Roddy Lumsden

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Biographical note:  Roddy Lumsden (born 1966) is a Scottish poet, who was born in St Andrews. He has published five collections of poetry, a number of chapbooks and a collection of trivia, as well as editing a generational anthology of British and Irish poets of the 1990s and 2000s, Identity Parade. He lives in London where he teaches for The Poetry School.

BIC Basic

EAN13:  9781907773044
ISBN:  9781907773044
Author:  Roddy Lumsden
Title:  The Best British Poetry 2011
Series:  Anthologies
Product class:  BC
Language:  eng
Audience:  General/trade
BIC subject category:  DCQ
Publisher:  Salt Publishing
Pub date:  15-Sep-11
Extent:  176pp
Height:  216 mm
Width:  135 mm
Thickness:  13 mm
Weight:  264 gms
Supplier:   Gardners Books
Supplier:   Ingram Book Group
Supplier:   Inbooks (James Bennett)
Availability:  IP
Price:  GBP 9.99
Price:  USD 16.95
Rights:  World

Short description/annotation:  The Best British Poetry 2011 presents the finest and most engaging poems found in literary magazines and webzines over the past year. The material gathered represents the rich variety of current UK poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a note by the poet explaining the inspiration for the poem.

Main description:  The Best British Poetry 2011 presents the finest and most engaging poems found in British-based literary magazines and webzines over the past year. The material gathered represents the rich variety of current UK poetry, including lyric, formal and experimental poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a note by the poet themselves, explaining the inspiration for the poem and why they decided to write the poem in that form. The format of the book will be familiar to those who have seen similar annual selections made in other countries such as Ireland, Australia and especially the US, where the equivalent annual book is a popular yet controversial landmark in each year's literary calendar. At a time when print journals still retain their significance and popularity and when new sites are flourishing on the web, this book offers a snapshot of current poetry practices in the country by offering a diverse selection of excellent poems.

Table of contents:
Introduction by Roddy Lumsden
Gillian Allnutt, “in her kitchen”
Mike Bannister, “Satin Moth”
Chris Beckett, “Boast of the Fly-Whisk”
Emily Berry, “Sweet Arlene”
Liz Berry, “The Year We Married Birds”
Nina Boyd, “Lanterns”
James Brookes, “Opiates: Kaliningrad”
Judy Brown, “The Helicopter Visions”
Mark Burnhope, “Twelve Steps Towards Better Despair”
Kayo Chingonyi, “Andrew’s Corner”
Jane Commane, “Music”
Fred D'Aguiar, “The Rose of Toulouse”
Emma Danes, “17”
Amy De’Ath, “Lena at the Beach”
Isobel Dixon, “A Beautifully Constructed Cocktail”
Sasha Dugdale, “Shepherds”
Ian Duhig, “Jericho Shandy”
Josh Ekroy, “78 rpm”
Laura Elliott, “White Lace Nightgown”
Carrie Etter, “Prairie”
Dai George, “Poolside at Le Domaine”
Giles Goodland, “Waves”
Matthew Gregory, “Young Pterodactyl”
Philip Gross, “Later”
Kelly Grovier, “A Butterfly in the British Museum”
Jen Hadfield, “The Ambition”
Aiko Harman, “Hitodama (‘Human Soul’)”
Emily Hasler, “Valediction”
Oli Hazzard, “Sonnet”
W.N. Herbert, from “Errant”
Alexander Hutchison, “Deil Tak The Hinmaist”
Sarah Jackson, “Light Over Ratcliffe”
Christopher James, “The Retired Eunuch”
Katharine Kilalea, “Hennecker’s Ditch”
Nick Laird, “Collusion”
Pippa Little, “Coal End Hill Farm 1962”
Chris McCabe, “Kingfisher”
Ted McCarthy, “Beverly Downs”
John McCullough, “Sleeping Hermaphrodite”
Patrick McGuinness, “House Clearance”
Kona Macphee, “My Life as a B Movie”
Lorraine Mariner, “And then there will be no more nonsense”
Sophie Mayer, “Of Other Spaces (Tate St. Ives)”
Gordon Meade, “Rats”
Matt Merritt, “Pluvialis”
Kate Miller, “The Apple Farmers’ Calendar”
Esther Morgan, “Short-hold”
Catherine Ormell, “Delicacy”
Richard Osmond, “Logo”
Ruth Padel, “Only Here On Earth”
Emma Page, “California”
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, “Lapse”
Abigail Parry, “Hare”
Andrew Philip, “10 x 10”
Heather Phillipson, “At First, the Only Concern is
Milk, More or Less”
Kate Potts, “Three Wishes”
Vidyan Ravinthiran, “Anti-circ”
Deryn Rees-Jones, from “The Songs of Elisabeth So”
Sam Riviere, “Honeymoon”
Colette Sensier, “Orpheus”
Penelope Shuttle, “The Year Strikes the Rock”
Jon Stone, “Mustard”
Matthew Sweeney, “Communiqué”
George Szirtes, “Some Sayings about the Snake”
Lizzi Thistlethwayte, “Scart Gap”
Eoghan Walls, “The Long Horizon”
Ahren Warner, “Hasard”
Chrissy Williams, “Sheep”
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, “Table Manners”
Michael Zand, “on a persian cairn”
Contributors’ Notes and Comments
List of Magazines
Acknowledgements

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Excerpt from book:  

from Introduction by Roddy Lumsden

The poems presented in this volume were selected from UK-based poetry magazines, literary journals and online publications issued between spring 2010 and spring 2011. The main purpose of this volume is to celebrate the thriving scene of literary magazines and the developing sphere of literary sites online. For the past year, I have been reading these publications as they appeared, seeking poems which struck me as enjoyable, rewarding, accomplished … I could continue with such adjectives but, in the end, I was not looking for poems to tick boxes; I merely read, with a mix of personal taste and an attempt at a consensus of opinion, and selected the pieces which brought an instinctive ‘yes’ when I reached the poem's end.

The format of the book owes a debt to The Best American Poetry series of anthologies which was founded in 1988. Similar volumes appear each year in Canada, Australia and Ireland. We have not previously had such a book in the UK, partly because of the existence of a similar series, The Forward Book of Poetry, which has been appearing annually since the early 1990s to coincide with National Poetry Day and the Forward Prizes. The Forward series does a good job, but its main aim is to select from published books and only a handful of poems from magazines now appear each year. At a time when print publications are threatened by funding problems and the recession, and when online publications are becoming more common and more attractive, it seems right to gather some of the best work from these sources, to showcase the strength and breadth of what is appearing there.

Now let's deal with the B word. We have decided to go with the familiar branding in other countries of such books as ‘Best X Poetry'. All of these books, at some time, have been questioned on the use of the debatable word ‘best'. What best? Whose best? The word irks some people who feel that the subjective nature of selecting and editing a book like this is at odds with such an objective word as ‘best'. I can see that, but there is no manifesto behind the word, no ulterior motive. If it really bothers anyone, a cup of tea and a nap might help. These were the poems I felt were best, of all the poems I read. Someone else would have made a different selection, and next year, another editor will do so, as I retreat into my capacity as Series Editor, leaving much of the decision making to my guest editor who, in 2012, will be the Carcanet / Oxford poet Sasha Dugdale.

Review quote:  I really enjoyed some poems in this anthology from writers I knew by name but had somehow bypassed. It’s certainly a positive introduction to contemporary writing in Britain – a far wider range of styles and schools (and both the famous and lesser known, both the established magazines and the new) than is customary in British publications.

Rob A. Mackenzie
Surroundings

Review quote:  Salt Publishing and Roddy Lumsden have come up with a British parallel to the well established Best American Poetry Series overseen by David Lehman. The first editor is Lumsden himself, to be followed by Sasha Dugdale next year. While the initial volume is a largely mainstream selection (with, strangely, not a prose poem in sight), it possesses greater energy and range than the annual Forward Book of Poetry, as evidenced in poems by Gillian Allnutt, Amy De'Ath, and Chris McCabe, among others.

Carrie Etter

Review quote:  [A]n excellent collection, imaginatively and fairly edited, making it easily one of the books that every reader of poetry wanting to know about new British and Irish poetry should own. I already look forward to the 2012 edition.

Todd Swift
Eyewear

Review quote:  The Best British Poetry 2011, edited by Roddy Lumsden, is an anthology of meticulous compilation: after a year spent foraging in the various British literary magazines, Lumsden has gathered 70 poems—representing 70 poets. In a format openly indebted to The Best American Poetry series, each poet has in turn commented on their poem’s inception. Fundamental to the nature of this collection is the method of the editor; this is not an anthology of the most celebrated contemporary poets. Rather than being selected by virtue of reputation, each poet wins their place in this book by having a single good poem published in a magazine this year.

Aime Williams
The Oxonian Review

Review quote:  For poets, this is a useful anthology because Lumsden's choices are drawn from a wide range of UK poetry magazines and each poem is labelled with the source. In the back there is a handy alphabetical list of quality poetry magazines with their contact details. If you want to submit to these magazines you can read the type of poem the editors approve of. You can also find which magazines you'd like to subscribe to, and let's not forget how much these journals need our support!

Angela Topping
Stride Magazine

Review quote:  … what would do we learn about contemporary poetry from this collection? Well, first, the standard is high. All of the poems are at least competent; clearly there are very many people who devote their lives to the art of poetry, and this is borne out by the results on show here.

Alan Baker
Stride Magazine

Previous review quote:  Lumsden hosts a supremely eclectic party for 85 "new" British and Irish poets — more women than men, for once — whose newness turns on book-length debuts within the past 15 years rather than calendar age.

Boyd Tonkin
The Independent

Previous review quote:  Identity Parade is an anthology which clearly achieves its objective of introducing its audience to a broad-church of today’s talent.

Phil Brown
Hand + Star