New Selected Poems

Overview

Drawing on the work of 45 years, starting with his debut collection, One and One, this collection of P. J. Kavanagh poems demonstrates his understanding of how contradictions coexist in nature and in us. Out of that vexed coexistence he makes poetry that, formally poised, packs the punch of revelation. Kavanagh has done so much to revive interest in British nature writing, and has contributed so much to it himself, nowhere more so than in his poetry. Internationally acclaimed Irish poet Derek Mahon provides an illuminating foreword, to set Kavanagh’s work in context.

Reviews

“[P. J. Kavanagh’s] revelatory gift is prodigious.”  —Derek Mahon, winner, Lannan Literary Award for Poetry

Author Biography

P. J. Kavanagh has worked as a lecturer, an actor, and a broadcaster, as well as a writer. His memoir, The Perfect Stranger, won the Richard Hillary Prize, and his first novel, A Song and Dance, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. He is also the author of A Kind of Journal and Something About, and the editor of Collected Poems of Ivor Gurney.