Ten: poets of the new generation presents the work of ten exciting British poets from diverse backgrounds. It is the third anthology from The Complete Works poetry mentoring scheme, a national programme supporting exceptional black and Asian poets founded by the writer Bernardine Evaristo in 2007. Already making a big impact on the British poetry scene, poets from the series have included Sarah Howe, the 2016 winner of both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award; Mona Arshi, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2016; and Warsan Shire, who collaborated with Beyoncé on her visual album, Lemonade in 2016, which featured many of Shire's poems. This latest anthology in the Ten series will not disappoint readers hoping to discover more exceptional talent. It includes poets with even more diverse backgrounds ranging from Somalia and Nigeria through to Jamaica and the multiculturalism of Macau, and features the first poet from Latin America. These are poets who interrogate race and explode any ideas of a page/stage divide. Fierce, unexpected, sometimes beautiful and always passionate, here are ten poets to savour and enjoy. The poets included are: Raymond Antrobus, Omikemi Natacha Bryan, Leonardo Boix, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Will Harris, Ian Humphreys, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Momtaza Mehri, Yomi Sode and Degna Stone.
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[In a backroom / where stories & names / are exchanged / & forgotten / in the same breath / I begin to speak WHILE SHE WAITS FOR A HEART TO ARRIVE BY OMIKEMI NATACHA BRYAN]
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(@BloodaxeBooks, 28 September 2017, e-book, 160 pages, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveLibs, edited by @KMcCarthyWoolf)
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So, I'd never heard of any of the poets in this collection before. I had no idea what to expect. I've discovered a group of new poets to continue to explore and become better acquainted with. What impressed me are the range, depth and diversity of the poets and their work on offer here. No two poets and indeed no two poems are the same. I enjoyed the work by Ian Humphreys, Jennifer Lee and Momtaza Mehri the most. Each poet is introduced by another well-known poet and these names were familiar including Pascale Petit and the editor, Karen McCarthy Woolf.
