Excellent news. This year's Costa winner, Christopher Reid, will be reading for the Oxfam series in London on July 8. He will be joined by a few international guests (Paul Perry- Ireland; Sina Queyras - Canada; John Monagahan - USA) and some younger poets who will read short sets, including Declan Ryan and Rachel Lehrman and Sam Riviere. More about this closer to the time. To reserve a seat contact the Oxfam Marylebone shop, and ask for manager Martin Penny.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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