England's Green

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Lily McDermottis a twenty-four-year-old poet from Yorkshire. In 2019, she graduated from the University of Oxford with an English Literature degree. She now runs her own tutoring company, alongside writing poetry and screenplays. She was a semi-finalist for The Poet’s Billow Atlantis Award 2021. Her favourite poet is Hollie McNish. Ruth Awololais a long time reader, writer, appreciator and believer in the power of poetry. She has been performing her own poetry since 2015 and writes for a range of audiences including poetry for children. The first three poems of the collections are titled ‘Foxglove’, ‘Forget-Me-Not’, and ‘The Hedge’. This is England. We know where Kunial wants to be Although this poem describes events in 1616 and 1066, the closing line: “Shapes. Spreading from the future on the beach.” speaks as much of those who come to Britain today for safety and shelter as it does of conquest or invasive species.

At this time of year you can’t get much more English than a playground game of conkers. In ‘Invasive’ we learn that the horse chestnut is, in fact, Noah Jacobis an Arab-British poet and performer. She is an editor and columnist for Zindabad Zine and alum of The Writing Room and the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, having placed second in the Roundhouse Poetry Slam 2021. She has been featured in SLAMbassadors, Kalopsia Lit, Shubbak Festival and Camden Festival. Young Poets Network is a hugely important and innovative online meeting point for any young person with an interest in poetry – to share, to experiment and to expand their knowledge. It attracts large numbers of lively minded readers and writers with its features, challenges, competitions and resources, and we look forward to seeing and hearing how they respond to the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 shortlist. We are very glad to be extending reviewing culture and opportunities through the Young Critics Scheme.” Kunial clearly delights in language, with wordplay and differing pronunciations fuelling "Foregrounds" et al. I particularly liked "Foxgloves" ("Sometimes I like to hide in the word / foxgloves - in the middle of foxgloves. The xgl is hard to say") and "The Wind in the Willows," where he wonders if the book title appeals to him just for its sound.Tender and true, complex and profound, Quiet is a beautiful balancing act of a book – a debut that brings Adukwei Bulley fully formed, starting something,” they added. The collection falls into four parts. I think of them as music albums and the first one is loosely about insects, but it’s also about many other things that kind of bring in human elements. It’s also about the urgency of their very brief lives, but seen through quite a human lens… We all see through our human perspectives, so when I’m talking about the insects for example, the perspective is very much of a middle aged mum, so a lot of the insects that I’m most able to strongly empathise with, it’s in their maternal instincts that I find the most common ground.’ A second collection from one of the most distinctive and original voices to have emerged in recent years, Zaffar Kunial. The Poetry Society is delighted to partner with the T. S. Eliot Prize on this innovative new scheme for keen young readers of poetry. We hope this initiative will encourage even more young people to engage critically with the titles on the prize shortlist, and provide opportunities for them to gain in skills and confidence. The Poetry Society is committed to finding new ways to support the development of our next generation of poetry readers, writers and critics. We are excited to hear these new young critics’ responses, which we’re sure will open up new windows to the books on this year’s Eliot Prize shortlist, and introduce an inspiring selection of poets to even more readers.” I was really excited by Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha – how so much was painted in so few words and with so much left out.

Young Critics Davina Bacon and SZ Shao shares their experiences of the programme, and what they have been up to since, in the new videos below. You might also find the two features published on Young Poets Network as part of the 2022 Scheme helpful: How To Write A Poetry Review and 15 Top Tips From Leading Critics. That could come across as trite and pat, but the poem it ends (‘The Wind in the Willows’ – my emphasis) brings the book’s themes together with a craft that supports the virtuosity. Kunial’s style is a wise vernacular that Auden would have loved . . . Six is a pamphlet to read and re-read; its words are so plain and so well put together that you won’t realise until much later how permanently they’ve marked you, like a grass stain.' (Alex Hayden-Williams, Varsity)

The poetry shortlist was made up of Fiona Benson’s Ephemeron, Zaffar Kunial’s England’s Green, Yomi Sode’s Manorism and Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa’s Cane, Corn & Gully, alongside Adukwei Bulley’s Quiet. Staring at an isolated word, or repeating it aloud, over and over, is a brain-game that can disrupt the cosiest family of letters, and sometimes suggest curious re-alliances. In this week’s poem, from Zaffar Kunial’s second collection, England’s Green, the word chosen for such an adventure is “ foxgloves”. Kunial begins by gently imagining the pleasure of hiding in the middle of his word, where “the xgl is hard to say”. It certainly is: I practised it when no one was listening, and made a sound part kiss, part hiss and part gulp. It sounded like a protest against “the England of its harbouring word”. SZ Shaois a British Asian creative based in London. Their written work revolves around gender, power and connectivity with the more-than-human. SZ has been commended in several Young Poets Network challenges, won third prize in the 2022 Talking Glass challenge, and second prize in the 2021 poetry translation challenge. The judges described Scary Monsters as a “work of beautifully composed genius”. “This is a book that troubles and disquiets, dazzles and delights, and with lively wit and intelligence, will also make you laugh darkly,” the judges added. Anthony Cummins in the Guardian described the book as “slyly intelligent”. Adukwei Bulley is an alumna of the Barbican Young Poets and recipient of an Eric Gregory award. The judges said Quiet was “a quiet revolution of a book – subtle, supple and serious”.