Carcanet Press - The Book of Matthew

Description
Excerpt
Author
Reviews
Audio

A Mr Macaroni stops his Ford
two streets away and lets the engine flood,

the radio just loud enough to hear,
one crate of pippin-apples, one of beer.

from 'The wonderment of fundament'

WINNER OF THE 2003 JERWOOD ALDEBURGH FIRST COLLECTION PRIZE

Matthew Welton makes tunes out of words. Using the sounds and structures of language, he finds new understandings of what poetic form can do. He refuses to be constrained by convention. The title poem borrows its structure from Roget's Thesaurus to spin thirty-nine variations on sounds, images and rhythms, creating a puzzling, dazzling kaleidoscope of effects. The Book of Matthew is playful, witty and irresistibly memorable, expanding the attentive reader's awareness of the fabric of poetry and the possibilities of language. These poems give delight by means of the shape of the lines on the page, the feel of the words on the tongue, and the subtle noises they plant in the ear.

Matthew Welton's poems take a playful approach to language and often blur the boundaries between poetry and other forms, such as fiction, music and visual art. His three previous Carcanet books are: The Book of Matthew (2003), We needed coffee but we'd got ourselves convinced that the later we left it ... read more

'I'm also eagerly awaiting the publication of The Book Of Matthew by Matthew Welton but I'll have to wait until September. He's a poet who has consistently (but slowly) produced some stunningly beautiful work - but this is his first complete book.'
Dave Gorman, The Observer 'It arrives with a unique and distinct sensibility; his poems create their own evocative and elusive worlds. There is a kind of relaxed quizzical sensuality running throughout, an easy, compelling confidence.'
The Guardian Praise for Matthew Welton 'Welton's tuning-fork sentences make small things sing with precise beauty'
Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times
'There's a melancholy undertow to his humour: taken together, these poems come to feel like glimpses into the Eleanor Rigby-ish private lives of all the lonely people, as they sit at home, playing with peanut shells, drawing on the walls, lost in tangled thoughts, doing nothing.'
Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph 'No book this year has brought me more joy.'

Tristram Fane Saunders, Telegraph Poetry Books of the Year 2020

'A beautiful, exactly written piece of nonsense-noir'

Keith Miller, TLS Books of the Year 2020

'Through Welton's abundant assonance and alliteration, through the accents and rhythms of his syntax, sensations become linguistically tangible... Welton probes ordinary micro-phenomena to reveal the ineffable... Throughout Squid Squad, the reader is in the company of an acute observer and expert linguist turning his attention to his own use of language. Welton is without peer when it comes to putting slow motion perceptions into words'

Nasser Hussain, Times Literary Supplement

'Welton is a poet who resists the idea of a stable, complete, consumable poem, as his iterative patterns of poems (in a book that calls itself 'a novel') show - and certainly, both books are short on satisfaction, questioning in different ways what poetic satisfaction might be. The mimed actions, like unoriginal incorrect versions of ancient epigrams, seem to take us to the brink of textual meaning, again and again, and then leave us there, like cartoon coyotes, scrabbling in midair.'

The Poetry Review

'I think this is the first poetry book I've recommended, but it's just stunning and deserves far wider recognition. While there's a playfulness and a lightness of touch to the writing it also left me feeling that every single word was in exactly the right place. Beautiful.'
Dave Gorman 'It arrives with a unique and distinct sensibility; his poems create their own evocative and elusive worlds. There is a kind of relaxed quizzical sensuality running throughout, an easy, compelling confidence.'
Guardian
'You're unlikely to read anything like it . . . poems are rarely so curious, precise and committed to their enquiry.'
Jack Underwood

Matthew Welton reads 'He wore a lot of corduroy and talked a lot of crap' at the Bluecoat, Liverpool (1:11min)

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The Book of Matthew Matthew Welton 10% off Categories: 21st Century, First Collections Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (96 pages) (Pub. Sep 2003) 9781857546439 £7.95 £7.16 Description Excerpt Author Reviews Audio A Mr Macaroni stops his Ford two streets away and lets the engine flood, the radio just loud enough to hear, one crate of pippin-apples, one of beer. from 'The wonderment of fundament' WINNER OF THE 2003 JERWOOD ALDEBURGH FIRST COLLECTION PRIZE Matthew Welton makes tunes out of words. Using the sounds and structures of language, he finds new understandings of what poetic form can do. He refuses to be constrained by convention. The title poem borrows its structure from Roget's Thesaurus to spin thirty-nine variations on sounds, images and rhythms, creating a puzzling, dazzling kaleidoscope of effects. The Book of Matthew is playful, witty and irresistibly memorable, expanding the attentive reader's awareness of the fabric of poetry and the possibilities of language. These poems give delight by means of the shape of the lines on the page, the feel of the words on the tongue, and the subtle noises they plant in the ear. Matthew Welton's poems take a playful approach to language and often blur the boundaries between poetry and other forms, such as fiction, music and visual art. His three previous Carcanet books are: The Book of Matthew (2003), We needed coffee but we'd got ourselves convinced that the later we left it ... read more 'I'm also eagerly awaiting the publication of The Book Of Matthew by Matthew Welton but I'll have to wait until September. He's a poet who has consistently (but slowly) produced some stunningly beautiful work - but this is his first complete book.' Dave Gorman, The Observer 'It arrives with a unique and distinct sensibility; his poems create their own evocative and elusive worlds. There is a kind of relaxed quizzical sensuality running throughout, an easy, compelling confidence.' The Guardian Praise for Matthew Welton 'Welton's tuning-fork sentences make small things sing with precise beauty' Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times 'There's a melancholy undertow to his humour: taken together, these poems come to feel like glimpses into the Eleanor Rigby-ish private lives of all the lonely people, as they sit at home, playing with peanut shells, drawing on the walls, lost in tangled thoughts, doing nothing.' Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph 'No book this year has brought me more joy.' Tristram Fane Saunders, Telegraph Poetry Books of the Year 2020 'A beautiful, exactly written piece of nonsense-noir' *Keith Miller, TLS* Books of the Year 2020** 'Through Welton's abundant assonance and alliteration, through the accents and rhythms of his syntax, sensations become linguistically tangible... Welton probes ordinary micro-phenomena to reveal the ineffable... Throughout Squid Squad, the reader is in the company of an acute observer and expert linguist turning his attention to his own use of language. Welton is without peer when it comes to putting slow motion perceptions into words' Nasser Hussain, Times Literary Supplement 'Welton is a poet who resists the idea of a stable, complete, consumable poem, as his iterative patterns of poems (in a book that calls itself 'a novel') show - and certainly, both books are short on satisfaction, questioning in different ways what poetic satisfaction might be. The mimed actions, like unoriginal incorrect versions of ancient epigrams, seem to take us to the brink of textual meaning, again and again, and then leave us there, like cartoon coyotes, scrabbling in midair.' *The Poetry Review* 'I think this is the first poetry book I've recommended, but it's just stunning and deserves far wider recognition. While there's a playfulness and a lightness of touch to the writing it also left me feeling that every single word was in exactly the right place. Beautiful.' Dave Gorman 'It arrives with a unique and distinct sensibility; his poems create their own evocative and elusive worlds. There is a kind of relaxed quizzical sensuality running throughout, an easy, compelling confidence.' Guardian 'You're unlikely to read anything like it . . . poems are rarely so curious, precise and committed to their enquiry.' Jack Underwood Matthew Welton reads 'He wore a lot of corduroy and talked a lot of crap' at the Bluecoat, Liverpool (1:11min)	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog We've Moved! read more Books of the Year read more One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more
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