For Real (Smith|Doorstop, 2014)

'No. The catch was what you could never
let go. It's what you carried, and still do.' from 'The Catch'

‘Technically adroit, Ben Wilkinson’s poems are also willing to wear their heart on their sleeve. Lyrical and sometimes wistful, the best poems have a spoken contemporary quality. There is a great deal of promise in this striking collection.’

– Carol Ann Duffy
‘The verse in For Real is brave, and hugely authentic.’–Matthew Stewart, Rogue Strands
‘Wilkinson’s poems are weighty and cinematic, and his gift for finding the poetry in football terraces as well as crafting lyrical intrigue demonstrate his range and place as an up-and-coming voice on the UK poetry scene’–The Poetry Book Society / Next Generation Poets 2014

For Real, published by Smith|Doorstop, £5.

978-1-910367-07-0

WINNER OF THE POETRY BUSINESS BOOK & PAMPHLET COMPETITION 2013-14

JUDGED BY CAROL ANN DUFFY

WINNER OF THE NORTHERN PROMISE AWARD
IN THE 2014 NORTHERN WRITERS' AWARDS

included among the
TLS's POETRY PAMPHLETS OF THE YEAR

PUBLISHED 31 MAY 2014
launched in Grasmere (31 May), Sheffield (10 June)
and London (20 June)

‘Ben Wilkinson is one to watch. A fine poet with a deft ear and a nice sense of how the external world presses on the inner one.’– Nick Laird
‘Filmic, phantasmagoric, super-realist – in For Real, Ben Wilkinson shoots the rapids of the emerging twenty-first century’s infra- and extraordinary, in a stylish, poised lyric voice that looks built to last.’– Paul Farley

‘“I can’t make you feel what I felt” (David Foster Wallace), one of the epigraphs to For Real, is a challenge to which Wilkinson rises with considerable success.’–Andrew McCulloch, Times Literary Supplement‘Wilkinson's craft carries a precision of thought and expression that’s hard to reproduce ... the poems abound with subtly used devices and effects.’
–Noel Williams, Antiphon
‘Ben Wilkinson’s For Realhas a title that reads like a statement of intent – although he plays with dreams and illusion, he is also a very plain-speaking poet, who keeps his language grounded in the everyday ... Wilkinson is surely aware that such plainness is a high-stakes game, which when he pulls it off can lead beyond truisms to lines that are moving in their truth.’–Clare Pollard, Poetry LondonFor Real (Smith|Doorstop, 2014) For Real. Smith/Doorstop, pound 5 The other pamphlets I rsquo m reviewing ndash published by Smith/Doorstop, Faber and Pighog ndash are competition winners, ldquo I can rsquo t make you feel what I felt rdquo David Foster Wallace, one of the epigraphs to Ben Wilkinson rsquo s For Real Smith Doorstop, is a challenge to The Poetry Business publishes books, pamphlets, audio and now ebooks under the Smith/Doorstop imprint. It also produces The North magazine and provides writing

source : http://www.benwilkinson.org, http://okezone.com, http://flickr.com