New Blood - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852244720 ISBN 13: 9781852244729

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

Kafka said we should read books which bite and sting: `If the book we are reading does not wake us up with a blow to the head, what's the point in reading? A book must be the axe which smashes the frozen sea within us.' Brian Hinton applied this to Neil Astley's anthology Poetry with an Edge, which `crystallises what he has already achieved with Bloodaxe, well designed and committed books, though never comfortable to read. They answer Kafka's definition of what real literature should be.' New Blood is the sequel to Poetry with an Edge, which marked Bloodaxe's first decade of poetry publishing. This completely new anthology brings together poets who have published their first collections during the past ten years. New Blood shows that Bloodaxe isn't going rusty with age, for here are some of the sharpest new talents in poetry - with poems which bite and sting as well as disturb and delight the reader. This book of new poetry from Bloodaxe `must be the axe which smashes the frozen sea within us'.

About this title

Product Description:

Unusual book

About the Author:

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably the Bloodaxe Staying Alive trilogy: Staying Alive (Bloodaxe, UK 2002/ Miramax, US 2003), Being Alive (2004) and Being Human (2011), along with Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy (2012). His other anthologies (all these from Bloodaxe) include Earth Shattering: ecopoems (2007), The Hundred Years' War: modern war poems (2014), and three collaborations with with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds (2008), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets (2008) and In Person: World Poets (2017). He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (2002), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (2005). In 2012 Candlestick Press published his selection of Ten Poems About Sheep in its renowned pamphlet series. In 2015 he guest-edited a special international issue of the American literary journal Ploughshares, its first all-poetry issue in its 44-year history. He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry from the Society of Authors in 1982 and was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books in 1995. He is a trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival, and a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1852244720
• ISBN 13: 9781852244729
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Astley Neil