Waterloo Press - Alan Morrison

Alan Morrison

Alan Morrison was born in Brighton 1974. In 1998, he was a winner in the Asham Trust’s First Edition Competition, resulting in the first publication of his poems in an anthology, Don't Think of Tigers (The Do Not Press, 2001). Three chapbooks followed, two with Sixties Press and one, Giving Light, with Waterloo.

His critically praised play for voices, Picaresque (chipmunkapublishing, re-issue 2008), has been performed at such venues as The Poetry Café and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, RADA. His 2006 volume The Mansion Gardens (Paula Brown) received glowing reviews in journals such as The London Magazine, Pulsar and Other Poetry. His second volume, Saints with Cluttered Brows, is forthcoming from Waterloo Press this summer.

For more information on Alan Morrison, visit: www.alanmorrison.co.uk

Morrison's poetry has appeared in journals at home and abroad including: Aesthetica, Aireings, Cadenza, Carillon, Eclipse, Great Works, Illuminations, The Journal, The London Magazine, The Penniless Press, Pennine Platform, Poetry Monthly, Poetry Salzburg Review, Pulsar, South, Whistling Shade, The Yellow Crane.

Morrison is founder and editor of the new radical literary ezine, the Recusant, and is currently Poet in Residence at Mill View Hospital, Hove.

For more information on the Recusant, visit www.therecusant.org.uk

The Mansion Gardens
Paula Brown Publishing, 2006
perfect bound 172pp

ISBN 1-905168-11-X

Alan Morrison's first full volume ('In effect... a series of mini-collections', as one reviewer commented), The Mansion Gardens, was published in November 2006, and launched at Battersea Arts Centre. Publisher Paula Brown nominated it for the 2006 TS Eliot Prize. The volume is arranged chronologically, covering the main bulk of Morrison's writing from 1991 - 2006 and includes prefaces by Barry Tebb, John Horder and Simon Jenner of Waterloo Press, the latter having been Morrison's mentor for most of the period covered in this volume. The Mansion Gardens has attracted much acclaim since its publication in journals such as The London Magazine, Pulsar and Other Poetry. The book is available online from Blackwells and Amazon (including a 'collectible' signed edition for £19.99) among other notable sites.

The Mansion Gardens is indeed a worthwhile enterprise. To have so much Morrison in one volume is instructive and, very often, illuminating.
Michael W. Thomas, Other Poetry

a young and talented poet and one who can move our sense of pity and sorrow in the manner of Hardy
William Oxley, The London Magazine

a number of poems written in a kind of Joycean verbalesque manner. ...a creative and thoughtful poet seeking to enrich the language...
Gwilym Williams, Pulsar

I had to stop going back over things, give myself a stern talking-to about savouring and turn out the light... so many fine things. I shall be coming back to it for a proper wallow at the first opportunity
David Savoury, FRSL

...violence in the city centre ('Battle of Trafalgar Street') through to Hardyesque meditations on raw nature ('Mist'). Captivating
Rocks Magazine, Brighton

To order a copy straight from the publisher please click on this link and follow the instructions: http://www.thepeoplespoet.com/paulabrownpublishing/themansiongardens.htm

Giving Light - Waterloo Samplers No. 2 (2003)

ISBN 1-902731-14-X
£3.00

“…the strangely haunting perspectives of ‘Last of the Spray Carnations’, the marvellous cynical whimsy of ‘The Cottage’; ‘The House of Sadness Past’; ‘The Sound of Eating’; ‘A Hamper from Landrake’ – terrific…a real poet”
K.M. Newmann, Summer Palace Press

“Outstanding – books beautifully produced aren’t normally matched by the contents, but this is. One of the finest books I've seen in a long, long time. Alan has a voice entirely his own. Stanza 4 of 'Last of the Spray Carnations' is worthy of Pound. 'Tears of mustard sun' - I wish I'd written that! The shorter poems too are excellent - wise, witty and full of feeling. 'The Cottage' is marvellous. At 63 when I read his work I feel there's hope for poetry still.”
Barry Tebb, Sixties Press

“Some of the shorter poems seem to search for the self-referencing wisdoms of an isolated mind and remind one of the aphorisms of William Blake. All the poems strike sparks”
Graham High, Poetry Express

"...the four-liners have a Blakean feeling pulsating right the way through them. Every word counts. The poems, in their quirkiness, also remind me of Stevie”
John Horder

“The booklet resonates with poems about the everyday meaning of being alive. ...Morrison is able to dip into the profound”
Doreen King, New Hope International

To read extracts please click here