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Luke Kennard is the author of five collections of poetry. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2007. He lectures at the University of Birmingham. In 2014 he was selected by the Poetry Book Society as one of the Next Generation Poets. His latest poetry book, Cain, was published by Penned in the Margins in June 2016. The Transition is his first novel.
Author photo © Jacob Kennard
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017. A fabulous premise, step inside, and a bold, captivating read awaits. Set at some point in the future, not too far away, sits The Transition, an alternative to prison, and a one stop shop to fix all your problems… you just need to allow The Transition to run your life for six months. This is clever writing, I found myself slowly sliding from known to unknown; so much connects to the here and now, it almost comes as a shock when Luke Kennard flings little snippets of the future towards you. Surprising traps were set in place, and as my mind stumbled, I questioned, probed, considered. Relationships sit at the heart of this story, as they are tested to the limit and the story becomes progressively darker, the ending leaves certain threads deliberately unexplored. ’The Transition’ startles and shocks, what a wonderfully arresting and impressive read this is. ~ Liz Robinson
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017. A fabulous premise, step inside, and a bold, captivating read awaits. Set at some point in the future, not too far away, sits The Transition, an alternative to prison, and a one stop shop to fix all your problems… you just need to allow The Transition to run your life for six months. This is clever writing, I found myself slowly sliding from known to unknown; so much connects to the here and now, it almost comes as a shock when Luke Kennard flings little snippets of the future towards you. Surprising traps were set in place, and as my mind stumbled, I questioned, probed, considered. Relationships sit at the heart of this story, as they are tested to the limit and the story becomes progressively darker, the ending leaves certain threads deliberately unexplored. ’The Transition’ startles and shocks, what a wonderfully arresting and impressive read this is. ~ Liz Robinson
"e;Verbessere dich selbst, und du verbesserst die Welt."e;Karl und Genevieve, beide Anfang 30, sind berqualifiziert und hoch verschuldet, wissen nicht weiter. berraschend bekommt das junge Paar das verlockende Angebot, an einem Pilotprogramm namens Transition teilzunehmen. Dahinter steckt eine wohlttige Organisation, die desillusionierten Grostdtern wieder auf die Fe helfen will. Einzige Bedingung: Die Testpersonen mssen sechs Monate bei ihren Mentoren wohnen und smtliche Anweisungen befolgen. Whrend sich Genevieve voller Begeisterung in das Coaching strzt, steht Karl dem ganzen Vorhaben skeptisch gegenber. Was steckt wirklich hinter dieser ominsen Organisation, die jede ffentlichkeit meidet? Und fhrt die permanente Selbstoptimierung tatschlich zu etwas Gutem?
'Endlessly inventive, bruisingly direct, and rich with a desperate, defensive humour. A stunning achievement.' Joe DunthorneThe year is 2016 and Luke Kennard finds himself estranged from his family, his publisher and his faith. With the help of his Community Psychiatric Nurse, who claims to be the living embodiment of Cain - the first murderer - the poet changes his name to Father K and searches for answers - in his childhood, in poetry, in alcohol, and in a notorious, long-running DVD box-set.Tricksy, acerbic and laugh-out-loud funny, Cain is the dazzling new collection from Next Generation Poet Luke Kennard. In a series of animated conversations, Cain provides therapy sessions for the author, covering everything from interfaith dialogue and genealogy to zombies. Cain's central sequence of 31 anagram poems re-energises Genesis 4:9-12, demonstrating the mastery of form and trademark surreal humour that has made Kennard one of British poetry's brightest lights.
LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZEWhat's standing between you and success?What do you do with a generation who've had everything, but still can't grow up?Welcome to The Transition.While taking part in The Transition you and your partner will spend six months living under the supervision of your mentors, two successful adults of a slightly older generation. Freed from your financial responsibilities, you will be coached through the key areas of the scheme - Employment, Nutrition, Responsibility, Relationship, Finances and Self-Respect - until you are ready to be reintegrated into adult society.At the end of your six months - who knows what discoveries you'll have made about yourself? The 'friends' you no longer need. The talents you'll have found time to nurture. The business you might have kick-started.Who knows where you'll be?'Very funny' William Boyd, Guardian best summer reads 2018'A fresh, funny and gripping vision of the near future that rings frighteningly true' Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine'Terrific. Clever and funny and a total page-turner to boot' Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall'Utterly vital' Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies'Essential reading for generation rent' Jenn Ashworth, author of Fell
Next Generation Poet 2014 This is Luke Kennard's fourth collection of poetry and departs from his previous work in its scope and outlook. The prose poems and dramatic monologues run deeper and, the verse more personal. It is unmistakably a Kennard book (the wolf appears here in his sixth outing), but there is also a striving to turn away from the self-referential games and literary in-jokes of Kennard's previous work and look outward; an attempt to grow something in the personal ground broken by the last two collections, without sacrificing the wit and energy.
Like a toboggan of wolves who have eaten their driver, The Solex Brothers rushes blindly through the forest, drawing on the tropes and archetypes of folk tales, parables, political manifestos, philosophical tracts and grammar. Unlike a toboggan of wolves, The Solex Brothers explores the fate of the individual - albeit a rather feeble individual - and of personal responsibility in a culture of absurd, inexorable forces. Farce navigating towards moral absolution in narratives at once Fauvist and Baroque, expunging the twee with a reformist's remorseless vigour; cherishing its influences with a poststructuralist's vertical rigour; and, at times, chasing its tail with a schoolboy's reductive snigger. Like a toboggan of wolves who are beginning to regret having set-upon and eaten their driver, the world of The Solex Brothers is funny, sad and irretrievably lost
Luke Kennard is an award-winning poet, critic and short-fiction writer. He works as a research student and assistant teacher at the University of Exeter. He is an award-winning man. His first award-winning collection of prose poems The Solex Brothers was published by Stride Books in 2005 and won an award. He has worked as regional editor for Succour, a biannual journal of poetry and short fiction based at the University of Sussex and as an associated reader for The Kenyon Review. He is currently reviews editor of Exultations and Difficulties. His award-winning poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. He exists in a permanent state of award-winning; he is like a giant magnet for awards or, if awards are moths, a giant light. His award-winning work for the stage has been written with and performed by the theatre company Pegabovine in Bristol, Birmingham, London, Scarborough (as part of the National Student Drama Festival, 2003 and 2004, wherein it won an award) and at the Edinburgh International Fringe (wherein it did not win an award). The Sunday Times described their work as wit of a different order , but did not specify which one. Chortle magazine described it as delightful - which is probably less equivocal. He is constantly decorated for his achievements in the form of awards - which he has won, does win and will continue to win, because he is a winner. What a guy. Luke Kennard is tall, nervous, polite and frequently scorches the end of his nose. He was educated at Holyrood Community School and the University of Exeter. He is married and lives in Devon, birthplace of the memorial bench. Essentially a lower-middle class purist, his favourite canape is the cocktail sausage roll. He will probably have rosettes and medals incorporated into his gravestone, somehow. Luke Kennard, award-winner, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2005. This has been described as a travesty and a slap in the face for writers of genuine talent. Ever since he has been forced to travel under a false name and wear nose-moustache-glasses for fear of being assaulted by embittered poets, young and old. I suppose he could just smash them in the head with one of his awards. He was received by the Orthodox church in 2006 and is working on his humility.
A combination of verse and prose poetry, `The Migraine Hotel' is Luke Kennard's third collection and very much a sequel to `The Harbour Beyond the Movie'. The voices continue to explore the territory opened up by Harbour, at once satiric, stricken, sincere and bitingly sarcastic, combined with a kaleidoscopic range of ways of engaging with a poem as a reader. The prose poems are prose poems in the tradition of Baudelaire, which is to say they read more like grouchy comic monologues with unreliable narrators than prose-verse characterised by excessive lyricism.
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