Sean Elliott: Poems 1998-2016

When Sean Elliott died in 2016 at the age of 51 he was – as a poet – just coming into his maturity. Assured in tone and accessible in meaning, his poems stand firmly in the tradition of Hardy and Larkin. The locations of his poems are recognisable and fully achieved – love, time, memory, fear of death, the power of landscape, no matter how quotidian. The voice of these lyrics is indisputably of our time. Poems 1998–2016 collects all the lyrics published throughout his lifetime. Taken in its entirety, this collection tells of a craftsman who knew and loved the intricacies of his art.

About the author:

Sean Elliott was born in 1965 and grew up in Dawlish in Devon. He taught Creative Writing with the Open University and for Birkbeck College in London. He gained his doctorate from Goldsmiths College in 1995 with a thesis on Robert Lowell. In 2001 he was shortlisted for the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for the most promising new poet. Living in Margate, he published widely as a poet, essayist (chiefly on contemporary poetry and poetics) and short story writer. His first poetry pamphlet, Waterhouse and the Tempest, was published by Acumen in 2009 and his first – and only – full collection, The Status of the Cat, was published by Playdead Press in 2013. Sean Elliott died in 2016.

160  pages

ISBN: 978-1-910996-35-5