Way More Than Luck (Paperback)

Ben Wilkinson

ISBN 10: 1781724253 / ISBN 13: 9781781724255

Published by Poetry Wales Press, Bridgend, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. From the thumping heartbeat of the distance runner to the roar of football terraces across the decades, Ben Wilkinsons debut confronts the struggles and passions that come to shape a life. Beginning with an interrogation of experiences of clinical depression and the redemptive power of art and running, the collection centres on a series of vivid character portraits, giving life to some of football's legends. By turns frank, comic, sinister and meditative the trouble with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head these poems uncover the beautiful games magic and absurdity, hopes and disappointments, as striking metaphors for our everyday dramas. Elsewhere there are tender love poems, political satire and strange dream worlds, in an urgently lyrical book of poems that take many forms and modes of address: pantoum, sonnet, sestina; epistle, confession, dramatic monologue. All are united by a desire to speak with searching clarity about matters of the heart. Way More Than Luck is a book that shows how pain often comes to define our happiness; how we keep on in a world of chance, uncertainty and change. Way More Than Luck is the eagerly-awaited debut from noted young critic and author Ben Wilkinson. At the heart of the book is a series of poems inspired by a lifelong devotion to Liverpool Football Club. We meet former players, coaches and re-live moments of both stoic despair and wild joy. Vivid themes are adroitly enacted in poetic forms. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781781724255

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Way More Than Luck (Paperback)
• Publisher: Poetry Wales Press, Bridgend
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781724253
• ISBN 13: 9781781724255
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

From the thumping heartbeat of the distance runner to the roar of soccer stadiums across the decades, Ben Wilkinson’s debut poetry collection, Way More Than Luck, confronts the struggles and passions that come to shape a life. Beginning with an unflinching interrogation of experiences of clinical depression and the redemptive power of art and running, the collection centres on a series of vivid character portraits, giving life to the legends of the UK’s Liverpool Football Club.

About the Author

Ben Wilkinson was born in Staffordshire and now lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. In 2014 he won the Poetry Business Competition and a Northern Writers’ Award, and in 2015 he was awarded a writers’ grant from Arts Council England. He is a keen distance runner, lifelong Liverpool FC fan, and he writes criticism for The Guardian, The Poetry Review and the Times Literary Supplement. He lectures at the University of Bolton.