This is the first book-length critical study of the contemporary British poet, Don Paterson. It includes eight essays by leading literary critics and writers. These explore the social, historical, and personal dimensions of Paterson's poetry and prose. The book relates Paterson's work to the classical, medieval, early modern, modernist, and contemporary voices that inform it. It analyses the literary qualities across Paterson's poetry and prose, from his sonnets to his long sequences, his aphorisms to his versions and translations. It considers Paterson as a figure actively negotiating his pla ... More

This is the first book-length critical study of the contemporary British poet, Don Paterson. It includes eight essays by leading literary critics and writers. These explore the social, historical, and personal dimensions of Paterson's poetry and prose. The book relates Paterson's work to the classical, medieval, early modern, modernist, and contemporary voices that inform it. It analyses the literary qualities across Paterson's poetry and prose, from his sonnets to his long sequences, his aphorisms to his versions and translations. It considers Paterson as a figure actively negotiating his place within literary history and theory, as well as confronting that history with humour and directness. It also includes two interviews with Paterson, a critical introduction, and a bibliography. Overall, it attends to key issues in British poetry and publishing, including: translation, national and international identities, spirituality and religion, the contemporary poetry industry, poetry and mathematics, the intersections of poetry, art and music, and psychoanalysis and the body.