The Beautiful Lie

by Sheenagh Pugh

Lying and truth-telling are a matter of choice; our innate capacity for mendacity is the source of all story-telling. The title poem sets the thematic tone for this collection which explores the interface between fiction and reality. In "Fanfic", Pugh travels into cyberspace where devoted fans discuss, rewrite and reinvent cult-tv. A second sequence, "Lady Franklin's Man", details the long search for the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, his widow's resilience and enduring love shining through in atmospheric recreations of the land-, sea- and mind-scapes of the mid-Victorian era. other poems include a dubious paean to the 'vampires of mercy' and the prize-winning Toast, a heat-soaked homage to young builders golden and melting on hot pavements.

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

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.