The Editors of Irish Pages - Chris Agee, Cathal O Searcaigh, Kathleen Jamie and Meg Bateman - have assembled a new issue of the journal, entitled "The Anthropocene." It aims to evoke the escalating global ecological crisis in the round, through many of its key components, including climate change, deforestation, the treatment of animals, oceanic pollution and over-fishing, the melting of glaciers, extinctions, land-use, plastic pollution and the waste crisis, the eco-vandalism of mining and the fashion industry, the extermination of indigenous peoples and languages, biodiversity and ecocide generally, and so on - and on. * A certain amount of poetry and prose deals with humanity and human consciousness more generally, in their historical, cultural, psychological, artistic and religious dimensions. * There is also a special section devoted to writing on the Pandemic. * As with other issues, however, there is also work included that does not bear explicitly on the theme of the issue.

The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage, family and identity; and about travellers, hospitality and the changing meanings of home in a strange world. This vivid new translation-the first by a woman-matches the number of lines in the Greek original, striding at Homer's sprightly pace. Emily Wilson employs elemental, resonant language and an iambic pentameter to produce a translation with an enchanting "rhythm and rumble" that avoids proclaiming its own grandeur. An engrossing tale told in a compelling new voice that allows contemporary readers to luxuriate in Homer's descriptions and similes and to thrill at the tension and excitement of its hero's adventures, Wilson recaptures what is "epic" about this wellspring of world literature. Specially bound paperback edition, with deckle-edging (rough-cut) pages and French flaps.

Colin McAllister was born in 1942 in Sao Paulo, Brazil but has lived in St Andrews since 1955. He was educated at the Abbey School, Fort Augustus and at St Andrews University, where he graduated with MA Honours in Political Economy and Geography. For 28 years he taught Economics and related subjects at Dundee College. He was Captain of The New Golf Club at St Andrews in 1999 and President of St Andrews Burns Club from 2005 to 2007. Golf is his main hobby, but other interests include Scottish history, the Gaelic language, economics and politics, good wine and malt whisky, and foreign travel. He published But does it scan? In 2008, Can I Scan? In 2012 and ita s Quite an Uncanny in 2016, More than 100 jokes That Made Me Laugh in 2016 and To Scan or Not To Scan in 2018.

River Fugue is Sarah Frost’s second poetry collection, and continues with the search to find herself through her connections to nature which she explored in her first collection, Conduit.

The poems grapple with the persistence of wonder, how one finds it, then loses it, then finds it again. By describing the loss, they evoke it as well, the absence accentuating even more strongly what she yearns for. The collection records a coming to terms with a difficult childhood, and the renegotiation of an adult relationship with the poet’s parents.

Writing to forgive, the poet has crafted poems that are transcendent and affirmatory.

Eybers se verse was jare laas in druk. Dié keuse, uitgesoek deur Ena Jansen, goeie vriendin van haar, wys op Eybers se veelsydigheid as digter. Die bloemlesing behels o.m. die bekende "Maria", "Busrit in die aand", verse oor haar kinders, die emigrasie na Nederland, tot haar latere, aangrypende gedigte oor ouer word. Goeie poësie is tydloos, en dit blyk duidelik met dié uitgawe van Eybers se bekendste werk. 

This remarkable collaboration had its origins when John Kinsella and Alan Jenkins, two very different poets who had long admired and enjoyed each other's work, discovered by chance that the new poems they were working on shared a preoccupation with the sea. Marine brings together those poems and others written since, all dealing with the sea in its many moods and weathers, with people's relationship to and exploitation of their marine environment, from the Indian Ocean to the shores of the Atlantic; the two poets' highly distinctive voices, while drawing on a dazzling variety of forms and sources, complementing each other in a powerful counterpoint.

A writer engulfed by a new obsession, an occasional sex-worker, a runaway, a teenager entering the workplace: these four tales of desire and dislocation explore the rough edges of relationships and the inner lives of women negotiating their precarious place in the world. In these coolly compelling and quietly devastating stories, Gaitskill evokes with razor-sharp precision the pleasure, pain, fear and longing that haunt modern life.

Bernard Odendaal se tweede digbundel ontgin temas soos die funksie en aard van digterskap; die drang om die onuitspreekbare te wil verwoord; die voortbestaan van Afrikaans; die sterflikheid van die mens en die natuur. Die digter dink terug aan 'n verlore jeugwêreld en vriende, kinders wat in diaspora is, en ’n nageslag wat elders en anderstalig gaan grootword. Dis ’n bundel met eietydse gedigte waarin ’n soepel taalspel gespeel word, maar wat ook hoogs toeganklike verskuns bevat.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is anything but Shakespeare. Unless you’ve never read Shakespeare.

This debut poetry collection by Matthew Freemantle is at times hilarious, at times snarky and at other times a concise mirror reflecting back the absurdity of modern life in South Africa - especially during multiple lockdowns.

A high-brow toilet book that tackles personal reflections on toes, fatherhood, sex, commerce and identity.

'A national treasure' Daily Express To mark and celebrate National Hedgehog Awareness Week, Pam Ayres has written a less-than-fond farewell from perspective of the 'last hedgehog left on earth' - a delightful, hilarious and thought-provoking elegy to that most beloved inhabitant of the British countryside, the common hedgehog. Pam Ayres' spiky and wonderful creation reminds us that unless we take steps to prevent it, they will soon be far from 'common' indeed: beautifully illustrated by Alice Tait, the poem The Hedgehog sees our hero tell of all the terrible ends his family come to at our own hands - and exactly what we can still do to keep them alive, and see them thrive once more. 'The Last Hedgehog is a little book, but it's an important book and it's a profound book' Graham Norton

Chrisalis is die indrukwekkende debuut van ‘n digter wie se taal- en versvernuf die leser meevoer en meermale ook ontroer. In hierdie fyn afgewerkte gedigte word die grens tussen teks en werklikheid telkens getoets.

Dit is verse waarin realiteit self op sy kop gekeer word en waar die alledaagse vreemd gemaak word. Soos’n skoenlapper uit sy papie breek, so kom die digter self te voorskyn uit die chrisalis van sy vers.

Die gedigte in Swatland speel grootliks in Malmesbury af en word aangebied in die taal wat deur die bruin gemeenskap hier gepraat word: Kaaps wat met die kenmerkende bry-klank van die streek weerklink.

Op vernuwende wyse word dié bry skriftelik uitgebeeld. ’n Rugbyderby, ’n krieketwedstryd, en ’n besoek aan die openbare swembad word vars verbeeld deur die skep van opvallende kontraste.

Maatskaplike kwessies word met galgehumor belig en diep persoonlike sake sonder sentimentaliteit aangeroer.

In October Nights, Gerard de Nerval takes us on a gentle meander through nighttime Paris – a dreamlike journey towards getting lost. Also included in this volume is Sylvie, his haunting novella of love and memory, the ‘masterpiece’ that inspired Proust to write In Search of Lost Time. Together, these works by the French poet, visionary and pioneering modernist are a testament to the power of jewelled thinking, and an inspiration for flaneurs and romantics everywhere.

'When I decide to escape I shall want nobody’s assistance.’

In this thrilling collection, we meet Arsène Lupin, a brilliant, alluring master of disguise – or, as some would have it, a notorious criminal. We follow him on a series of high-stakes adventures, from ingenious heists of invaluable paintings to daring escapes, each one showcasing his intellect, charm, and extraordinary ability to stay one step ahead of the law.