Abigail Parry's I Think We're Alone Now Poetry Book of the Month in The Telegraph
'What makes this collection thrilling is Parry's relentless and immense curiosity ... for all its allusiveness and its continual sidelong glances, I Think We're Alone Now is entirely companionable.' – Ian Sansom, The Daily Telegraph
Abigail Parry's second collection I Think We're Alone Now, published by Bloodaxe Books in November 2023, is on the shortlist for the T S Eliot Prize. The poems explore intimacy and failures of intimacy, and deal in pop music, etymology, surveillance equipment, church architecture and beetles. Scroll down to watch a video of her reading eight poems from this new collection, filmed in May 2023 at her home in Cardiff.
Her debut collection Jinx, published by Bloodaxe Books in March 2018, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2018 and for the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize 2019, and was named a Book of the Year in The New Statesman (Marina Warner), The Telegraph (Tristram Fane Saunders) and the Morning Star (Kate Wakeling).
'In Abigail Parry’s second collection, every aperture is haunted. These poems limn the spaces between vertigo and hyperextension, drawing then rethreading the needle through sites of forgetfulness and failure: are you unsure you heard that right? Listen again, Parry’s speakers exhort, scraping tines into the grooves of torch songs, scattering speculums and stereotaxic rats into the pages.' – Shivanee Ramlochan
Abigail Parry will be taking part in the T S Eliot Prize Readings in London's Royal Festival Hall on 14 January 2024. Details of this and her other forthcoming events are here.
BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023
Wales Arts Review, Books of the Year, online 24 November 2023
Abigail Parry's T S Eliot Prize-shortlisted second collection I Think We're Alone Now was chosen by Katie Munnik as her book of the year in Wales Arts Review’s feature in which writers and commentators choose their favourite books of 2023.
‘The book I’d like to recommend is Abigail Parry’s I Think We’re Alone Now. I first heard Abigail Parry perform her work at this year’s Penarth Literary Festival Poetry Showcase and was caught by her vivid voice and the intelligence of her rhythm and clarity. She can shock you and skin you with her wit, yet her poems feel strangely merciful, cleverly observant, and filled with references to everything from Rilke and Shakespeare to Richie Cordell and Radiohead.’ – Katie Munnik, Wales Arts Review (Books of the Year 2023)
https://www.walesartsreview.org/books-2023-writers-recommendations/
London Review Bookshop, John’s Books of the Year 2023, online 24 November 2023
I Think We're Alone Now was chosen by John Clegg as one of his books of the year in his London Review Bookshop booklist.
‘Abigail Parry continues to write about anything she turns her eye on with cheerily nonchalant sprezzatura;’ – John Clegg, London Review Bookshop (Books of the Year 2023)
POETRY BOOK OF THE MONTH IN THE TELEGRAPH
The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 18 November 2023
Abigail Parry's T S Eliot Prize-shortlisted second collection I Think We're Alone Now was very well reviewed by Ian Sansom as a half-page Poetry Book of the Month feature in The Telegraph on 18 November.
'What makes this collection thrilling is Parry's relentless and immense curiosity, often signalled by her breaking into asides and parentheses ... for all its allusiveness and its continual sidelong glances, I Think We're Alone Now is entirely companionable.' – Ian Sansom, The Daily Telegraph
Available to read via PressReader:
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph-review/20231118/281702619448397
Available online by subscription (all 11 Poetry Books of the Month so far in 2023, including Selima Hill’s Women in Comfortable Shoes, which was featured in July):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-poetry-books-month-2023-reviews/
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
Buzz Magazine Wales, online 29 November 2023
Abigail Parry's second collection I Think We're Alone Now was given a brilliant review at the top of Mab Jones’s New Poetry for November feature in Buzz Magazine.
‘Shortlisted for this year’s T.S. Eliot Prize, this is a book which showcases Parry’s masterly grasp of some of the more challenging poetry principles: space, for one thing. Story, for another … there’s much to ponder, amuse, excite, and admire … as one reads this beetle-shiny, brilliantine, brain-bug of a book.’ – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine
https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/mab-jones-poetry-column-november-2023-nigel-jenkins-abigail-parry/
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LIVE-STREAMED LAUNCH, 21 NOVEMBER 2023
Tuesday 21 November 2023, 7pm, Live-streamed launch reading by Matthew Caley, MacGillivray and Abigail Parry
Bloodaxe's November launch reading by Matthew Caley, MacGillivray and Abigail Parry celebrating the publication of their new poetry books was livestreamed on 21 November 2023. They were reading live and discussing their work with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This Bloodaxe launch event is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/XmwI5yCOU60. A brilliant evening of poetry and discussion. Abigail Parry read last in each set.
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Abigail Parry: I Think We’re Alone Now
Abigail Parry reads eight poems from I Think We're Alone Now: ‘In the dream of the cold restaurant’, ‘Some remarks on the General Theory of Relativity’, ‘Speculum’, ‘Whatever happened to Rosemarie?’, ‘The Fly Dressers’ Guide’, ‘Giallo’, ‘The brain of the rat in stereotaxic space’ and ‘It’s the lark that sings so out of tune’. Neil Astley filmed her reading from her new collection at her home in Cardiff in May 2023 ahead of the book’s publication in November 2023. Strong language warning.
[20 November 2023]
