X Coranto

by Kit Ingram

46 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2025

About the author

Kit Ingram is a British-Canadian writer and editor based in East Sussex, and the founder of Ingram Literary, a development studio supporting writers emerging later in life.

His work — spanning poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms — has appeared in Ambit, Magma, Acumen, Poetry Ireland Review, and The North, and has been recognised by the Bridport Prize, the Out-Spoken Prize, the National Poetry Competition, and others.

In 2022, he published Alice and Antius, an illustrated narrative poem with Penrose Press. BookLife by Publishers Weekly described it as a 'moving, gorgeous novel in verse', set in a world ravaged by climate collapse. His poetry collections Aqueous Red (2023) and X Coranto (2025) are published by Broken Sleep Books. He is currently completing new work in prose fiction.

Originally from Calgary, Kit grew up on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains before studying at the University of Toronto and later completing an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, under Lavinia Greenlaw.

He lives in the High Weald with an easily distracted golden retriever.

Reviews

[Rainer Allman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this a remarkable work that defies expectations and ready-made categories. X Coranto weaves together historical newspaper fragments from London's past with a present-day narrative about an unnamed young archivist living with an eccentric historian named Dr Molden. This arrangement seems part Faustian bargain, part Stockholm syndrome – unsettling as much as it is intriguing. And all told with a dark, almost mordant humour...

There's much to excavate – queer historiography, class consciousness, true crime, archival ethics – but what struck me is the form. How Kit Ingram interrupts historical documents with contemporary parenthetical comments creates a haunted, unstable reading experience that mirrors how the past is always erupting into the present. This is extremely impressive.

I don't think you'll find a book quite like this. If I was still teaching, this would be on my syllabus.

[Alex Tokhov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels like ideal reading for anyone interested in psychogeography, hybrid writing, or innovative approaches to documentary-style literature. The execution is ambitious and largely successful - it's difficult to put down once you're drawn into its dark, mesmerising world.

[Rick Polanyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. So original and atmospheric. If you're into books that bend form and uncover hidden histories, give this one a go. Grimy, unsettling & darkly funny. It will get under your skin!