Ben Wilkinson – författare

From the thumping heartbeat of the distance runner to the roar of football terraces across the decades, Ben Wilkinson’s 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 game’s 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.

"Full of life: politicially astute, well-made and formally experimental poems celebrate even sadness in fresh language, natural rhythms and subtle music…. A very pleasurable as well as absorbing read that we are way more than lucky to have in one volume." – Ian DuhigFrom the thumping heartbeat of the distance runner to the roar of football terraces 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 Liverpool Football Club. 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 game''s 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 comes to define our happiness; how we keep on in a world of chance, uncertainty and change.

Same Difference is the formally acute second collection from poet and critic Ben Wilkinson. Carefully crafted yet charged with contemporary language, the poems experiment with poetic voice and the dramatic monologue, keeping the reader on their toes and asking just who is doing the talking. Tough, gritty, and often moving, this is a collection for our times.An understanding of the human spirit and the complexity of relationships underpin these poems. Brimming with everyone from cage fighters and boy-racers to cancer patients and whales in captivity, Wilkinson unpicks the preconceptions and prejudices that inform our encounters with the world.He casts a scrutinising eye on the mystery of failed and successful relationships, male depression, the history of meat eating. He takes a sideways glance at sport, particularly the rewards of running, to which he is a noted devotee, and the philosophy behind athletic competition.Throughout, he ‘steps into the shoes’ of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896). Finding affinity with Verlaine’s astringent tone and ruthless clarity, Wilkinson borrows his ‘punchy and musical’ phrasing to reframe Verlaine’s voice for modern readers.Seeking to undermine the confessional mode throughout, Wilkinson often weaves his arguments with traditional rhyme and metre. This formally elegant, wide-ranging collection sits firmly in the twenty-first century.

Don Paterson is one of Britain’s leading contemporary poets. A popular writer as well as a formidably intelligent one, he has won both a dedicated readership and most of Britain's major poetry prizes, including the T. S. Eliot Prize on two occasions, the Forward Prize in every category, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. In this first comprehensive study of Paterson’s poetry, Ben Wilkinson presents him as a modern-day metaphysical, whose work is characterised by guileful use of form, musicality, colloquial diction and playful wit, in pursuit of poetry as a moral and philosophical project. Drawing on a wide range of commentators, Wilkinson traces Paterson’s development from collection to collection, providing detailed close readings of the poems framed by theoretical and literary contexts. An essential guide for students, specialists, and the general reader of contemporary poetry, it presents Paterson as a major lyric poet.

Don Paterson is one of Britain’s leading contemporary poets. A popular writer as well as a formidably intelligent one, he has won both a dedicated readership and most of Britain's major poetry prizes, including the T. S. Eliot Prize on two occasions, the Forward Prize in every category, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. In this first comprehensive study of Paterson’s poetry, Ben Wilkinson presents him as a modern-day metaphysical, whose work is characterised by guileful use of form, musicality, colloquial diction and playful wit, in pursuit of poetry as a moral and philosophical project. Drawing on a wide range of commentators, Wilkinson traces Paterson’s development from collection to collection, providing detailed close readings of the poems framed by theoretical and literary contexts. An essential guide for students, specialists, and the general reader of contemporary poetry, it presents Paterson as a major lyric poet.