How To Build A City is the Crashaw Prize-winning debut collection of poetry by Tom Chivers. It is a poetic interrogation of the twenty-first century urban experience, drawing on the history, culture, society and topography of London. Chivers takes his cue from radical writers such as Iain Sinclair and Barry MacSweeney to create an impressionist poetry, marked by playful riddling, found texts and unusual juxtapositions. How To Build A City is peopled by ghosts of London's past as well as the distinctly modern spectres of spam email, international terrorism and the credit crunch.The title piece is a choppy, sardonic investigation of contemporary East London, a travelogue that never really leaves Liverpool Street Station. Some of the poems are personal accounts of love and loss, including 'Thom, C & I', a long sequence of lyrical fragments cut from a diary written by the poet's mother. Other poems take the reader away from the city to the fenlands of Medieval East Anglia, apple-heavy Himalayan gardens and the bleak uplands of Northern England.How To Build A City captures the mood of a fluctuating, unstable metropolis that is continually coming to terms with multiple and conflicting identities.
| ISBN: | 9781844718849 |
| Publication date: | 15th July 2011 |
| Author: | Tom Chivers |
| Publisher: | Salt an imprint of Salt Publishing Limited |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 84 pages |
| Series: | Salt Modern Poets |
| Genres: |
Poetry by individual poets |
How To Build A City is the Crashaw Prize-winning debut collection of poetry by Tom Chivers. It is a poetic interrogation of the twenty-first century urban experience, drawing on the history, culture, society and topography of London. Chivers takes his cue from radical writers such as Iain Sinclair and Barry MacSweeney to create an impressionist poetry, marked by playful riddling, found texts and unusual juxtapositions. How To Build A City is peopled by ghosts of London's past as well as the distinctly modern spectres of spam email, international terrorism and the credit crunch.The title piece is a choppy, sardonic investigation of contemporary East London, a travelogue that never really leaves Liverpool Street Station. Some of the poems are personal accounts of love and loss, including 'Thom, C & I', a long sequence of lyrical fragments cut from a diary written by the poet's mother. Other poems take the reader away from the city to the fenlands of Medieval East Anglia, apple-heavy Himalayan gardens and the bleak uplands of Northern England.How To Build A City captures the mood of a fluctuating, unstable metropolis that is continually coming to terms with multiple and conflicting identities.
How To Build A City features in the following genres: Poetry by individual poets
How To Build A City is available in Paperback
How To Build A City was written by Tom Chivers and published by Salt an imprint of Salt Publishing Limited
How To Build A City has 84 pages
Yes it is part of Salt Modern Poets series
£9.89