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. And ‘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. Whatever the prize judges think, the poetry reading public will again warm to this poet.Winner of the People’s Choice Award, Wales Book of the Year 2019’As always Edwards’ writing is at once bold and sweeping whilst also managing to maintain a homely and intimate voice that feels personal.’ – Ben Ray Throughout the collection, demotic patter is combined with virtuoso craft. What can you say about a sonnet like ‘On Hearing You Have Lost Your New Love’, at once bitter, tender and true? What can you say about a gut punch like the ending of ‘Aberfan’? Or about a title like ‘Samuel Taylor Coleridge Walking from The Queen’s Head, Gray’s Inn, to Honsby’s and Co., Cornhill, to Buy an Irish Lottery Ticket, November 1793’? I will say this: Gen is a vibrant, brilliant book, and Edwards is one of my favourite writers. – Joe Caldwell Edwards shows a new breadth of vision, and the ability to encompass tragedy. His poems about Aberfan and Tryweryn have the air of instant classics. – The Lonely Crowd
Circa l’autore
Jonathan Edwards was born and brought up in Crosskeys, south Wales. He has an MA in Writing from the University of Warwick, has written speeches for the Welsh Assembly Government and journalism for The Big Issue Cymru, and currently works as an English teacher. He won the Terry Hetherington Award in 2010, was awarded a Literature Wales new writer’s bursary in 2011, and in 2012 won prizes in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition and the Basil Bunting Award. His work has appeared in a wide range of magazines. His first collection of poems, My Family and Other Superheroes (Seren, 2014), was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and won the Costa Prize for Poetry 2015.
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