Fiona Sampson

Fiona Sampson is coming to The Woodstock Bookshop to read from her new collection of poems, Coleshill, on Tuesday 12 March at 7pm. £5 entry, please ring or email in advance to book tickets. Spaces will be limited as this reading is being held in the bookshop - there will be wine...

Fiona Sampson has published six collections of poetry and was the editor of Poetry Review (the quarterly publication from The Poetry Society) from 2005-12. She is now the editor of POEM, an international English language quarterly whose first issue appeared in January 2013. Her poems have been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize and she has also recently written a 'map of contemporary British poetry', Beyond the Lyric. She trained as a musician and some of you may have heard her recent discussion on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions - if you missed it and would like to know her music choices see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qqfhh

 

Coleshill is where Fiona Sampson lives, at the corner of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. This haunting new collection is a portrait of place, both real and imaginary and the poems hum with an evocative music of their own. Coleshill is published by Chatto & Windus on 7th March.

 

Advance reviews:

 

This is Sampson's poetic masterpiece, and a landmark book. She creates intimacy of place through a chamber music of the natural and made worlds, honed observations and epiphanic 'instrusions'. With its layering of history and presence, Coleshill is a major contribution to the literature of the local.  John Kinsella

 

These poems of place, often troublingly dark, are sui generis in the way they use what's to hand to explore what's hidden. Fiona Sampson's technical subtlety is everywhere in evidence and her emotional range is startling. Coleshil is a book of rare power and depth.  David Harsent