Black Cat Bone

The unmistakable work of a master – Bernard O’Donoghue * Times Literary Supplement *A tour de force of liminal expression… Burnside is not a wispily ethereal poet. A stretch of country crossed during the hunt is captured in oils, not in thin watercolours…poignantly luminous…[an] engrossing collection – M. Wynn Thomas * Guardian *Black Cat Bone is a deserving winner of this year’s Forward Prize for best collection. John Burnside’s twelfth volume adds to and deepens a body of poetry that is already exceptionally significant - and utterly recognisable. A musician and chromaticist, he’s a poet whose rapt, floating verse conjures up effects of great beauty in both the ear and the imagination – Fiona Sampson * Independent *A haunting book of great beauty, powered by love, childhood memory, human longing and loneliness. In an exceptional year, it is an outstanding book, one which the judges felt grew with every reading – Gillian Clarke, chair of the T.S. Eliot PrizeOne of the most gifted poets writing today – Paul Batchelor * Times Literary Supplement *Burnside’s inward eye has never been clearer, his poetic voice never more plainly lovely. – Candia McWilliam

John Burnside was among the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs won numerous awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial, Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and, in 2023, he received the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in literature. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry. He died in 2024.

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