Carcanet Press - Imperium

Description
Author
Awards
Reviews

Winner of A Somerset Maugham Award 2023
Winner of An Eric Gregory Award 2023
Winner of the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize 2023
Longlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023

By reimagining episodes from Homer's Odyssey, Jay Gao's highly anticipated debut collection, Imperium, introduces an innovative talent whose work cuts across poetic traditions, traversing mythic cartographies and imperial formations. Exploring forms of absolute and intimate power, Imperium is an imaginative meditation on how the past lives on in the present by way of, and beyond, a global poetics of diaspora.

Jay Gao is the author of three poetry pamphlets: TRAVESTY58 (2022); Katabasis (2020), a winner of a New Poets Prize; and Wedding Beasts (2019), shortlisted for the Saltire-Callum MacDonald Award. He is a Contributing Editor at The White Review . Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, he earned his MFA at Brown University, ... read more

Awards won by Jay Gao Winner, 2023 A Somerset Maugham Award
(Imperium) Winner, 2023 An Eric Gregory Award
(Imperium) Winner, 2023 The Michael Murphy Memorial Prize
(Imperium) Long-listed, 2023 The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award (Imperium)

'Bold and ambitious, Jay Gao's Imperium demonstrates the eruption of a singular voice and wit... Gao's debut emerges as an unforgettable read in these changing and pluralistic times.'
Shalini Sengupta, Poetry School
'With astonishing virtuosity, Imperium unpicks the very notion of virtuosity, and excellence, the inheritances of empire that dominate any idea of what poetry might be or aspire to be. Gao's talent sings and singes so heroically and deliciously across this mournful, provocative, desirous and subversive book.'
Colin Herd, Gutter Mag
'An askance and enthralling book'

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

'A prodigiously assured new voice... This rich hinterland of knowledge is never fusty, always alive.'

Fiona Sampson, The Guardian

'This is an elaborately resourceful book, driven by a wittily self-conscious and politically savvy comic brio, satirical about its staging of its very counter-imperial animus, a powerful and febrile text.'

Adam Piette, Blackbox Manifold

'Nuanced, challenging, sometimes hilarious, often anguished, this impressive reimagining of The Odyssey makes for an unforgettable road trip; Gao's Odysseus is a nervy and compelling traveller, a sort of non-hero, itinerant and always somewhat lost. Waylaid with Gao in hotel bars and tour buses, we are estranged, sensitized as we go to the dislocations and non-belonging of children of the world's diasporas, and also to the structures of appropriation and exploitation embedded in travel. We are all conditioned and implicated; but perhaps this acute and attentive Odysseus is exactly who we need to help us listen to the buried histories of Imperialism, to "wait a little differently, mourn a / little more".'

Fiona Benson

'These poems reject the heroism of the legible "I". If a central figure emerges it might be that of the Anti-Translator, not there to disclose personal information but to reveal the bareness of our "corpse-lives". Jay Gao's Imperium marks a new chapter in British poetry, bringing to bear a new complexity, richness of thought and influence.'

Will Harris

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Imperium Jay Gao 10% off all versions Categories: 21st Century, BAME, China, First Collections, LGBTQ+, Scottish Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (92 pages) (Pub. Aug 2022) 9781800172470 £11.99 £10.79 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Aug 2022) 9781800172487 £9.59 £8.63 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Author Awards Reviews Winner of A Somerset Maugham Award 2023 Winner of An Eric Gregory Award 2023 Winner of the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize 2023 Longlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023 By reimagining episodes from Homer's Odyssey, Jay Gao's highly anticipated debut collection, Imperium, introduces an innovative talent whose work cuts across poetic traditions, traversing mythic cartographies and imperial formations. Exploring forms of absolute and intimate power, Imperium is an imaginative meditation on how the past lives on in the present by way of, and beyond, a global poetics of diaspora. Jay Gao is the author of three poetry pamphlets: TRAVESTY58 (2022); Katabasis (2020), a winner of a New Poets Prize; and Wedding Beasts (2019), shortlisted for the Saltire-Callum MacDonald Award. He is a Contributing Editor at The White Review . Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, he earned his MFA at Brown University, ... read more Awards won by Jay Gao Winner, 2023 A Somerset Maugham Award (Imperium) Winner, 2023 An Eric Gregory Award (Imperium) Winner, 2023 The Michael Murphy Memorial Prize (Imperium) Long-listed, 2023 The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award (Imperium) 'Bold and ambitious, Jay Gao's Imperium demonstrates the eruption of a singular voice and wit... Gao's debut emerges as an unforgettable read in these changing and pluralistic times.' Shalini Sengupta, Poetry School 'With astonishing virtuosity, Imperium unpicks the very notion of virtuosity, and excellence, the inheritances of empire that dominate any idea of what poetry might be or aspire to be. Gao's talent sings and singes so heroically and deliciously across this mournful, provocative, desirous and subversive book.' Colin Herd, Gutter Mag 'An askance and enthralling book' Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman 'A prodigiously assured new voice... This rich hinterland of knowledge is never fusty, always alive.' Fiona Sampson, The Guardian 'This is an elaborately resourceful book, driven by a wittily self-conscious and politically savvy comic brio, satirical about its staging of its very counter-imperial animus, a powerful and febrile text.' Adam Piette, Blackbox Manifold 'Nuanced, challenging, sometimes hilarious, often anguished, this impressive reimagining of The Odyssey makes for an unforgettable road trip; Gao's Odysseus is a nervy and compelling traveller, a sort of non-hero, itinerant and always somewhat lost. Waylaid with Gao in hotel bars and tour buses, we are estranged, sensitized as we go to the dislocations and non-belonging of children of the world's diasporas, and also to the structures of appropriation and exploitation embedded in travel. We are all conditioned and implicated; but perhaps this acute and attentive Odysseus is exactly who we need to help us listen to the buried histories of Imperialism, to "wait a little differently, mourn a / little more".' Fiona Benson 'These poems reject the heroism of the legible "I". If a central figure emerges it might be that of the Anti-Translator, not there to disclose personal information but to reveal the bareness of our "corpse-lives". Jay Gao's Imperium marks a new chapter in British poetry, bringing to bear a new complexity, richness of thought and influence.' Will Harris	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 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 Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: John Gallas read more Emotional Support Horse: Claudine Toutoungi read more
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