Gen by Jonathan Edwards

Gen by Jonathan Edwards

Gen is the eagerly awaited second collection by Jonathan Edwards, whose debut, My Family and Other Superheroes, won the Costa Prize for Poetry in 2015. This accessible and critically acclaimed young poet has beaten off ‘second collection syndrome’ with a book of sharp yet beautifully warm and humane poems. The title refers to people of Edwards’generation and his recognition of the preoccupations that he shares of this age-group. There are several terrific love poems and poems of romantic yearning, which reflect this.

In addition, Edwards further mines his family for writing which is at once intimate, generous and wry. ‘Harry Houdini on Newport Bridge, 1905’ relates an anecdote where his grandfather, aged 15, makes mischief in the watching crowd. ‘My Father Crashes a Car, 1965’ is a similarly warm and slightly surreal retrieval of a memory from his father. Several of the poems in Gen have already won prizes, and the book must be a contender for more shortlists.

Jonathan Edwards’s first collection of poems, My Family and Other Superheroes (Seren Books, 2014), received the Costa Poetry Award and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. His second collection, Gen (Seren Books, 2018), also received the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award, and his poem about Newport Bridge was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2019. He lives in Crosskeys, South Wales, and is an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781781724736
ISBN 10	1781724733
Title	Gen
Author	Jonathan Edwards
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Poetry Wales Press
Year published	2018-11-01
Number of pages	72
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.