Anthologist-Preface: Andrew McMillan
Translation: Asimina Xirogianni
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Raymond Antrobus, Theresa Lola, Helen Mort, Kim Moore, Caroline Bird, Rebecca Perry, Richard Scott, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Mary Jean Chan, Caleb Femi
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When I was asked to put together this anthology, my first thought was to aim for plurality; to get a snapshot of what is happening across the lyric tradition, its anthesis, the art and performance scenes, and I wanted a diversity of voices as well. It turns out that I didn’t have to artificially manufacture this, simply by taking a look at the work of some of our most accomplished and exciting poets, that plurality emerges.
This is a generation of poets who are simultaneously following a path and bringing together their own divergent crossroads of influences. Partly the poets you encounter in this anthology, many probably for the first time, can chart their influences from previous generations, from the doors of vernacular speech, everyday expression and ordinary observation that were opened. Partly the path these poets walk has been signposted by the poets of North America, passage eased by the easier access to international work because of the internet and social media. That path is only one of several though; a trail of the lyric essay is important for some of these poets too, bridging that influence between poetry and prose. Art, the spoken word and the music scenes and how all these things interact with each other, has paved a connecting highway between the sometimes marginalised art form of poetry, and a bigger, more dynamic audience.
Mostly though, what strikes me about all these poets is the ‘nowness’ of what they’ve written, and what they continue to write. Yes, they’re aware of history, yes they’re aware of the canon and traditions they speak back into and against, but all these poets are sending us despatches from their own contemporary space. And now we collectively send them from us to you, across a continent.
Andrew McMillan,
poet