Recommend me a poetry book

[Maggiethecat]

For Dd1 whose having her 18th soon. She has offers for English at uni and really likes poetry but I haven't a clue!

Is there any poet or book of poetry that you really enjoy?

Slug by Hollie McNish

I buy DS the new Forward Poetry book every Christmas. it's a very pleasing annual publication full of some of some of the best of the year from new and established poets. Accessible yet satisfying

Heavens! Why are people recommending them classics’ to someone who must surely have A’ Level English?

I’d recommend the

Carcanet ‘New Poetries VIII, An Anthology’

which came out earlier this year. Huge selection of new writing by established and emerging poets. Substantial amount of work from each. Really rewarding and eye opening reading.

Don’t know where ‘them’ came from in my post.

(And I obviously wasn’t responding to the post immediately before mine - which was an excellent suggestion!)

@Edmontine

(And I obviously wasn’t responding to the post immediately before mine - which was an excellent suggestion!)

Why thank you! Certainly good enough for DS (Cambridge English grad) and me (errrrr not a Cambridge English grad!)

Decided I won't go down the classics route - she'll have enough of that on her course.

Lovely suggestions, thank you all. I'm off to bookshop this morning!

@Edmontine

Don’t know where ‘them’ came from in my post.

(Your auto correct thought you sounded too literate )

Gosh - I can’t remember the last time I stepped into a concrete bookshop ... (There used to be a lovely little indie bookshop in my local town, where they offered (complimentary) cups of tea while you were browsing. At that time I’d barely heard of Amazon. Then they closed.)

I must make the effort.

Came to recommend slug by Hollie McNish but I see others have beaten me to it

Lauren Bowman, The Evolution of a Girl. Beautiful poems. I found her on Instagram initially, then had to buy the book.

A Thousand Steps - Victoria Kingston

I'm enjoying Arias by Sharon Olds if anyone needs another recommendation.

@larkstar - thanks! came across her Stag's Leap in the store as well.

In case you're still looking: it's not poetry but if she likes Plath then "Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath" is a new biography that focuses on Plath's literary legacy rather than the death cult that's grown up around her. It's long (about 1000 pages) and weighty in both senses of the word but accessible enough for someone who is studying literature. I can't recommend it enough.

@CrazyNeighbour

There is an anthology called Staying Alive, edited by Neil Astley.

Agree with this.

Also think she would love The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy