Publisher's Synopsis
Read three sample poems for free - just click the Extracts tab above.
Phil Brown's Il Avilit moves forcefully between the noise and disorder of the modern world, picking through the debris of the many lives we lead, leaving a trail of perfectly poised and fiercely observed poems. Dejected teachers, low-life pub landlords, faithless lovers, libertines and heroes populate this piercing and quick-witted debut, where darkness and regret linger at the corner of the pages, reminding us that an urgent clock ticks with our every step.
Whilst the poems go toe-to-toe with the big subjects of lust, loss and deception, the collection remains savvy, upfront and entertaining. Brown's poems seek to confide in their reader with precise and carefully-measured words in their ear, finding their form and shape in persistent and surprising ways.
Part of the Debut New Poets Series.
"Phil Brown's lovely 'South Bank' deserves to be cemented on to the Royal Festival Hall."
Suzi Feay, The Independent
"Ink spilled from a dark wingtip overhead… with pitiless skill this shade of Baudelaire unmakes his life and lays it out for our delectation - a casual gift, a rarefied vision, a human sacrifice."Hugo Williams "Phil Brown's poems jump across the page, play with language and meaning, and interrogate - thumb in collar - our multifarious, simultaneous worlds. From Sir Gawain on the Northern Line to the sleazebag publican - from Chiron in Southend to an American president on his deathbed - these poems blend urban, virtual, and mythical experience through a sharply observant eye, fizzing like intellectual fireworks as they go."
Katy Evans-Bush
Phil Brown was shortlisted for the Crashaw Prize in 2009 and won the Eric Gregory Award in 2010. He has had his work published in Magma, Pomegranate, Dove Release: New Flights and Voices (Worple Press, ed. David Morley), Dr. Rhian Williams' The Poetry Toolkit (2009, Continuum), and the forthcoming Salt Collection of Young British Poets (ed. Roddy Lumsden), Lung Jazz: Young British Poets for Oxfam (ed. Kim Lockwood and Todd Swift) and Coin Opera 2 (ed. Jon Stone). He is the Poetry Editor for the online magazine and chapbook publisher, Silkworms Ink.
