Selected Poems: Sheenagh Pugh

by Sheenagh Pugh

Here is the best of Sheenagh PughOCOs early a generous and wide-ranging selection from her first four collections, together with two dozen previously unpublished pieces Notable inclusions are the prize-winning 'M.S.A' and 'Intercity Lullaby', and the much-anthologised 'Sometimes.' Throughout, a lively and enquiring mind is brought to bear on how we live and die, and how we might live more equitably. Sheenagh Pugh approaches her subject unpredictably, through Norse saga and snooker, apartheid and falling tortoises, in a poetry of invention and conviction At the heart of the book is the Earth Studies sequence, a history of the world in 19 poemsOCO, and the first major environmental poem of the green era. Set in the indeterminate future, it explores the rise of human civilisation, and abuse of the Earth, following them to their logical the death of the planet. Ironic, lyrical, penetrating, these poems typify the craft and passion of Sheenagh PughOCOs writing. Selected Poems ends with a section of PughOCOs much-admired translations, of German poets such as Simon Dach, Andreas Gryphius and Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau."

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

I was born in 1950. I live in Shetland with my husband. I have published nine collections of poetry and translations, plus a Selected Poems and a sort of mini-Selected, two novels and a critical study of fan fiction (see Books). I translate poems mainly from German but sometimes also from French and Ancient Greek. I read German and Russian at the University of Bristol and used to teach creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. I still visit Cardiff, where I used to live, regularly.

My interests are language, history, northern landscapes from Shetland to the Arctic and all points in between, snooker, mortality, cyberspace (I waste massive amounts of time online) and above all, people. I like to use poems to commemorate people and places, sometimes to amuse, to have a go at things I don't like (censorship, intolerance, pomposity) and above all to entertain.

I have been accused of being "populist" and "too accessible", both of which I hope are true.

I have won many prizes and awards, including the Forward Prize for best single poem of 1998, the Bridport Prize, the PHRAS prize, the Cardiff International Poetry Prize (twice) and the British Comparative Literature Association's Translation Prize. My poems have been included in several anthologies, notably Poems on the Underground and The Hutchinson Book of Post-War British Poetry. They have also been set to music, have appeared on the trams of Helsinki and the St Petersburg Underground, and have been translated into German, French, Italian, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.

My website is at http://sheenagh.webs.com/ and my blog is at http://sheenaghpugh.livejournal.com/. It's usually about writing-related stuff.

I'm not adding any more friends on Goodreads and will ignore all requests - nothing personal, it's just too much trouble.

Reviews

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many excellent poets of which, despite reading and writing some poetry myself, I still haven’t heard, so it was a serendipitous moment when one of my local poetry group, who meet in Y Gaer, Aberhonddu, offered a copy of this book, as he, a regular visitor to the bookshops of Gelli Gandryll (aka Hay on Wye) had acquired two copies. Being somewhat of a “grab” as my late mother in law would have said, where books are concerned, I got in there first!

I absolutely loved Sheenagh Pugh’s poems. She says on her website that she has been accused of being “populist” and “too accessible", both of which she hopes are true. I for one am very glad to have met with her work. This book is full of marvellous poems and I also much enjoyed some of the German poems which she has translated and a selection of which are at the end. I didn’t study German beyond O Level, so I hadn’t heard of any of them. I particularly enjoyed those by Johann Peter Hebel.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

My introduction to the poems of Sheenagh Pugh came through the reprinting of her poem "Sometimes" in Garison Keillor's "Good Poems." Her sophisticated clarity and openness to possibility, her exactness in terms of word choice and rhythm, led me to this collection, which gives a wonderful cross-section of her work--crafted, gut-filled poems. Her translations of German poets included in this collection give a wonderful counterpoint to her own work.