D & W PUBLISHING - BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND POEMS
  • Dempsey & Windle
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • Events
  • Authors' pages A-B
    • Veronica Aaronson
    • Derek Adams
    • Timothy Adès
    • Gary Allen
    • Moira Andrew
    • David Ashbee
    • Wanda Barford
    • Ranald Barnicot
    • Kevin Bailey
    • William Bedford
    • Philip Bentall
    • Marc Brightside
    • Trisha Broomfield
  • Authors' Pages C – G
    • Fiona Cartwright
    • Ian Caws
    • Ian Clarke
    • Stephen Claughton
    • Claudia Court
    • David Cooke
    • Alexandra Davis
    • Donall Dempsey
    • Ray Diamond
    • Scott Elder
    • Roger Elkin
    • Wendy Falla
    • Bert Flitcroft
    • Robbie Frazer
    • Dawn Gorman
  • Authors' Pages H - -O
    • Charlotte Harker
    • Richard Hawtree
    • Georgia Hilton
    • Paul Jeffcutt
    • Margaret Jennings
    • Peter W Keeble
    • Wendy Klein
    • Janet Loverseed
    • Jeremy Loynes
    • Valerie Lynch
    • Aiison Mace
    • Kyle McHale
    • Ayelet McKenzie
    • Heather Moulson
    • M.E.Muir
    • Ian Mullins
    • Patrick B Osada
  • Authors' Pages P – S
    • Linda Rose Parkes
    • Mark G Pennington
    • Nicky Phillips
    • Jenna Plewes
    • Ray Pool
    • Harriet Proudfoot
    • Polly Roberts
    • Imogen Russell Williams
    • Julie Sampson
    • Carla Scarano D'Antonio
    • Susan Jane Sims
    • Fiona Sinclair
    • Belinda Singleton & Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathleen Strafford
    • Paul Sutherland
  • Authors' Pages T – Z
    • Laura Theis
    • Brad Walker
    • Sue Wallace-Shaddad
    • J S Watts
    • Poul Webb
    • John Wheeler
    • Richard Williams
    • Simon Williams
    • Geoffrey Winch
    • Lynn Woollacott
    • Richard Woolmer
    • Mantz Yorke
    • Damon Young
  • Anthologies
  • COMPETITION
  • Reviews of our books
  • Notes
  • Contact Us

  Roger Elkin

Picture
Roger Elkin has won 60 First Prizes in (inter)national Poetry Competitions and several awards, including the Sylvia Plath Award for Poems about Women (1986), and the Howard Sergeant Memorial Award for Services to Poetry (1987). Sheer Poetry is his twelfth collection; his previous collections include Fixing Things (2011); Bird in the Hand (2012); Marking Time (2013); and Chance Meetings (2014). Editor of Envoi, (1991 – 2006), he is available for readings, workshops and poetry competition adjudication.

Praise for 'Sheer Poetry'
Jocelyn Simms writes in Sentinal Quarterly:
There is a richness throughout the collection, whether cameos of neighbours and relatives or gritty descriptions of political confrontation. In Ireland’s Blight we get a glimpse of the terrible vindictiveness of one nation against another. Oliver Cromwell justifies the massacre of children in 1649 at Drogheda whilst Delia Smith’s tips on cooking cabbages is used as a coruscating forensic analogy for the Great Irish Famine. Roger Elkin is never one to flinch or look away but stakes out the territory with scrupulous care.
Elkin’s gift is to call forth a fresh slant to our awareness, appreciation and understanding of the world and our place in it
Read the full review here.

'This is an enthralling, dextrous collection, varied and rich in theme and style. As always, Roger Elkin displays his love of language, its range and traditions, its complexities and subtle connotations. There is much to enjoy and explore but the outstanding section, for me, is the one entitled ‘Ireland’s Blight’. I defy anyone to read the stunning poem ‘Cooking Cabbages’ and not be moved.'

​Mandy Pannett

'This book excels in its range, dexterity and humanity … Sheer Poetry convinces equally at macro and micro levels...
​Listen to the wonderful way in which diction, idiom and imagery are blended naturally in:
            his triumphant run, jack-jumping with a clacking
            accuracy that removes two, three, four black kings..
            He laughs his little laugh. Like life! It’s just a game.
            Best in both worlds, you know, not being huffed!
['Saving face with Grandpa and not being huffed']
Repeatedly these poems are constructed around the unexpected, or the provocatively ambiguous …  Sheer Poetry includes the very best of Elkin’s writing, being expansive, warm, humorous and wise. Adjudicating (and having just relinquished Envoi), Roger said that good poetry should include:"sensitive use of language in the capturing of experience; the use of strong imagery; clear sensory articulation; a subtle handling of rhythm (not metre); a sense of the inevitability in the way that the poem’s argument develops and is resolved in the final lines; and for me, above all else an awareness of the interrelationship between content and form."
Look no further than Sheer Poetry to see these exacting standards exemplified.'
 
Will Daunt (Envoi, October 2020)
Read the full review on our Reviews Page, here.

Picture
Sheer Poetry
Roger Elkin
ISBN: 978-1-913329-16-7
Published September 2020
Paperback, 21 x 14'8 cm,  82 Pages
RRP £10.00


Delivery within the UK
Delivery to EU (inc Rep of Ireland)
Delivery outside EU & UK
Picture
  • Dempsey & Windle
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • Events
  • Authors' pages A-B
    • Veronica Aaronson
    • Derek Adams
    • Timothy Adès
    • Gary Allen
    • Moira Andrew
    • David Ashbee
    • Wanda Barford
    • Ranald Barnicot
    • Kevin Bailey
    • William Bedford
    • Philip Bentall
    • Marc Brightside
    • Trisha Broomfield
  • Authors' Pages C – G
    • Fiona Cartwright
    • Ian Caws
    • Ian Clarke
    • Stephen Claughton
    • Claudia Court
    • David Cooke
    • Alexandra Davis
    • Donall Dempsey
    • Ray Diamond
    • Scott Elder
    • Roger Elkin
    • Wendy Falla
    • Bert Flitcroft
    • Robbie Frazer
    • Dawn Gorman
  • Authors' Pages H - -O
    • Charlotte Harker
    • Richard Hawtree
    • Georgia Hilton
    • Paul Jeffcutt
    • Margaret Jennings
    • Peter W Keeble
    • Wendy Klein
    • Janet Loverseed
    • Jeremy Loynes
    • Valerie Lynch
    • Aiison Mace
    • Kyle McHale
    • Ayelet McKenzie
    • Heather Moulson
    • M.E.Muir
    • Ian Mullins
    • Patrick B Osada
  • Authors' Pages P – S
    • Linda Rose Parkes
    • Mark G Pennington
    • Nicky Phillips
    • Jenna Plewes
    • Ray Pool
    • Harriet Proudfoot
    • Polly Roberts
    • Imogen Russell Williams
    • Julie Sampson
    • Carla Scarano D'Antonio
    • Susan Jane Sims
    • Fiona Sinclair
    • Belinda Singleton & Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathleen Strafford
    • Paul Sutherland
  • Authors' Pages T – Z
    • Laura Theis
    • Brad Walker
    • Sue Wallace-Shaddad
    • J S Watts
    • Poul Webb
    • John Wheeler
    • Richard Williams
    • Simon Williams
    • Geoffrey Winch
    • Lynn Woollacott
    • Richard Woolmer
    • Mantz Yorke
    • Damon Young
  • Anthologies
  • COMPETITION
  • Reviews of our books
  • Notes
  • Contact Us