About
Michael Grieve is a poet, teacher, and former bookseller with Topping & Company Booksellers of St Andrews.
His work has appeared in many poetry journals, including The Little Review, The Dark Horse and the Irish Pages, while his pamphlet Luck was published by HappenStance. He was shortlisted for the 2020 Edwin Morgan Prize.
Michael joins us for his remarkable debut, edited by Don Patterson and published by And Other Stories, Asterism looks at everything from domesticity to transgression with narrative flair, heart-breaking humanity and formal skill.
The poems of Asterism are a series of short, sideways-glimpsed fictions. Without answers, they feel their way through human experience, examining fallibility and forgiveness.
Some poems present characters in situations of crisis or constraint, while in others, ideas and obsessions overflow rational boundaries towards the transgressive and the devilish. These poems range widely, from the films of John Waters and Pasolini to da Vinci's muse, a linguistic experiment conducted by Scotland's James IV and the epic feats of Kirkcaldy's own Jocky Wilson. Ultimately, they explore human connections and the workaday love that holds them together.
In touch with the poetic tradition, Grieve's debut collection may sing of the heavenly and the diabolical, but its feet are planted firmly on the ground.
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