Ben Wilkinson

Lament Here now, it’s hard to believe this place – yellowed wallpaper, towels hung over every decent lager except the guest – is where we first met and that blur of brilliance – a world from this pint and the torn fabric of a duff pool table – meant the next week, the next fortnight, were the closest things ever get to simple. So if this is how I know us, want us – the two who clicked on an understanding of close as close to sparseness, bluntness – then that’s why, aware or drifting, I’ve come to sit in this selfsame chair, selfsame spot; listening to the traffic which you must be a part of, somewhere, pitched as it is among frantic and Orphic while one by one the pigeons flutter off; draining the glass and closing my book as the lights click on, someone coughs, and the place is good as lost, however I look. Ben Wilkinson

Single from late 90s/00s alt-rock band Seafood 's second album, When Do We Start Fighting .

Alongside a slightly lengthier piece on John Fuller 's latest collection, Pebble and I , by William Wootten, the current week's TLS (29 October) contains my review of Simon Armitage 's latest book, the PBS Choice (and so automatically T.S. Eliot prize-shortlisted) Seeing Stars . A new direction for his work, sure, but is it actually any good?

Matter magazine, published out of the MA Writing course at Sheffield Hallam University , is now in its tenth year and, to celebrate, this year's issue - just published - has a burnt gold cover. As ever, it's a stunning object to hold in hand and, like the best literature mags, combines quality production with excellent writing. I've only dipped into the issue myself, having recently received a copy, but have already been struck by the guest contributions - from the likes of Daljit Nagra and Iain Sinclair - and the strength of writing from MA students included. ( Jamie Coward 's 'The Coxcomb' is a nifty little poem in particular; curious, amusing, subtly musical.) As in previous years, the issue points to Sheffield Hallam's ever-growing reputation as a place that nurtures some of the best new writers: Katharine Towers , Marina Lewycka , Tony Williams and Frances Leviston , to name but a few successful alumni. Should you fancy getting hold of a copy of thi

I've been looking forward to the appearance of Katharine Towers 's first collection of poems for some time now, having come across her work in a pamphlet, Slow Time , a few years back; a striking little volume for its poems' economical and unshowy resonance. So it was a pleasant surprise to spot the title poem from her debut with Picador, The Floating Man , in the Guardian the other month, and to see her collection longlisted for the Guardian First Book award . Even more so, it was a pleasure to write at length on the collection for that publication; my review of The Floating Man , appearing as it did, in last Saturday's Guardian Review . For those interested, it's also available to read online . And after you've been suitably persuaded, you can order a copy of the book , a snip at 25% off the cover price.

South London-based band the XX have won this year’s Mercury Prize, and deservedly so. Their self-titled debut beat other shortlisted albums from Mumford and Sons , Biffy Clyro , Dizzee Rascal , Foals , and bookie’s favourite (?!) washed-up has-been Paul Weller – all, I think, would have made deserving winners with the obvious exception of the latter. But the XX are unusually and subtly original in a way none of these artists are: their moody, electronic, skeletal songs are unlike anything else going on in the British pop-music mainstream at the moment. Like all great bands, they manage to sound wholly contemporary while also retaining a timeless feel; atmospheric and haunting, their stuff isn’t showy but it sticks and, I think, will stand up for years to come. I fully recommend buying a copy of their album if you haven’t already. Along with Klaxons , PJ Harvey , Pulp and Elbow , I’d go so far as to say they are perhaps the most deserving winners in the Mercury Prize’s history . Bu

There's a lot to be said for brilliantly designed and stunningly produced books, second fiddle though these things are - and certainly should be - to brilliant, stunning writing. When the two are combined, though, the book lover really can't ask for much more. And so it is with these recent Faber Firsts reissues: beautiful, highly affordable hardbacks of classic contemporary collections, including Armitage 's Kid , Cope 's Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis , Paterson 's Nil Nil and Larkin 's The Whitsun Weddings . They seem a continuation of the beautiful Faber 80th Anniversary Poetry Classics , selected poems of various poets which include similarly stunning designs and not only make the perfect gift for the newcomer to British and Irish poetry, but are tempting to those of us who already own other, doubtlessly less stylish, selecteds of Yeats, Plath, Hughes, Auden, Betjeman and Eliot . Good news, then, for those of us who live in or around Sheffield, as the Bl

The fifth issue of literary ezine Blackbox Manifold has just been published, and well worth reading it is too; the usual mix of big names and new voices and poems of all styles, subjects and schools. And so you can read new work from George Szirtes , Sharon Olds , Vidyan Ravinthiran , Carolyn Hart and Susan Wicks , among others. I've a couple of poems included, too. There are also reviews by Vahni Capildeo , an exciting young poet in her own right (check out her stuff in Roddy Lumsden's recent generational anthology, Identity Parade ) , and by Adam Piette , co-founder and editor of the magazine. Also worth checking out is the prose and poetry forum Ink, Sweat & Tear s , which features a new poem, piece of prose writing or visual artwork almost every day. Recent highlights include Helen Mort 's 'The Lovesick', which somehow manages to conjure genuine emotion from a Carry On scene, Helen Ivory 's amusing account of her time at Latitude Festival, and Dan Wyk

A snappy - and hopefully accessible and informative - piece on Louis MacNeice 's best and last collection, The Burning Perch , features in the second issue of YM , the Poetry Society's online magazine for new young readers and writers of poetry. Do take a look, and once you've been persuaded, you can pick up the excellent Collected Poems here .

from Massive Attack 's 2003 album, 100th Window .

This year looks like it’s shaping up to be an interesting one for new British poetry. There are several exciting debuts that have recently been released or are shortly forthcoming, not least Sam Willetts ’s New Light for the Old Dark , which I mentioned here a couple of months back, Miriam Gamble ’s The Squirrels are Dead , a first book of rhythmically taut poems that, if the stuff of hers I’ve spotted in magazines and elsewhere is anything to go by, will include lyrics and narratives from animal and curiously alien perspectives, and, of course, Dan Wyke ’s long awaited debut with Waterloo , whose subtly suggestive poems address the domestic, familial and everyday with knowing insight. One book I’m particularly looking forward to, though, is the first full collection from Adam O’Riordan . Titled In the Flesh and due to appear from Chatto & Windus this July, it follows on from a pamphlet, Queen of the Cotton Cities , published by tall-lighthouse in 2007 as one of the first in its

Well, here are a few recent issues of magazines that I thought I'd flag up, and no, not just because I've something of my own included in them, which in several cases I don't, but because I've subscriptions to many poetry mags and journals for the simple reason that, in many ways, they're the lifeblood and engine rooms of new writing and, on this slightly gloomy looking Wednesday morning, I'd like to encourage you, dear Wasteland reader, to consider subscribing to a new publication today. First off, the latest issue of New Welsh Review dropped with a satisfying thud through my letterbox the other week, and aside being excellently produced (nothing superficial about enjoying the look and feel of a stylish book or magazine with high production values, and to be honest, NWR holds its own against most books , never mind journals), it also contains plenty of engaging new writing, including two new poems from Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch , fiction from Nii Ayikwei Parke

Hound When it comes, and I know how it comes from nowhere, out of night like a shadow falling on streets, how it waits by the door in silence – a single black thought, its empty face – don’t let it tie you down to the house, don’t let it slope upstairs to spend hours coiled next to your bed, but force the thing out, make it trudge for miles in cold and wind and sleet. Have it follow you, the faithful pet it pretends to be, this mutt like a poor-man’s Cerberus, tell it where to get off when it hangs on with its coaxing look, leave it tethered to a lamppost and forget those pangs of guilt. Know it’s no dog but a phantom, fur so dark it gives back nothing, see your hand pass through its come-and-go presence, air of self-satisfied deception, just as the future bursts in on the present, its big I am, and that sulking hound goes to ground again. The Catch For you, the catch wasn’t something caught – not word or contender, attention or fire. Not the almo

Drive-By Truckers perform "Birthday Boy", taken from their new album The Big To-Do , on Jools Holland's Later .

There can be weeks when I find very little to engage on BBC2's The Review Show (formerly Newsnight Review , though the name change seems to have accompanied nothing more than the sickly new colour scheme of its redesigned set), so it was a pleasant surprise to see Chris Morris , Britain's foremost satirist and creator of series The Day Today (1994) and Brass Eye (1997), featured on the show this week, having finished his latest project, a darkly comic film about a bunch of hapless, amateur terrorists based in Sheffield. I'd almost forgotten about the movie, having last read about Morris's current project when I stumbled across a letter, "The absurd world of Martin Amis " , in the Guardian a few years back, in which Morris takes the bestselling author to task for "prowling the thickets of his research [into Islam and terrorism] like a demented flasher". But as Morris's first film, and given his reputation for dealing with difficult topics (su

Managers, offices, the daily grind, rows of computer screens, crap coffee machines ... a fair number of contemporary poets have been swift to pen their thoughts on the typical working conditions of modern life, but a new pamphlet I recently received, The Manager , is, I think, a novel and original take on the 9-5 world that most of us inhabit. As its title suggests, it centres on the shifting persona of "the manager", in a sequence that moves from the serious to the irreverant and from the depressing to the uplifting with surprising ease. A few excerpts to pique your interest: The manager has proverbs on the wall about being a good man and he reads them at times of intense isolation when his office has become a cell and the laughter in the next room is a barrier he has not the skill to clear. (Manager #1: Mantra) The manager burns, he burns with the heat of an example others will follow: a new kind of leader. (Manager #5: Health & Safety Incident) The manager's eyes

Radiohead performing the brilliant "Electioneering", shortly after the release of their album, OK Computer .

The latest issue of Poetry Review , Our Disappearing World (100:1, Spring 2010) has just been published, and features a broad array of interesting poems, features, and reviews: just received my copy the other day, so haven't had chance to enjoy it in full, but so far Alison Brackenbury's article on the work of John Clare, Jacqueline Gabbitas's round-up of recent pamphlets, and poems by Glyn Maxwell, John Stammers, James Midgley and Liz Berry have all caught and held my attention. In particular, Liz Berry's "In the Steam Room" is impressive: a minutely detailed, gorgeously sensual and descriptive poem that is also, in parts, that touch uncomfortable - great stuff. I'm particularly pleased, then, to see it included in a section of the magazine, "Now and Then", which takes its title from a poem of mine, also in issue, and also includes poems by Alex McRae, Tamar Yoseloff, Tom Gilliver , and Daniel Weissbort . The issue also features the winners o

News just in: the shortlist for the Iota International Poetry Competition 2010 has just been announced, judged this year by the talented - and typically stylishly turned-out - poet Tim Turnbull . And amongst some familiar names - Martyn Crucefix , Mick Wood, Matthew Caley and Christopher North - I'm chuffed to see a poem of my own shortlisted. The full list of prizes, shortlisted poets and poems is below; the winners will be announced at an awards event at the University of Gloucestershire on April 19th. 1st Prize £2,000 2nd Prize £1,000 3rd Prize £500 10 Supplementary Prizes of £50 (in no particular order) "Here is The News" by Carol Beadle "A truck called 'Perseverence' ", by Martyn Crucefix "Look Who's Shunting The Nuclear Train", by Mick Wood "Playtime", by Maeve Henry "Los Angeles", by Matthew Caley "The embolism suffered by Edward's father (during a sudden cold snap)", by Rosie Sheppard "Doo

For those interested, my review of the last four poets to produce pamphlets as part of Tall-Lighthouse's Pilot series (published 18 younger poets over the course of three years) is up now at Stride magazine . Charlotte Runcie, Richard O'Brien, Ailbhe Darcy and Simon Pomery - all very different writers, and all names to look out for in the future, not only when their first full collections appear, but when the annual Society of Authors' Eric Gregory Awards are announced in the coming years, no doubt.

For my money, one of the best pop songs of recent years. Brilliant.

Just a hunch, but since I came across the poetry of Sam Willetts in the latest Poetry magazine and elsewhere, I'm inclined to agree with Dan Wyke 's prediction that Willetts' debut collection, New Light for the Old Dark , due from Jonathan Cape in April of this year, will certainly be shortlisted for and perhaps win a number of first collection awards, and no doubt be well-received on the whole. His mixture of poetic registers and the precise observations of his poems remind me a little of Michael Hofmann 's work, but Willetts' stuff (and I'm only going on a handful of poems here, particularly 'Tourist' and the ambitiously-titled 'Digging' ) seems looser and more freewheeling; a jangling, stop-start lyrical music propels them along with satisfying originality. His subject matter is also distinctive: the crushing experience of heroin addiction and recovery informs 'Digging' in particular. I'll look forward to the book appearing late

Happy to leave work today and find not only that the bastard ice has melted (thus rendering my hilly walk home a pleasurable one in which I can let my thoughts wander, as opposed to this morning, when I shuffled like some early-to-rise madman with my eyes glued to the treacherous pavements, only occasionally lifting my head to watch the bloke in front march then wobble then flail with desperation), but also, on arrival home, to find that this week's TLS had fallen onto my doormat, and includes two of my poetry reviews, on Carrie Etter 's The Tethers, and Lorraine Mariner 's Furniture . The issue (no. 5575; February 5 2010) also contains, among other things, two new poems from Simon Armitage , which like all of the recent poems of his which I've spotted here and there ( Rialto , Poetry London , and in the excellent online poetry journal Blackbox Manifold ), seem to be something of a departure from his characteristic style. Worth checking out.

A quick pointer to those interested - on the Contemporary Writers site, you can now find critical perspectives on the poetry of two very different, but equally fascinating, writers: Jen Hadfield and Greta Stoddart . Hadfield's second collection, pictured above, won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2008; recently awarded to Philip Gross in 2009 for his collection The Water Table . And to those on/off regular readers of this blog: apologies for the hopeless lack of posts of late. Life, as the man says, has a habit of getting in the way. Work and writing permitting, I should hopefully find time to make some more substantial posts in the not-too-distant future. Cheers for sticking around.

Welcome to the website of the English poet and critic , Ben Wilkinson .    Ben is part of a younger generation of British poets who emerged in the 2000s. His poems tackle themes including identity, social class, mental health and sport, in clearly voiced, accessible poems written out of the landscape of the North. He has lived in Sheffield for most of his life, and the city's rural and post-industrial landscapes often feature in his writing.  Ben attended a state school and was the first of his family to go to university, receiving his first degree from the University of Sheffield. He holds an MA in Writing and a PhD in English Literature from Sheffield Hallam University. He has won numerous awards for his poetry, including the Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition and a Northern Writers Award. His poems frequently appear in many publications, including The Guardian , New Statesman , The Poetry Review , The Rialto , The Spectator , and the TL

  A list of some of poems which have recently appeared in magazines and other publications. 'Church of the Sunday Long Run', METER: the runner's review , Winter 2020 'Try living in a house', Magma , issue 75 (Winter 2020) 'The Flower Carrier' and 'The Champion' , Wild Court , 5 July 2019 'Northern Anecdotal', Magma , issue 73 (Spring 2019) 'Cage' and 'The Bull', The Spectator , 26 January and 16 February 2019 'Patient' and 'Your anxiety', The Spectator , 26 May and 9 June 2018 'Graft' , METER: the runner's review , issue #02, Fall 2015 'Building A Brighter, More Secure Future', The Morning Star , 7 July 2015 ' Days ', The Spectator , 8 August 2015 'King Kenny', Official Liverpool FC Monthly Magazine , issue 27, November 2014 'John Barnes', The Pride and the Passion: Offside Stories anthology   'The Catch', The Saturday