Ten: the new wave

By Karen McCarthy Woolf

Ten: the new wave presents poetry from some of the most exciting new poets in Britain today. These ten poets were selected for The Complete Works 2 mentoring project, a groundbreaking initiative to promote diversity and quality in British poetry, initiated by the writer Bernardine Evaristo. The poets follow on from the first group to take part in this scheme, whose work was published in Bernardine Evaristo and Daljit Nagra's anthology Ten: new poets from Spread the Word (2010). Most of those poets have gone on to win awards and have their poetry collections published. The new poets in this anthology are Mona Arshi, Jay Bernard, Kayo Chingonyi, Rishi Dastidar, Edward Doegar, Inua Ellams, Sarah Howe, Adam Lowe, Eileen Pun and Warsan Shire. These poets have backgrounds in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa, and their work draws on their multicultural heritage and tapestry. Many of them also work across art forms and have enjoyed success as playwrights, graphic artists and even in the martial arts. Talented, adventurous and culturally rich, these poets will open up new landscapes for the reader. 'These ten exciting poets record with confidence and vigour a tune rarely heard on these shores and this collection of their work is a boost to the body of contemporary British poetry' - Carol Ann Duffy. '...a sampler of work by black minority ethnic poets that includes some of the best new verse to be found anywhere.' - Fiona Sampson, Independent The project is directed by Dr Nathalie Teitler, with thanks to Arts Council England for their generous funding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: Oct 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780372129

Karen McCarthy Woolf

Described in The Poetry Review as 'extraordinarily moving and technically flawless', Karen McCarthy Woolf's celebrated début was a Guardian Book of the Year and  PBS  Recommendation. She has presented her poetry in many forms, from collaborative choreography and radio soundscape to audiovisual installation, in venues around the world, from Mexico City and Singapore to the us and the Caribbean.

Book preview

TEN: THE NEW WAVE

Ten: the new wave presents poetry from some of the most exciting new poets in Britain today. These ten poets were selected for The Complete Works II mentoring project, a groundbreaking initiative to promote diversity and quality in British poetry, initiated by the writer Bernardine Evaristo. The poets follow on from the first group to take part in this scheme, whose work was published in Bernardine Evaristo and Daljit Nagra’s anthology Ten: new poets from Spread the Word (2010). Most of those poets have gone on to win awards and have their poetry collections published.

The new poets in this anthology are Mona Arshi, Jay Bernard, Kayo Chingonyi, Rishi Dastidar, Edward Doegar, Inua Ellams, Sarah Howe, Adam Lowe, Eileen Pun and Warsan Shire. These poets have backgrounds in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa, and their work draws on their multicultural heritage and tapestry. Many of them also work across art forms and have enjoyed success as playwrights, graphic artists and even in the martial arts.

Talented, adventurous and culturally rich, these poets will open up new landscapes for the reader.

‘These ten exciting poets record with confidence and vigour a tune rarely heard on these shores and this collection of their work is a boost to the body of contemporary British poetry’ – Carol Ann Duffy.

‘…a sampler of work by black minority ethnic poets that includes some of the best new verse to be found anywhere’ – Fiona Sampson, Independent.

Cover image: Bluray (2013) by Jay Bernard

TEN

THE NEW WAVE

EDITED BY

KAREN McCARTHY WOOLF

THE COMPLETE WORKS II

CONTENTS

Title Page

NATHALIE TEITLER:Preface

KAREN McCARTHY WOOLF: A True Fellowship

1 WARSAN SHIRE

Comment:PASCALE PETIT

Backwards

Men in Cars

Sara

Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle

Haram

The Ugly Daughter

The House

2 EILEEN PUN

Comment:SASHA DUGDALE

Truffle Hunter

For Carlo, My Neighbour

Goodly Gongsun

Some Common Whitethroat Chit-Chat

Lesser Whitethroat

Studio Apartment: Sunday

3 ADAM LOWE

Comment:PATIENCE AGBABI

The Kiss

Tryst with the Devil

Afterlife @ Aftershock

Vada That

Buzzing Affy

Tough Look

4 SARAH HOWE

Comment:W.N. HERBERT

FROM

A Certain Chinese Encyclopedia

Tame

Frenzied

Innumerable

Others

Having just broken the water pitcher

That from a long way off look like flies

5 INUA ELLAMS

Comment:W.N. HERBERT

Of all the boys of Plateau Private School,

Short Shorted / Odogbolu 1995

Ghetto van Gogh

Swallow Twice /

Swallow twice, and live.

The National Anthem

The / Forced

6 EDWARD DOEGAR

Comment:SEAN O’BRIEN

Half-Ghazal

Consent

The Waiting Room

Something Understood

April

That Elegiac Tone

7 RISHI DASTIDAR

Comment:DALJIT NAGRA

Licking stamps

22 March, Working in an Office on Berners Street

The British genius

Making a cheese soufflé rise

Towards a singularity

Gunmetal

8 KAYO CHINGONYI

Comment:ANTHONY JOSEPH

How to Cry

The Room

calling a spade a spade

The N Word

Alterity

The Cricket Test

On Reading ‘Colloquy in Black Rock’

Varsity Blues

Casting

Callbacks

Normative Ethics

9 JAY BERNARD

Comment:KEI MILLER

Fake Beach

Song of the Strike

Punishment

Yes, they hate each other

The Basics

10 MONA ARSHI

Comment:MIMI KHALVATI

Ghazal

The Daughters

The Bird

Phone Call on a Train Journey

In the Coroner’s Office

Notes Towards an Elegy

Editor’s biography

Mentor biographies

Acknowledgements

Previous publications

Copyright

PREFACE

‘…less than 1% of poetry published by major presses in the UK is by black and Asian poets.’

Free Verse Report (2005, Arts Council England)

In 2005, Bernardine Evaristo approached Arts Council England with her concerns about the lack of publishing opportunities for poets of colour. They responded by funding the ‘Free Verse’ report produced by Spread the Word writer development agency, which highlighted the lack of diversity in British poetry. The actual figure of poets published in the report, as quoted above, was so shockingly low that it was clear an urgent response was required. Evaristo then initiated a national development programme for Black and Asian poets: The Complete Works (TCW), taken forward by Spread the Word.

In 2008, after an extensive national call-out, ten exceptional poets were invited to take part in the scheme In 2010, the first anthology of their work, Ten: New Poets, was published by Bloodaxe, edited by Evaristo and Daljit Nagra. These poets have gone on to significant success. Karen McCarthy Woolf has a collection published by Oxford/Carcanet in 2014; Roger Robinson, Seni Seneviratne and Malika Booker have published very successful collections (Peepal Tree Press) with international tours; Mir Mahfuz Ali has a first collection forthcoming from Seren; Shazea Quraishi had a pamphlet published with flipped eye and her first book-length collection is due from Bloodaxe in 2015. Most of the poets have enjoyed international residencies and publications; two (Nick Makoha and Mir Mahfuz Ali) represented their countries on the international stage of Poetry Parnassus in 2012, as did TCW II poet Kayo Chingonyi.

As project manager of the first round I felt, however, that there was still significant work to be done. Not only did the publishing figures continue to reflect low numbers but many competitions and audiences also showed the same lack of diversity. Diversity in the wider sense of its meaning to include not just a range of ethnic/cultural backgrounds but also a range of styles and approaches to poetry. In other words, the kind of genuine diversity that goes hand in hand with quality. It was for this reason that I decided it was important to take The Complete Works (TCWII) into a second round.

This second round carried on many of the distinguishing features of the first. Once again, ten exceptional poets were selected and given established and esteemed UK poets as their mentors, with Arvon residencies, bespoke seminars/salons, as well as a peer mentor or buddy from TCW I. One important difference was that the focus was now on younger poets. Almost all the poets in this anthology are under 30 and all can be considered young in poetry career terms. They demonstrate an extraordinary range of backgrounds, styles and interests. Many work cross art-forms: Inua Ellams is a successful playwright with work produced at the National Theatre, Jay Bernard is a graphic artist, Eileen Pun a highly trained martial artist.

The name of this anthology, Ten: The New Wave, may surprise some. After all, the last anthology was published only four years ago so it may seem premature to describe it as a new wave. I felt it was important to give it this name to highlight an important point about Black and Asian poetry in the UK; the Complete Works exists as a result of decades of hard work by BME (black minority ethnic) poets building supportive networks, communities and what can be termed a poetry family. In the cover letters the young poets sent in with their applications, it was astonishing how many named previous TCW poets Roger Robinson, Malika Booker, Nick Makoha and Advisory Group member, Jacob Sam-La Rose, not only as inspirations but as the reason they were writing at all. This is a new generation