Division Street

Description

*WINNER OF THE FENTON ALDEBURGH FIRST COLLECTION PRIZE 2014* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2013* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA POETRY AWARD 2013* The much-anticipated debut collection from award-winning poet and rising star, Helen Mort *SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S ELIOT PRIZE 2013* 'A stone is lobbed in '84, hangs like a star over Orgreave. Welcome to Sheffield. Border-land, our town of miracles...' - 'Scab' From the clash between striking miners and police to the delicate conflicts in personal relationships, Helen Mort's stunning debut is marked by distance and division. Named for a street in Sheffield, this is a collection that cherishes specificity- the particularity of names; the reflections the world throws back at us; the precise moment of a realisation. Distinctive and assured, these poems show us how, at the site of conflict, a moment of reconciliation can be born.

Helen Mort was born in Sheffield in 1985, and grew up in nearby Chesterfield. Five-times-winner of the Foyle Young Poets Award, she received an Eric Gregory Award in 2007 and won the Manchester Young Writer Prize in 2008. She has published two pamphlets with tall-lighthouse press, the shape of every box and a pint for the ghost (a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice, 2010), and her poems have appeared in the Spectator, Poetry Review and The Manhattan Review. In 2010, she was Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere. She lives in Derbyshire.

Helen Mort is among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of young British poets -- Carol Ann Duffy Outstanding... There's a confidence and wit that's rare in a first book, but underlying it all is the bedrock of the north of England, its landscapes and stories. These are poems of passion, risk, tenderness and power -- Michael Symmons Roberts, winner of the Forward Prize 2013 There's been a buzz around Helen Mort for a while, and her debut, Division Street, doesn't disappoint -- Suzi Feay * Independent * An excellent first poetry collection -- lucid, intelligent, politically aware, and loyal to the landscape that inspired it. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian Picks of the Year * Mort is a fast-rising star of British poetry... marked by a gritty urban lyricism and a terrific rhythmic vitality * i * A poet of exceptional talent, with a strong clear voice, a sure sense of metre and a poetic sensibility which has an unshakeable attachment to the real world. * Herald * Although Helen Mort is just 28, it's surprising that Division Street is her first full collection -- so frequently and impressively does her work appear in magazines and competitions... It's a brilliant debut. -- Bill Greenwell * Independent * A first class first full-length collection * Tribune * Gritty, witty, stylish and totally memorable. Division Street is a book which has something important to say, addressing a wide range of topics with novelty and intelligence. * John Glenday * The beauty of her debut collection is partly the sense that it has been written against the clock. Every poem is on the move... the style is satisfyingly Orwellian -- no long words where a shorter one would serve. Nor is she a poetic detective assisting with mysteries. She knows when to let be and let go. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *