As It Must - Softcover

Burns, Gale

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909362921 ISBN 13: 9781909362925

Publisher: Kingston University Press Ltd, 2026

Synopsis

Gale Burns' second full collection moves with quiet power between the personal, the family and the social. Whether set close to home or in shifting landscapes, these poems face the challenges of living in these uncertain times and meet characters-ordinary and extreme-who cross our paths.

Burns' lyricism rests on a subtle structural intelligence. Drawing on a lifetime of human encounter, he writes to make sense of what we have built, broken, and inherited. With understated skill, and sometimes humour, he guides the reader through moments of tenderness, unease, and revelation.

As the final poem of the collection, called Fallowfield, declares: Life goes on. As it must.     

About this title

About the Author

Gale Burns is a London-based award-winning poet. He's a recipient of the Serbian Indjija International Prize (2017), the Menada Prize at the Tetova International Festival (2023), and the Shoreham Wordfest Poetry Prize (2025). He has been a writer in residence at Kingston University as well as the University Hospital Lewisham, and served as vice chair of the European Association of Creative Writing Programmes. He is a convener of the influential Shuffle poetry series and a former Hawthornden Fellow. He has published three pamphlets and the collection, Mute House, with Eyewear Publishing. His work has been translated into French, Slovenian, Serbian, Romanian, Czech, and Arabic. Gale is also a psychotherapeutic counsellor, advising Greenpeace UK on climate distress, and a member of Poets for the Planet. www.galeburns.co.uk

Edition details

• Publisher: Kingston University Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1909362921
• ISBN 13: 9781909362925
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 90