Real Boys

This collection is a visceral depiction of the difficult love between a father and son and what happens when that love is lost. In his debut, Thomas Stewart examines the death of his father whilst exploring questions of grief, guilt, mental health, identity, sexuality and masculinity.

As these poems unfold a hallway of mirrors is created, with father-son relationships from art, cinema and Welsh mythology expanded and rethought. From Space Jam to The Mabinogion, The Babadook to Ivan the Terrible, this collection grapples what it means to be a father, a son and a self. Subverting the notions of gender, Stewart addresses the damage of old stereotypes, the passage of generational trauma and questions how we might change.

Here, father and son yearn, kill, retreat, die, grieve, turn to stone, are brought back from the dead. Here, sunflowers compete in fashion contests, bees nestle in beards, apple seeds birth ragged-robins. Here, suns give license to grief, witches rest in the crib and moths lead the way to the dead. At its core, Real Boys explores the crushing weight of grief and how we might just live with it.

Reviews of Real Boys

'A beautiful and wistful collection which wrangles with life?s ample grief and heartache. Stewart captures the delicate balance of queerness and masculinities, highlighting how we so often mythologise our fathers even when they have capacity to cause great anguish after death' — Andrés N. Ordorica, author of How We Named the Stars 'A wonderful meditation on death, love, the language of grief, want, lust, and hope. Thomas Stewart?s poems show how barbs of strength emerge after plucking away all thorns, then allowing them to regrow' — Jenni Fagan