News
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INSTA BOOK CLUB: 28TH SEPTEMBER 7PM
Posted on September 28 2021
It's our Insta Live Book Club TONIGHT! Join us at 7pm on 28th September over on Instagram @poetrybooksociety for free readings and discussions with our PBS Choice Hannah Lowe and Jack...
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WINTER 2021 SELECTIONS
Posted on September 22 2021
We're delighted to announce that Vahni Capildeo's forthcoming collection Like a Tree Walking will be our PBS Winter Choice. Our Selectors Andrew McMillan, Anthony Anaxagorou and Sarah Howe have chosen an...
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LAUREL PRIZE LONGLIST 2021
Posted on September 14 2021
The UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, and the Poetry School, are delighted to announce the longlist for the inaugural ecopoetry prize, The Laurel Prize. It's great to see plenty of PBS poets on...
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POET OF THE WEEK
Posted on September 03 2021
ALL THE NAMES GIVEN | RAYMOND ANTROBUSAUTUMN RECOMMENDATION Raymond Antrobus’s much anticipated second collection, All The Names Given, continues his essential investigation into language, miscommunication, place, and memory. Beginning with poems...
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FORWARD PRIZES BUNDLE OFFER
Posted on August 25 2021
We're delighted to partner with the Forward Prizes for Poetry as their official bookseller again. We've got an extra special bundle offer on all ten shortlisted books, including exclusive advance...
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POEM OF THE DAY: THINGS I HAVE FORGOTTEN BEFORE
Posted on August 24 2021
An extract from our Autumn Pamphlet Choice Things I Have Forgotten Before by Tanatsei Gambura, published by Bad Betty Press.
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MEET THE PAMPHLET CHOICE: TANATSEI GAMBURA
Posted on August 23 2021
Brick by brick, Tanatsei Gambura's Things I Have Forgotten Before dismantles walls of silence to show us the story behind the story: in a township room in 80s Harare, a...
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AUTUMN RECOMMENDATION
Posted on August 13 2021
“How can man live between the sky and earth - locked in the delicate balance of falling and flight” Virga is the third book of poems by Zimbabwean poet Togara...
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MEET TOGARA MUZANENHAMO
Posted on August 13 2021
"The project began over a decade ago after I came across a book of powerful photographs, Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope, edited by the...
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AUTUMN RECOMMENDATION
Posted on August 06 2021
Our Autumn recommendation, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe's spellbinding debut poetry collection explores love and its wounds. The first half is composed of five sections, corresponding to the five arrows of Kama, the Hindu...
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MEET NIDHI ZAK / ARIA EIPE
Posted on August 06 2021
Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Born in India, she grew up across the Middle East, Europe and North America, before calling Ireland home. She is poetry...
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'ARSENAL' BY NUZHAT BUKHARI
Posted on August 05 2021
Nuzhat Bukhari reads 'Arsenal' from our PBS Summer Recommendation Brilliant Corners, published by CB Editions. Brilliant Corners is both an inquiry into and a redressal of inherited cultures and the...
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OUT OF TIME: POETRY FROM THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY
Posted on July 30 2021
"If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it"- Anne CarsonEdited with an insightful introduction by Kate Simpson and featuring original work from Caroline Bird, Inua Ellams, Pascale...
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MEET JACK UNDERWOOD
Posted on July 23 2021
"My daughter arrived in a human world tangibly and irrecoverablymalfunctioning, and her vulnerability terrified me. I found myself resituated in it, or in relation to it, in ways I could...
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UPRISING INSPIRED POETRY
Posted on July 23 2021
If you've been watching Steve McQueen’s powerful and heart-breaking BBC programme #Uprising about the New Cross Fire in 1981, in which thirteen young black people were killed in a house fire,...
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AUTUMN RECOMMENDATION
Posted on July 22 2021
Our Autumn Recommendation A Year in the New Life is Jack Underwood's much-anticipated second collection, explores imminent societal collapse and public unrest; the limits, myths and complexities of masculinity and fatherhood; and...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: THREA ALMONTASER
Posted on July 16 2021
From The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser, published by Picador, our PBS Autumn Wild Card Choice, selected by Anthony Anaxagorou. Available to order now with 25% off for...
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MEET THREA ALMONTASER
Posted on July 16 2021
Here's a sneak preview of our interview with Threa Almontaser in our forthcoming poetry magazine: "The poetess writes to record, to hold accountability. I write to manifest Yemen in the...
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AUTUMN WILD CARD CHOICE
Posted on July 16 2021
The Yemeni American poet Threa Almontaser’s incendiary debut asks how mistranslation can be a form of self-knowledge and survival. A love letter to the country and people of Yemen, a...
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NEXT INSTA BOOK CLUB 28TH JULY
Posted on July 07 2021
Join us on 28th July at 7pm BST for the next insta live book club with Alice Hiller and Luke Kennard, hosted by PBS Selector Anthony Anaxagorou! Don't forget to...
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POLARI PRIZE & PRIDE MONTH READING RECOMMENDATIONS
Posted on June 25 2021
Many congratulations to poets Caroline Bird, Kae Tempest and Rosie Garland who were longlisted for Polari LGBTQ+ Book Prize this week. To celebrate, here are five books to read right now for Pride Month.#1 What...
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6 BOOKS TO READ ON WINDRUSH DAY
Posted on June 22 2021
Today marks 73 years since the arrival of The Empire Windrush carrying around 500 migrants from the Caribbean to help re-build post war Britain. We've gathered six poetry books which...
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FATHER'S DAY GIFT GUIDE
Posted on June 17 2021
It's Father’s Day this Sunday 20th June, so why not give the gift of poetry? Here's our poetry gift guide for bookish fathers of all kinds, to help you celebrate...
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ANNOUNCING AUTUMN!
Posted on June 11 2021
We're so excited to finally be able to reveal our Autumn 2021 Selections! After reading through lots of books from publishers big and small, our expert PBS Book Selectors Andrew McMillan, Sarah...
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FORWARD PRIZE 2021 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED
Posted on June 08 2021
Many congratulations to all the Forward Prizes for Poetry shortlistees especially PBS poets Luke Kennard, Alice Hiller, Holly Pester, Fiona Benson and Kayo Chingonyi! The 2021 Forward Prize for Best...
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POET OF THE WEEK: ANDREW MCMILLAN ON PANDEMONIUM
Posted on May 27 2021
We're delighted to be able to share this exclusive blog from our PBS Selector Andrew McMillan, to celebrate the launch of his new poetry collection Pandemonium. After two prize-winning...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: LEO BOIX
Posted on May 27 2021
From our PBS Summer Wild Card Choice, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant by Leo Boix. Available here with 25% off at www.poetrybooks.co.uk.
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BALLAD OF A HAPPY IMMIGRANT
Posted on May 26 2021
Introducing our Summer Wild Card, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant by Leo Boix. In the middle of the last century, the SS General Pueyrredón from Buenos Aires deposits Leo Boix's paternal grandfather...
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WILD CARD CHOICE: LEO BOIX
Posted on May 24 2021
Our Summer Wild Card Choice is Ballad of a Happy Immigrant by Leo Boix. Here's a sneak preview of our interview with him in the Summer Bulletin. Join the PBS...
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INSTA BOOK CLUB 1ST JUNE
Posted on May 21 2021
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PORTRAIT OF COLOSSUS BY SAMATAR ELMI
Posted on May 20 2021
Here's a sneak preview of our Pamphlet Selectors Nick Makoha and Mary Jean Chan's review of Portrait of Colossus in the PBS Summer Bulletin. "A wealth of poetic influences ranging...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: ENGLAND
Posted on May 20 2021
"Not quite belonging, but the closest I will come to finding my home..." - 'England' by Samatar Elmi from Portrait of Colossus, our Summer Pamphlet Choice which is available to...
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SUMMER PAMPHLET CHOICE: SAMATAR ELMI
Posted on May 20 2021
Portrait of Colossus is a searingly forthright début poetry pamphlet, that navigates parenting, masculinity, racism and ambiguities of identity. It articulates, with skill and sly humour, the migrant experience from the...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: REBECCA PERRY
Posted on May 16 2021
‘In the immaculate garden the sunflowers rotate with the sun’ Reading Rebecca Perry’s brilliantly surreal poem with the sunflower seedlings in the not-so-immaculate yard! Order our Summer Recommendation Stone Fruit...
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SUMMER RECOMMENDATION: REBECCA PERRY
Posted on May 16 2021
A collection of three distinct parts, our Summer Recommendation Rebecca Perry's Stone Fruit is united by memory, grief and our connection to the world. Opening with a study of a girl in a miniature portrait...
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SUMMER RECOMMENDATION: STONE FRUIT BY REBECCA PERRY
Posted on May 15 2021
We can't wait to share our PBS Summer Recommendation Stone Fruit by Rebecca Perry with you! Opening with a study of a girl in a miniature portrait, expanding into lyrical...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: BIRD OF WINTER
Posted on May 14 2021
From bird of winter by Alice Hiller, our PBS Special Commendation Summer 2021. Alice Hiller’s debut performs an act of witness and restitution. Working with her childhood and adolescent medical...
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: BIRD OF WINTER
Posted on May 14 2021
"bird of winter reminds us that the root of courage, etymological and otherwise, is heart. Prepare, Dear Reader, to feel." - Nuar AlsadirAlice Hiller’s debut performs an act of extraordinary witness...
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ALICE HILLER ON BIRD OF WINTER
Posted on May 14 2021
Trigger warnings: sexual abuse, anorexia "Like millions of other people around the world, I was groomed, and then sexually abused as a young child. In my case, this took place...
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10 POETRY BOOKS TO READ THIS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK
Posted on May 13 2021
'Almond Blossom'This morning, love, I'm tired and grave;I can barely hear the wintered bird's small songover the hum of the central heating.We must trust, I suppose, to the song's bare...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: KAZIM ALI
Posted on May 06 2021
"Is the voice to know or to know" The 15th May is your last chance to join the Poetry Book Society in time for this innovative Summer Choice, The Voice of Sheila...
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SUMMER CHOICE: THE VOICE OF SHEILA CHANDRA
Posted on May 04 2021
In our PBS Summer Choice The Voice of Sheila Chandra —named for the British singer rendered almost voiceless by a rare neurological condition—poems give necessary space not only to voice but...
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SUMMER CHOICE: KAZIM ALI
Posted on May 03 2021
The PBS Summer Choice, Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass...
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VIRAL BY KAYO CHINGONYI
Posted on April 23 2021
“There has been a very real sense in my life that each day is not a given. And so, there are times when I’m struck by the surprising and...
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POET OF THE WEEK: KAYO CHINGONYI
Posted on April 23 2021
Our Summer Recommendation, Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987, and moved to the UK at the age of six. He is the author of two pamphlets, and a...
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SUMMER RECOMMENDATION: A BLOOD CONDITION
Posted on April 21 2021
Our PBS Summer Recommendation A Blood Condition is a moving, expansive, and dazzling second collection from award-winning poet Kayo ChingonyiA Blood Condition tells a story of inheritance - the people, places,...
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: NOTES ON THE SONNETS
Posted on April 15 2021
Blue skies are here and we’ve officially entered our summer quarter. First up in our PBS summer recommendations is Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard published by penned in...
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POEM OF THE WEEK: NOTES ON THE SONNETS
Posted on April 14 2021
From Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard, PBS Summer recommendation. Available to pre-order here with 25% off.
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