Michael Murphy Memorial Prize

The shortlist for the 2017 Michael Murphy Memorial prize has just been announced by judges Deryn Rees-Jones, Karen Leeder and John Mcauliffe. The £1000 prize is awarded for a distinctive first book of poetry in English published in Britain or Ireland. I’m honoured that Disko Bay is one of the five titles on the shortlist, alongside This Changes Things by Claire Askew, Beauty / Beauty by Rebecca Perry, The Observances by Kate Miller and Otherwise by John Dennison.

The winner will be announced on National Poetry Day, 28 September 2017 and the prize will be awarded at the English Association's Annual General Meeting on 23 May 2018. Meanwhile, Disko Bay is available to Poetry Book Society members at the customary 25% discount.

Walking On Lava

I'm delighted to announce the arrival of Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilised Times, a new paperback collection of essays, stories, poems, interviews and artwork taken from the first ten issues of Dark Mountain, which includes my essay on poetry and preservation in the Arctic, 'No More Words for Snow'.

Walking on Lava opens with the original Dark Mountain manifesto and should be the ideal introduction for new readers wanting to find their bearings in Dark Mountain territory. Meanwhile, for those who discovered the project in recent years, it offers the chance to get acquainted with some of the formative early contributions.

The book is edited by Charlotte Du Cann, Dougald Hine, Nick Hunt and Paul Kingsnorth – and published on both sides of the Atlantic by Chelsea Green.

Walking on Lava is available from all good bookshops and can be ordered direct from the Dark Mountain shop. Readers in the US may prefer to order direct from the publisher.

We'll be celebrating the official launch of Walking on Lava with an evening at the Old Truman Brewery in London on 5 September. This is a free event, but places are limited, so please register on the Eventbrite page.