Don Paterson: Contemporary Critical Essays

This is the first collection of critical essays on the prize-winning contemporary British poet, Don Paterson. In 10 original chapters, leading literary critics and writers discuss the social, historical and personal dimensions of Paterson’s poetry and prose including Rain, Orpheus, Landing Light, The Eyes, God’s Gift to Women, Nil Nil, The Book of Shadows and Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets. A critical introduction and an opening interview with Don Paterson clearly situate his work in dialogue with the Modernist, Movement, contemporary and theoretical voices that inform it. The book shows that Paterson is a figure who actively negotiates his place within literary history, as well as confronting that history with lyric grace, humour and directness. It is the first critical study of Don Paterson’s writing. Web-based recordings by Don Paterson of the poems that are discussed in the volume available on the EUP website. 10 new critical essays, by contributors including Derek Attridge and John Kinsella, an introduction, an interview with Don Paterson, a biography and bibliography.It explores Paterson’s Scottish contexts, his aphorisms, his poetic theory and lyric practice, his sonnets, his irony and modes of speech as well as translation, spirituality, father-son relations, the poetry avant-garde and poetry publishing.