Carcanet Press - Oli Hazzard

About
Reviews

Oli Hazzard is the author of two books of poems, Between Two Windows (Carcanet, 2012) and Blotter (Carcanet, 2018), and a novel, Lorem Ipsum (Prototype, 2021). He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Glasgow.

Praise for Oli Hazzard 'We might think of Sleepers Awake as a shimmer ecology of love, friendship and parenthood spun out in the momentary unfold of lyric noticing. The dramatised syncopes of a stanza break, a "crackling" of some new attention, draw us back into the minutiae of interest. The speaker turns towards others, towards the more-than-human, not to pin them down into taxonomy, but to want them there, co-present in the humming poem, memory players of nervous devices... Hazzard's lyrical proprioception feels into the superabundance of worldly memos as a kind of nature data, calling and connecting through obscurant histories of narrative, song and percussive accompaniment.'
Maria Sledmere, Oxford Poetry
'Hazzard's writing dramatises the nature of distractedness with compelling and compulsive humour... the disorientation of Sleepers Awake reflects a hazy state somewhere between sleeping and waking...'
Rowland Bagnall, SPAM Plaza
'These poems are not "about" life, observed from afar; the poems themselves are life, distracted, irritated, stressed out, tender, displaced, scrolling and multitasking. Strange and ambitious, Sleepers Awake takes us to places we all know, but had forgotten were there.'
Philip Terry, The Guardian
'A magician with language's innate opacities and hidden potentials, Oli Hazzard is one of our most consistently interesting and boundary-pushing poets. Sleepers Awake is a delight of "thorny wattage" that challenges, wrong-foots and rewards, offering new and tender glimpses of personal life caught up in larger constellations of thought. Hazzard is one of my essential poets.'
Sarah Howe
'Within the kaleidoscopic tour de force of Sleepers Awake, we find the human, burdened, joyful, overwhelmed with desire, duty, bureaucracy and everyday life. Everything seems to be spinning, and also turning, and also moving outward into a larger register of being. So much so, the entire book is constantly reaching and manifest through an incisive and restless lyric address.'
Peter Gizzi 'For Hazzard, language is not a shield, but a flexible and malleable tool in which new modes of expression are lurking... Blotter draws together many different texts and ideas in unpredictable ways, if not 'making it new' then making it original. It demands the reader's full attention, and is an enjoyable and compelling illustration of the wealth of possibilities inherent in language.'
Chrissy Williams, Poetry London
'He has a musical ear, so there's randomness in the generation, but its composition bears careful listening to.'
Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times, Twelve poets to read now

'A beautiful, bracing book of surprising, absorbing itineraries, Blotter takes brilliant soundings of linguistic pools and discursive surrounds. These astonishing, seductive sequences explore "how time is layered / into the paint". Hazzard is a formidably inventive poet; he is also a generous, playful, inviting one. He abolishes the distance between the conceptual and the lyrical, updating Wordsworth's "selection of the real language of men" for our GPS moment. His sequences bespeak their compositional procedures but also something irreducibly else: the poet in and of the hinge, the gap, the step, the scroll, the click, the synapse - a shaping and shaped tender intelligence. Like the most ambitious works of any era, Hazzard's poems create their own occasions and terms. They invite us to enter new fields, to go skying toward new horizons, to sense a lovers touch, to hear both "a lullaby" and "the shocking truth"'.
Maureen N. McLane 'Haunting, hilarious, exquisitely inventive, Between Two Windows is a brilliant first collection by one of the brightest young stars in the poetic firmament.'
Mark Ford 'Oli Hazzard brilliantly conveys the experience of experiencing; although his observations are hyper-real, he seems always to be questioning -- and to be making us question -- whether they are sufficiently 'like' ... His work perfectly exemplifies Touchstone's saying that the truest poetry is the most feigning.'
Jane Griffiths 'Between Two Windows by Oli Hazzard is impressive in its formal assuredness and confidence of tone, all the while questioning what poetry is and does.'
Adam Newey, Guardian
'Hazzard's gift lies in making the unusual seem aphoristic, turning words on their heads to shock an unsuspecting reader.'
The Economist
'...both funny and touching. It is his flair for phrases that catch one's breath that has stood Oli Hazzard in good stead.' The Literateur 'Reminiscent of early, difficult Auden... [Hazzard] belies the notion that today's young poets are working in a cutesy, self-contained bubble.'
Dai George, Poetry Wales

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Oli Hazzard Books by this author: Sleepers Awake Blotter Between Two Windows About Reviews Oli Hazzard is the author of two books of poems, Between Two Windows (Carcanet, 2012) and Blotter (Carcanet, 2018), and a novel, Lorem Ipsum (Prototype, 2021). He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Glasgow. Praise for Oli Hazzard 'We might think of Sleepers Awake as a shimmer ecology of love, friendship and parenthood spun out in the momentary unfold of lyric noticing. The dramatised syncopes of a stanza break, a "crackling" of some new attention, draw us back into the minutiae of interest. The speaker turns towards others, towards the more-than-human, not to pin them down into taxonomy, but to want them there, co-present in the humming poem, memory players of nervous devices... Hazzard's lyrical proprioception feels into the superabundance of worldly memos as a kind of nature data, calling and connecting through obscurant histories of narrative, song and percussive accompaniment.' Maria Sledmere, Oxford Poetry 'Hazzard's writing dramatises the nature of distractedness with compelling and compulsive humour... the disorientation of Sleepers Awake reflects a hazy state somewhere between sleeping and waking...' Rowland Bagnall, SPAM Plaza 'These poems are not "about" life, observed from afar; the poems themselves are life, distracted, irritated, stressed out, tender, displaced, scrolling and multitasking. Strange and ambitious, Sleepers Awake takes us to places we all know, but had forgotten were there.' Philip Terry, The Guardian 'A magician with language's innate opacities and hidden potentials, Oli Hazzard is one of our most consistently interesting and boundary-pushing poets. Sleepers Awake is a delight of "thorny wattage" that challenges, wrong-foots and rewards, offering new and tender glimpses of personal life caught up in larger constellations of thought. Hazzard is one of my essential poets.' Sarah Howe 'Within the kaleidoscopic tour de force of Sleepers Awake, we find the human, burdened, joyful, overwhelmed with desire, duty, bureaucracy and everyday life. Everything seems to be spinning, and also turning, and also moving outward into a larger register of being. So much so, the entire book is constantly reaching and manifest through an incisive and restless lyric address.' Peter Gizzi 'For Hazzard, language is not a shield, but a flexible and malleable tool in which new modes of expression are lurking... Blotter draws together many different texts and ideas in unpredictable ways, if not 'making it new' then making it original. It demands the reader's full attention, and is an enjoyable and compelling illustration of the wealth of possibilities inherent in language.' Chrissy Williams, Poetry London 'He has a musical ear, so there's randomness in the generation, but its composition bears careful listening to.' Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times, Twelve poets to read now 'A beautiful, bracing book of surprising, absorbing itineraries, Blotter takes brilliant soundings of linguistic pools and discursive surrounds. These astonishing, seductive sequences explore "how time is layered / into the paint". Hazzard is a formidably inventive poet; he is also a generous, playful, inviting one. He abolishes the distance between the conceptual and the lyrical, updating Wordsworth's "selection of the real language of men" for our GPS moment. His sequences bespeak their compositional procedures but also something irreducibly else: the poet in and of the hinge, the gap, the step, the scroll, the click, the synapse - a shaping and shaped tender intelligence. Like the most ambitious works of any era, Hazzard's poems create their own occasions and terms. They invite us to enter new fields, to go skying toward new horizons, to sense a lovers touch, to hear both "a lullaby" and "the shocking truth"'. Maureen N. McLane 'Haunting, hilarious, exquisitely inventive, Between Two Windows is a brilliant first collection by one of the brightest young stars in the poetic firmament.' Mark Ford 'Oli Hazzard brilliantly conveys the experience of experiencing; although his observations are hyper-real, he seems always to be questioning -- and to be making us question -- whether they are sufficiently 'like' ... His work perfectly exemplifies Touchstone's saying that the truest poetry is the most feigning.' Jane Griffiths 'Between Two Windows by Oli Hazzard is impressive in its formal assuredness and confidence of tone, all the while questioning what poetry is and does.' Adam Newey, Guardian 'Hazzard's gift lies in making the unusual seem aphoristic, turning words on their heads to shock an unsuspecting reader.' The Economist '...both funny and touching. It is his flair for phrases that catch one's breath that has stood Oli Hazzard in good stead.' The Literateur 'Reminiscent of early, difficult Auden... [Hazzard] belies the notion that today's young poets are working in a cutesy, self-contained bubble.' Dai George, Poetry Wales	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! 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