Shia LaBeouf
Out of print
I think in some moods one of the only poets around now worth reading, that is, who hasn’t forgotten about pleasure. Or as if imagism happened again, only this time you could think in it.”
Selected by the National Poetry Library for its collection
Further Praise
Sharp, bleakly funny, mordant and tender poetry from one of British poetry’s most original talents. Shia LaBeouf turns the volume up on the pains and pleasures of living in a body in this crumbly, sinful, pretty world. ”
Rebecca Tamás
We all know AK Blakemore is a bolt of lightning. And in this stinging new work, she’s weirder, wilder, even more fun. There’s a way she pins a whole emotional landscape with one line, a phrase, an insouciant sweep of the hand. Her shifts into and out of a poem are truly hers, and brilliant, her vocabulary and syntax, all her. What’s exciting is that they’re becoming her even more so, here. I can’t wait for everyone to read this book and see what I mean. ”
Wayne Holloway-Smith
some poetry just slips into the accidental realm of the iconic, where language refracts and dazzles ”
Maria Sledmere SPAM
While the Beat Gen Men said what they wanted to say about society and masculinity in thousands upon thousands of words, AK Blakemore expresses 21st century alienation, for women, in just a few well-chosen ones ”
Chris Edgoose Wood Bee Poet
Blakemore excels at sudden and drastic changes of tone and imagery that marry the beautiful to the painful. Evocative and unsettling, it also boasts a wry humour. ”
The Indie Insider
Press
About the book
Shia LaBeouf is the new poetry collection from the startling voice of A. K. Blakemore. Delivered with succinct precision and bright salient menace in her inimitable style—each poem suspends from the space around it with unapologetic leavings that will reside with you. Here, every detail crackles and comes at you sideways; a bad poem is dedicated to William Faulkner (and also your mother) – we are shown male models dancing to Roxy Music – a crosswise salver – a drinking spider – a sparrow’s wet dream and an altercation at a South London pub. A. K. Blakemore’s latest offering will take readers into a burnished and strange place
Part of the Hotel Archive
Collections: The British Library, Bodleian Library Oxford University, The Cambridge University Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin.
i am:
pigs walking in the shadow
along the beaches where the bodies wash up
clothed in iridescent paillettes.
sometimes quieter –
a drinking spider.
but listen
i could also be very big
a thing people will not understand
once i am dead.
About the author
A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others. Her debut novel, The Manningtree Witches which will be published in spring 2021 by Granta
Specification
- Format
- Paperback
- Trim Size
- 168 x 210 mm
- Pagination
- 46 pp
- Publication Date
- 1 September 2020
- ISBN
- 978-1-9160608-6-9
- Designer
- Frontwards Design
- Production Spec
- Loop binding, full colour, litho print
- Distributor
- NBN / Cornerhouse Publications
- Trade Categories
- Poetry