Flowering Limbs by Stephen Knight
Flowering Limbs was one of the most eagerly-awaited debut collections of recent years. Stephen Knight had been publishing poems for over a decade in magazines and anthologies, including Faber's prestigious Poetry Introduction 6 in 1985. He received a Gregory Award in 1987, and won the National Poetry Competition in 1992. His book was one of very few first collections to be made a Poetry Book Society Choice. It was also shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His dark, unsettling poems are vividly descriptive, and dazzling in their technical virtuosity. His is a distinctive, youthful voice, 'edgily poised' (PN Review), always looking at things strangely, revealing surreal truths in external and internal worlds. Nothing is quite what it seems in these bristling poems as Knight switches his gaze from the egocentric habits of adolescence to a broader view of a contemporary no man's land.
Here is a level, heart-breaking voice from the outskirts of Larkin country, grown shabbier, quirkier, more garish and desolate, but for all that, indestructiblePerhaps there is no other England. -- Joseph Brodsky
His poems are disturbing. There is a frisson of a kind on every page. And they have that kind of humour that is simply an alternative to pain. They are edgy, full of doubts, nostalgic but unsentimental. They leave you wondering how and why you have changed. -- Bernice Rubens
A surrealist exploration of mortality and faith in our chaotic world Welsh poet Stephen Knight turns the clock back, speeds up time or freezes it. Life is viewed through a wide-angle lens, the edges distorted, the images often at the heart of the landscape are sharply focused and always recognizable. With techniques ranging from montage to the villanelle, Knight's poems are both playful and touching, this is triumphant poetry, benignly satirical, morbidly affirmative, highly original. -- Robert Potts * London Magazine *
His poems are disturbing. There is a frisson of a kind on every page. And they have that kind of humour that is simply an alternative to pain. They are edgy, full of doubts, nostalgic but unsentimental. They leave you wondering how and why you have changed. -- Bernice Rubens
A surrealist exploration of mortality and faith in our chaotic world Welsh poet Stephen Knight turns the clock back, speeds up time or freezes it. Life is viewed through a wide-angle lens, the edges distorted, the images often at the heart of the landscape are sharply focused and always recognizable. With techniques ranging from montage to the villanelle, Knight's poems are both playful and touching, this is triumphant poetry, benignly satirical, morbidly affirmative, highly original. -- Robert Potts * London Magazine *
Stephen Knight was born in Swansea in 1960. He read English at Jesus College, Oxford, after which he studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to become a freelance director with a particular interest in new writing. He has worked extensively as a creative-writing tutor in schools, colleges, and for the University of Glamorgan and Goldsmiths College, University of London. In 1987 he received an Eric Gregory Award and in 1992 won first prize in the National Poetry Competition. He is the author of three main poetry collections: Flowering Limbs (Bloodaxe Books, 1993), a Poetry Book Society Choice, shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize; Dream City Cinema (Bloodaxe Books, 1996), a Poetry Book Society Recommedation, also shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; for younger readers, Sardines and Other Poems (2004); and The Prince of Wails (2012). Stephen Knight has also published a novel, Mr Schnitzel (2000), which won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year in 2001. His fiction and poetry reviews appear in the Times Literary Supplement and the Independent on Sunday. He lives in London.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852242466 |
| ISBN 10 | 1852242469 |
| Title | Flowering Limbs |
| Author | Stephen Knight |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bloodaxe Books Ltd |
| Year published | 1993-08-26 |
| Number of pages | 64 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |