‘The Smart Mouthed Victim’ is a debut collection of poems, lines, and verses written and compiled in 2013-2014.
The chosen pieces have been weaved together with a common theme of that awful sinking feeling you get when you think about how much time you’ve wasted, blaming yourself for the way life turned out, and what you could have said and/or done to make things different.
Often blunt and deeply confessional, sometimes sombre and frequently funny, this is selection of works penned, typed and scribbled, infrequently, over a number of weeks, months, and indeed years, by an optimistic pessimist.
At last, ‘The Smart Mouthed Victim’ is prepared for your perusal, to enjoy or despise. Whatever reaction you think best.
‘Passionate, forthright, tender, baffled, dangerous, hopeful, funny, these poems quest for answers but refuse to accept trite hand-me-downs. Their interweavings challenge notions of artifice and tired versions of the mundane. In a variety of forms and voices, they embrace the sublime and the rotten, the detritus of life and moments of exhilaration, witty humour and harsh loss.
With agility, varied rhythms, swooping descents, rising uplifts, they conjure the speaking voice, the word reaching to be set free, protesting against captivity, while honouring the ordinary, the profane, the messy, the incomplete, and the absurd. Death is approached forensically here, elegiacally there. The question of how to write and live fully in the face of loss, oppression, prejudice and mistrust is explored with humour and poignance: “You were not the first to feel lost and awkward and special all at once”.’
Fiona Hamilton, 2015
WILL YOU ESCAPE THE NEVER-ENDING MEDIOCRITY?
You’ve just picked up the brand-new collection from an audacious up-and-comer! You love a little bit of everything, from comedic poetry to gritty prose, so there’s no harm in trying something different. This could be your latest favourite read by your new favourite writer! What’s the worst that could happen, right? Anything to escape the banality of everyday life.
If you decide to risk it all and investigate this stomach-churningly exhilarating book, turn to page number 1. If you’re too scared, turn to the last page and miss out. Whatever you decide, be careful! There are dangerous ideas at every turn! Who knows, you could get stuck in a dingey flat always full of wet washing, or have a thrilling encounter with a stranger on a train…
What happens next in the story? It all depends on the choices you make. How does the mediocrity end? Only you can find out! And the best part is that you can keep going and going until you’ve had not one but many incredibly mediocre experiences!
Order now through Big White Shed!
Kindle version comes with three previously unseen pieces; ‘Treacle’, ‘Metro’ & ‘Exercise’!
‘NO MORE QUEER HEARTACHE’ is inspired by my relationship with queer media, and my own search for representation and ‘finding my people’ while growing up.
Zine is double sided and unfolds to reveal a poem on the inside.
Limited run of 100, each copy comes with a 32mm badge.
Accompanying t-shirt designs available here.
Details of further written projects and publications can be found here.