Oyster

Oyster captures vivid scenes of debauchery and wit with piercing honesty and energetic language.

Oyster is the second collection from prize-winning Edinburgh poet Michael Pedersen.

From Grez-sur-Loing and festive nights to sizzling summers stretched out in the Meadows and Portobello, Michael Pedersen’s unique brand of poetry captures a debauchery and a disputation of characters, narrated with an intense honesty and a love of language that is playful, powerful and penetrative; he vividly illuminates scenes with an energy that is both witty, humourous but also deeply intelligent. Oyster is iced, spiced, baked and beaming for your pleasure.

Oyster features bespoke illustrations from Frightened Rabbit lead singer and songwriter Scott Hutchison.

Michael Pedersen (b. 1984) is a poet, playwright and animateur with an electric reputation on the performance circuit and a prolific precedent of collaborations, having teamed up with some of the UK's top musicians, film-makers and artists. He is widely published in magazines, journals, anthologies and e-zines; his inaugural chapbook 'Part-Truths' (Koo Press) was a Callum MacDonald Memorial Award finalist; its sequel 'The Basic Algebra of Buttering Bread' (Windfall Books) received flocks of reviewer plaudits. He is co-founder and circus master at Neu! Reekie! - now one of the country's most formidable literary nights and DIY record labels - and a key creative within Dream Tower Productions. He's also the lyricist for cult band Jesus, Baby! and has written short plays for various troupes including the National Theatre of Scotland. Having travelled the world and taught in Cambodia for a year, Pedersen writes verse that gives a vivid idea of what it is to be young, socially aware and irrepressibly optimistic in the melting pot of the twenty-first century. He also enjoys sewing.