Sonny Hall’s poetic success has come seemingly out of nowhere: his debut collection, published in April 2019, went on to sell over 1.5 thousand copies within its first few months of release. But what is it about this new collection which has attracted so many, and what does it mean for poetry in a modern age?
The Author and the Ghost
Have you ever considered hiring a professional ghost?
No, not the supernatural kind – the literary kind. Splicing the word “ghostwriter” into two, this professional ghost entices prospective clients with the promise of its own invisibility. It increases its allure by marketing itself as a formless entity detached from its own literary labour.
The Mystery of the Mind’s Eye
Emily Cooper Smith Are you an avid reader who finds it hard to fathom why certain people dislike reading? For some, Aphantasia could be the answer. If I told you to think […]
Criticism or Blind Contempt? The Integrity of Publishing
One of the focal points of Joe Biden’s inauguration was Amanda Gorman and the poem she performed, The Hill We Climb. As the inaugural poet, Gorman presented her piece with an eloquence that summarised a hope for a nation that still has time to change.
Pre-Raphaelite Sister: Blending Art with Florence Welch
In her poetry ‘scrapbook’, Useless Magic, Florence Welch – lead singer of beloved indie rock band Florence & the Machine – tells us she doesn’t know what makes a song a song or a poem a poem, that “they have started to bleed into each other”.
Instapoetry and Advertising Change
There are many ways the World Wildlife Fund flagship Choices campaign video goes against the grain of advertising. For one thing, it isn’t trying to sell anything (in fact, it wants us to consume less). Everything about Choices invokes the theme of change.
Button Poetry: Speaking the Unspoken
by Rachel C-Potter In a 2013 Button Poetry slam event held in Madison, Wisconsin, Neil Hilborn performed the poem that after going viral catapulted him to fame, landing him a contract as […]
Writing inside the Box: Constrained Writing in the Modern World
By Oliver James Whilst our understanding of the power of constraint on creativity might be relatively modern, constrained writing is no new concept. Consider, for example, the popularity of Haikus or Shakespeare’s sonnets. […]
Is Walt Whitman the Old Kanye?
by Emily McKinney When Kanye West told us that he “missed the old Kanye” did he really mean the old Kanye? Or did he mean the old, old Kanye – the nineteenth-century […]
The Literary Art of the Lonely Heart
Let’s look at Personal Ads differently. Not as despondent pleas full of acronyms and cliches, but as literature, tiny poems. Look at them as the entirety of a person and everything they […]
thestray.org 