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So Glad I'm Me | Bloodaxe Books
roddy-lumsden-so-glad-im-me

Roddy Lumsden

So Glad I'm Me

Roddy Lumsden

Publication Date : 28 Sep 2017

ISBN: 9781780373706

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2017

Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award 2018

So Glad I'm Me was Roddy Lumsden's tenth collection, and sadly turned out to be the last book he published. In these haunting poems he returned to familiar themes in his work: the trials of oneness versus twoness, the seduction of small calamities, and vice versa. And the everyday mysteries, of running water, salt and sugar, roller-skates and back-up flats.

So Glad I'm Me also contains many 'conflation poems' where he has knocked the square peg of one subject through the round hole of another, often music-related. There are poems here about many songs and musicians, ranging from cult artists like Alex Chilton and Robin Holcomb to big names like Elvis and Morrissey.

As ever, he relishes unusual words (nestlecock, twofer, farnesol) and interesting, taut forms, alongside a new strand of mid-length, discursive pieces in the spirit of Chicagoan poets Albert Goldbarth and Marianne Boruch.

‘Roddy Lumsden, who has died aged 53, was one of the finest poets of his generation writing in the English language. Over ten collections that began in 1997 with Yeah Yeah Yeah, right up the most recent, So Glad I’m Me (2017), he produced a dense and unflinchingly candid form of poetry that was by turns melancholy, obsessive and possessed with a vulnerability and self-deprecatory gallows humour.’ – Neil Cooper, paying tribute to Roddy Lumsden in The Herald

'... soul-bearing, heartfelt work that demands serious attention.’  - Tristram Fane Saunders, The Daily Telegraph [on So Glad I'm Me]

'This is poetry as an extreme sport, a whole world of shifting ideas with people – dead and alive – dropping in, whispering in your ear, or just walking right through, bold as brass. With such courage, beauty and complexity, it’s no surprise that this, Lumsden’s tenth collection, was shortlisted title for the 2017 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize.' - Alison Craig, The Bottle Imp

‘… few collections cover as much ground as this, or seem to reveal such a lithe and obsessive mind.’ – Rory Waterman, The Poetry Review (on So Glad I’m Me)

‘There is a level of talent that will ransom any project in any school. On the one hand, it will be interesting to see where Lumsden goes next; on the other, he’s so good that it hardly matters.’ – D.H. Tracy, Poetry

‘One of the best poets writing in English on the planet today.’ – Don Share, Squandermania

 

Roddy Lumsden talks about So Glad I’m Me

Roddy Lumsden discusses his collection So Glad I’m Me following its shortlisting for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize.

 

Roddy Lumsden reads ‘Kissing Edwin Morgan’

Roddy Lumsden reads and introduces his poem ‘Kissing Edwin Morgan’ from his T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted collection So Glad I’m Me.

 

Roddy Lumsden reads ‘The Hoopoe’

Roddy Lumsden reads and introduces his poem ‘The Hoopoe’ from his T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted collection So Glad I’m Me.


 

  

BOOKS BY Roddy Lumsden

Identity Parade

Roddy Lumsden

Identity Parade

New British & Irish Poets

Publication Date : 25 Mar 2010

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Mischief Night

Roddy Lumsden

Mischief Night

New & Selected Poems

Publication Date : 24 Jun 2004

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Not All Honey

Roddy Lumsden

Not All Honey

Publication Date : 25 Sep 2014

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Terrific Melancholy

Roddy Lumsden

Terrific Melancholy

Publication Date : 26 May 2011

Read More   amazon.co.uk

Related News & Publicity

News & Publicity


Roddy Lumsden (1966-2020)

Roddy Lumsden (1966-2020)

We are very saddened by news of the death of the poet Roddy Lumsden, aged 53, on 10 January. Tristram Fane Saunders pays tribute in his poem of the week column in the...

Read More  |  View All

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