ISBN: 978-1-913437-78-7
eISBN: 978-1-913437-79-4
Price: £10.99
Publication date: 21st September 2023
Format: Paperback / eBook
Ian Humphreys follows his Portico-prize longlisted debut Zebra with Tormentil, poems alive with the connections of family, food, community, place – and, at its heart, prayers for fabulousness and transformative encounters with loss, fear and fearlessness.
Ian Humphreys lives in West Yorkshire. His debut collection Zebra (Nine Arches Press, 2019) was nominated for the Portico Prize. He is the editor of Why I Write Poetry (Nine Arches Press, 2021), and the producer and co-editor of After Sylvia (Nine Arches Press, 2022). Ian’s work has been highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry and won first prize in the Hamish Canham Prize. His poems are widely published in journals, including The Poetry Review and Poetry London, and he has written for the BBC. Ian is a fellow of The Complete Works.
Photograph credit: Sarah Turton
In Zebra, by Ian Humphreys,a boy steps tentatively from the shadows onto a strobe-lit dancefloor. Ian Humphreys’ much-anticipated debut shimmers with music, wit and humour while exploring mixed identities, otherness, and coming-of-age as a gay man in 1980s Manchester. These acutely-observed, joyful poems pay homage to those who took the first steps – minority writers, LGBT civil rights activists, 70s queer night-clubbers and the poet’s own mixed-race parents.
Find out more about Zebra
The Nine Arches Press blog features poems from many of our poets, as well as interviews and articles.