Generation Txt [Paperback]

Generation Txt looks at all points of poetry's star and is less
concerned with the middle ground, which makes this selection of young
writers more vital and a truer cross section of the poetry which will
progress and flourish.

You can never have too many collections of poetry. There will
always be a moment when only that one particular poem will do, and this
collection is a creative ideas manual.
It is replete with off beat and tangential work that's likely to inspire
the more reluctant poetry appreciators. These six young poets are joyfully
working with Ezra Pound's dictum to `make it new' and doing it with extreme
effervescence.

I've discovered Generation Txt. It's a collection of mostly short,
sharp and sardonic poems by six British writers, none of them older than
27. [...]

The first poem in the collection is a blistering effort called Eating Out ,
by Joe Dunthorne. It paints a picture not just of obscene waste (posh
restaurants throwing away tons of unfinished nosh) but of callousness too,
because the discarded food is locked in bins to stop tramps from eating it.
"You'd think they might be allowed to lick a strand of marinated pig fat
from the inside of a bin bag," Dunthorne muses acerbically.

Then there's Laura Forman's laconic nine-liner starting: "Studio flat,
quiet location, no chain", and going on to describe, in perfect
estate-agentese, the premises' "polished hard-wood veneers" and "screw-down
security door". Only when you reach the final lines -- "Ideal for last-time
buyers. Available sooner than you think" -- do you realise that she's
talking about your coffin.

The subject-matter is often the warping or wasting of young lives. There's
a devastating poem by Emma McGordon, for instance, probing the last
thoughts of those who jump from buildings.

[...]

Good news for poetry.

I couldn't find the txt msg sonnet my bile had been longing for!

In a virtual world of blogs, iPods and txt-speak, Generation
Txt gives voice to six of the UK's most talented young writers.

Publishing by cutting-edge live literature producers Penned in the Margins,
Generation Txt takes you on a whirlwind journey from scars to scrap-bins,
from tea smuggling to skinny-fit jeans. This is a must-have anthology for
anyone interested in the future of British poetry.

JOE DUNTHORNE is a graduate of UEA, published in Reactions and
The Guardian and featured on Channel 4. His first novel Submarine is
forthcoming in 2008 from Hamish Hamilton after a six-publisher bidding war.
This ambitious young poet has bloomed from a `geeky twelve year old' into a
motivated writer, known for his sharp eye and dark wit.

INUA ELLAMS is a dynamic performer of poetry with one short collection
Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales (Flipped Eye, 2005) to his name. He's appeared
at Glastonbury and Latitude Festivals and Tate Britain. Imagine the lyrical
love-child of Keats and Mos Def and you're not far away from Inua's unique
and exciting poetry.

LAURA FORMAN works in marketing, which gives her a good understanding of
the ways in which language = power. A science graduate, she hung up her lab
coat to focus on words. Her poetry, essays and short fiction have been
published in Common Ground, From Here to Here, Smith's Knoll, The North -
and she's exhibited a `poem poster' at The British Library.

EMMA MCGORDON started writing when she met the late Barry MacSweeney.The
Hangman and the Stars was published by his Black Suede Boot Press in 2000,
and she was Northern Young Writer of the Year 2002. Born and raised in West
Cumbria, Emma's taught poetry at a local prison and was poet-in-residence
at Alnwick Gardens, Northumberland. Her poetry ranges from comic to
political and is shot through with sharp, urgent language.

ABIGAIL OBORNE writes poems, prose and plays, and is a student based in
Putney. Before university she worked for a community charity on a high-rise
council estate. Influenced by Frank O'Hara, Tom Raworth, David Shrigley and
Rufus Wainwright, Abigail's poetry fuses formal experimentation with a
freshness of language and register you won't find elsewhere.

JAMES WILKES was born in Dorset and educated at Oxford and UEA. He spent a
year teaching on an organic farm in Japan. The result was Ex Chaos
(Renscombe Press, 2006), a series of poems based on Japanese creation
myths. James has appeared on Radio 4 and exhibited `poem objects' such as
modified egg boxes, papier-mache bowls and poem postcards. His work can be
found in Intercapillary Space, Terrible Work and Studio International.