To present to readers as complex and nuanced a picture of contemporary poetic practice as I can; to make books that exemplify stle and not fashion; to lean into whatever it is each book, each poem, demands.


Could you tell us about the first poets and how you selected them and their work? It seemed about time that Valzhyna Mort [Music for the Dead and Resurrected, out now] should have a UK publisher, so my first order of business was to be in touch and put my hat in the ring. Her work is profound on a number of levels and will be read long aſter we all cease to be, which, it seems to me, is one of poetry’s aims. Anthony Joseph [Sonnets for Albert, June 2022] is one of the most exciting verse stlists at work today. He is a poet’s poet, yes, but his work is a giſt to readers and re-readers, too. I was chomping at the bit for a new book from Anthony and so I asked him if I could be its editor. Selina Nwulu’s brilliant work has been on my radar for years. There’s the coming together, in her work, of a number of influences and it seems to me that is the through-line of the contemporary moment in poetry. A new poetry list didn’t feel complete without Selina’s work [A Little Resurrection, October 2022]. Polarbear’s work has had such a profound influence that there was a span of a few years when I could tell the poets who had come to writing through him. He writes in an infectious way, marrying compulsive rhyming with the kinds of storytelling that feel everyday but frame defining moments in a life. When I knew Bloomsbury Poetry would happen, I asked Polarbear’s agent if I could publish his shorter poetic works for adults [The Lost Chronicle, November 2022], the work which made such an impact on so many poets working today in the UK. I’m delighted to have been entrusted with publishing this work in one volume for the first time.


Are there any particular themes you see being explored in poetry at the moment? There are, I think, as many kinds of poetry, and kinds of poet, as there are kinds of people. I see that abundance in what I’m reading lately and am keen to see that breadth reflected still further in years to come. I hope to do my own small part to contribute.


Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987, and moved to the UK at the age of six. His first full-length poetry collection, Kumukanda, won the Dylan Thomas Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. His most recent collection A Blood Condition was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T S Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Award.


TheBookseller.com


Comment


Comic-book artist Ramzee on the graphic medium and the power of representation


Ramzee Illustrator W


hen I arrived in the UK as a six-year-old asylum-seeker from Somalia, there was an obvious


language barrier that I had to overcome. Picture books, and later comics, acted as not only the perfect gateway into reading prose but also as an introduction to the artform of graphic storytelling itself. One of the most impactful picture books


of my childhood was Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins. If you only went by the text, the book told a simple story of a hen’s walk around a farmyard. But the pictures told a story of a sly fox’s constant attempts to pounce on an unsuspecting hen, and constantly being thwarted by his own clumsiness. This was my first taste of irony in literature as well as a lesson in how words and pictures can subvert the relationship between the “seen” and the read. As my reading got stronger, I became an


ardent fan of Roald Dahl, but my love of visual storytelling was still intense. Comics like The Adventures of Tintin transported me from a cosy council flat in south London to exotic locales and The Uncanny X-Men dropped me into exciting situations. From these adventure and superhero stories, I was introduced by a school librarian to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which told a personal story of the Holocaust; Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, which was a coming-of-age story set in Iran during its revolution in the late 1970s. Comics that once brought me into exotic new locales were now


taking me into inner worlds that were just as fascinating. The cheap and ubiquitous nature of comics


misled many of its detractors to give it the respect of a pack of chewing gum, but this gave it an accessibility that books didn’t have. I could buy a comic at the corner shop for a pound, read it until it fell apart and throw it away, but much like a message in a bottle is throwaway, its contents were urgent and important. Like a castaway, we all live in a kind of state of isolation. No other person can ever know what it’s like to be you from the inside. All art is a way of bridging that gap. Especially for those who struggle with language—images are a universal language that is not only an engaging alternative path- way into literacy, but an artform of itself.


Comics that once brought me into exotic new locales were now taking me into inner worlds that were just as fascinating


Raina Telgemeier, through sharing


the uncomfortable struggles and anxieties of her own childhood in her comics, has helped young readers understand theirs. Molly Ostertag’s Witch Boy series is challenging gender norms and Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper is connecting with readers through its unbridled queer joy. But there is still a huge amount I am hoping to see come out into the mainstream publishing world; stories about and from people who are invisible in society, or exist as statistics or tabloid bogeymen. They can all come to comics, and with simple language they can tell a profoundly deep and moving story. You only need a pen, paper, a scanner and an internet connection.


MOLLY OSTERTAG IS INSPIRING YOUNG READERS


Ramzee features in the exhibition KA-BOOM! The Art of Creating Comics, running at The Story Museum in Pembroke Street, Oxford. The exhibition opens to the public on 28th May. Ramzee also illustrated this week’s cover of The Bookseller.


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