New Poets 20 (Friendly Street), November 2019.
Alys’ debut manuscript, Wolf Ghosts, was published in a collection of poetry in New Poets 20, along with Julia Wakefield and Sharon Foulkes.
Wolf Ghosts – Alys Jackson ‘This is highly visual work…Wolf Ghosts frequently takes the natural world, and especially animals, as its subject. It depicts that world as vulnerable one minute and threatening or, at least, indifferent to humans, at the next. It is a timely approach and a well-wrought collection.‘ Steve Evans
FSP is proud to launch the latest collections by the winning poets in the New Poets and Single Poet Competitions:
Single Poet winner: Ben Adams‘ first full collection of poetry, A Synonym For Sobriety.
New Poets 20 winners: Alys Jackson‘s Wolf Ghosts, Sharon Foulkes‘ Finding Their Voices and Julia Wakefield‘s Shifting Viewpoints.
Wolf Ghosts – Alys Jackson ‘This is highly visual work. It dances with effective short lines and shows an ability to hook the reader with a strong closing image or idea. Wolf Ghosts frequently takes the natural world, and especially animals, as its subject. It depicts that world as vulnerable one minute and threatening or, at least, indifferent to humans, at the next. The landscape revealed might devour us if we are not careful. If there is sometimes a sombre atmosphere in these poems, edged with a sense of impending loss, the effect is not so much bleak and hopeless as thought-provoking. It is a timely approach and a well-wrought collection.’
Shifting Viewpoints – Julia Wakefield ‘This collection draws its inspirations, its reference points, from many sources and subjects. The author seems restless, looking not to be pinned to one style or a predictable opinion. That elusiveness keeps the poems fresh and is a large part of its charm, with narrating perspectives that challenge reader expectations. There is darkness in its humour, delivered with a wink in depictions that can sometimes be whimsical or obviously surreal. The work includes sharp portrayals of nature, celebrating it and weighing up our place in it. Shifting Viewpoints does what it says on the tin, while offering a welcome adventurous outlook in its scope and multiple perspectives.’
Finding Their Voices – Sharon Foulkes ‘The poems in Finding Their Voices often address moments of stress that ask key questions of the reader, explicitly or not. They vary widely in focus, for example from the domestic arena, such as a fraught ‘hand-over’ of a child on a custody weekend, to a catastrophic encounter with a bushfire as it engulfs a farm. Other topics captured with precision involve life in an industrial country town and the joie de vivre of childhood. The language shifts between a more determinedly poetic voice and plainer speech, the latter often being delivered in a diaristic manner. The poems are character-laden and the richer for it.’