Reckless Paper Birds

John McCullough's first collection of poems, The Frost Fairs, won the Polari First Book Prize and was a Book of the Year for The Independent. His second, Spacecraft (Penned in the Margins, 2016), was named one of The Guardian's Best Books for Summer and shortlisted for the Ledbury Forte Poetry Prize. His latest collection, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins, 2019) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award.

‘Such transformative magic! Here is a poetry collection where nothing is what it seems – where Leviticus transforms into a flock of origami birds and Post-it notes are pornographic! McCullough’s poetic terrain is one of subtly-rendered and political surrealism, ‘where mauve armpit hair and sparklers / are ordinary’ and a Pterodactyl can heal bruises. Here are meditations on the vulnerability and uncertainty of bodies, where a body is both ‘gruesome vase’ and ‘deluded hero’, and here are prayers for the bodies ‘[we] will grow into’. Reckless Paper Birds is a timely and necessary collection which vibrates with protest; these poems are talismans against hate that suggest of queerness, ‘our origin is in fire. We are invincible’.’ Richard Scott‘John McCullough’s dazzling, synaesthetic third collection charts the ways our lives move inexorably towards ‘somewhere we do not recognise’, through shifting territories of love, intoxication, loss and knowledge. In these visceral, political poems, history ‘presses its mouth’ to our bodies and whispers strange secrets—McCullough has listened and found a language for them. This collection guides us through a world of déjà vu, doubt and rapture, a place where ‘each fingernail is a screensaver of somewhere’.’ Helen Mort‘John McCullough is a poet you need to know.’ Sarah howe