first book, The Zoo Keeper, was highly commended by the Forward Prize and was the first ever book published by Egg Box. Things You Don't Know About You includes international McLellan prize-winning poems, 'Two Truths' and 'Paperchains'. Salena Godden FRSL, who has written the foreword for Poet Town, is an award-winning novelist, poet and broadcaster of Jamaican-Irish mixed heritage. Her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death won the Indie Book Awards for Fiction and the People's Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. Her new full poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury and literary childhood memoir Springfield Road - A Poets Childhood Revisited were published with Canongate with a double book launch in May 2024. Her work has been widely published, anthologised and broadcast on BBC radio, TV and film.One of Britain's foremost contemporary poets, Salena's electrifying live performances have earned her a devoted following. A second novel set in the Mrs Death Misses Death universe is due for publication with Canongate in 2026. Rough Trade Books published a hardback edition of Pessimism is for Lightweights-30 pieces of Courage and Resistance in 2023. The title poem is on permanent display at The People's History Museum, Manchester. Her poem 'While Justice Waits' was highly commended and published by The Forward Prize 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of West Dean, Sussex and a Patron of Hastings Book Festival and Patron of LIVEwire Poetry - a new UK poetry organisation specialising in writer development and live events. A consistent supporter of the work of other poets, writers and artists, Salena Godden co-hosts a monthly arts and culture radio show and podcast Roaring 20's Radio for Soho Radio with her friends, art journalist Amah-Rose Abrams and poet Matt Abbott.

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