Bloodaxe Books of the Year 2022
PIt Lullabies by Jessica Traynor, Poetry Book Society Recommendation
‘Some of our best-known poets, such as Jessica Traynor and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, also released new collections. Traynor’s Pit Lullabies (Bloodaxe) and Ní Churreáin’s The Poison Glen (Gallery) were both concerned with incantation, hexing, history and womanhood, though each is a distinct and urgent voice in their own right.’ – Martina Evans & Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times (The best new poetry of 2022)
‘This year saw so much stellar Irish writing: Polluted Sex, short stories by Lauren Foley, Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, Sara Baume’s Seven Steeples, Edel Coffey’s thriller Breaking Point (all novels), Jessica Traynor’s poetry collection Pit Lullabies…’ - Sinéad Gleeson, The Irish Times (Books of the Year 2022, Writers’ Favourites)
'I’ve been moved by Jessica Traynor’s mothering poems in Pit Lullabies – intricate, thought-provoking and delightful.' - Nuala O’Connor, The Irish Times (Best books of 2022 so far)
‘Ireland, where I’m from, is not short of great writers… In poetry, there were standout works from Jessica Traynor in Pit Lullabies and Victoria Kennefick’s Eat or We Both Starve.’ - Sinéad Gleeson, The Guardian (Books enjoyed in June)
Towards a General Theory of Love by Clare Shaw
‘Clare Shaw’s Towards a General Theory of Love was a standout for me. Beautiful, deceptively simple poems of huge weight and power. I love them for their wit and for the deep underlying emotion. Wonderful book.’ – Carole Bromley (Poetry Society Books of the Year 2022)
‘Clare Shaw’s Towards a General Theory of Love is a large-hearted and unflinching exploration both of love and the desolation felt at its lack or loss. Exquisitely crafted, these poems inhabit a range of forms, each as fitting and natural to their theme as skin is to flesh.’ – Kathryn Bevis, Poetry News (Christmas Reading, 2022)
‘As the title suggests, this is a book of love poems, but more an exploration of aspects of love; familial, romantic and how Clare Shaw feels about herself… An early piece is entitled “This is a very small poem”, but there are no small poems in this amazingly real and open study of love.’ – Simon Williams, Expert Reviews (Best poetry books you can buy in 2022) on Towards a General Theory of Love
Outlandish by Jo Clement
‘As vivid as engravings, the poems in Jo Clement’s debut collection Outlandish braid together a richness of language and a precision of imagery to illuminate Traveller identity and Roma culture. These are poems of clarity and lyricism that sing of people, places, and the beauty of what is passed down.’ - Kris Johnson (Poetry Society Books of the Year 2022)
‘Outlandish from Jo Clement was an evocative, beautiful, and challenging narrative of British Gypsy ethnicity.’ - Sam Illingworth, Poetry News (Christmas Reading, 2022)
‘… an exciting new voice in poetry… Clement’s poems ricochet between the council estate in Darlington where she grew up, forced to settle, and the wild beauty of Northumberland, touching on the eighteenth-century wood engravings of Thomas Bewick. The rhythms and allusions are enchanting, the imagery fresh, clear and strong.’ - Anna Picard, Times Literary Supplement (Summer Books, 2022), on Outlandish
High Desert, by André Naffis-Sahely
‘The globe-trotting André Naffis-Sahely’s High Desert is worth tracking down for its compelling central sequence of found poems resurrecting figures from American history.’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph (the 20 best poetry books of 2022 to buy for Christmas)
‘I’ve long admired the topical intelligence of André Naffis-Sahely not only as poetry editor but especially in his recent High Desert for its counter to dominant narratives, its elastic sensibility (that encircles the globe) and firm sense of a politics that shapes poetry’s aesthetics.’ - Fred D'Aguiar (Poetry Society Books of the Year 2022)
Fairoz by Moniza Alvi
‘… a sequence of poems that tell a story…of a young Muslim girl, Fairoz, and her encounters, mainly online, with a Muslim extremist, Tahir. Alvi uses a repeated metaphor of characters appearing in a wood for these interactions, to great effect.’ - – Simon Williams, Expert Reviews (Best poetry books you can buy in 2022)
Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen
‘Always happy to recommend these titles: Molly Twomey, Raided by Vultures (Gallery Press)…and Chen Chen, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (Bloodaxe).’ – Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry News (Christmas Reading, 2022)
2017 TITLE CHOSEN IN 2022
Mama Amzonica by Pascale Petit, Poetry Book Society Choice, winner of the Ondaatje Prize 2018 and the Laurel Prize 2020, shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize 2018
‘Most recently I read and loved … THE WALL by Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside (Vintage Earth); Audre Lorde’s CANCER JOURNALS (Penguin Classics); MAMA AMAZONICA by Pascale Petit (Bloodaxe Books); LINEA NIGRA by Jazmina Barrera, translated by Christina Macsweeney (Two Lines Press); and Ursula Le Guin’s non-fiction.’ – Deborah Smith, The White Review (Books of the Year, 2022)
[11 January 2023]
