Joe Carrick-Varty is a British-Irish poet, writer and founding editor of bath magg. He is the author of two pamphlets of poetry: Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business, 2019) and 54 Questions for the Man Who Sold a Shotgun to My Father (Out-Spoken Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in the New Statesman, The Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review and Poetry London. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2022. His debut book is forthcoming in 2023.
Quotes:
This pamphlet is open-hearted, thoughtful – painfully, beautifully alive to the world and its strange specifics. – Ella Frears
I’m utterly convinced of this poet’s talent. – Wayne Holloway-Smith
A poet of feeling, invention and intellect. – Anthony Anaxagorou
These poems carry the vivid pain of loss and difficult relationships, even while enacting the necessary agony of letting go. – Meryl Pugh The Poetry Review
The syntactical precision here demonstrates a care and attention to the weight and balance of each line that is laudable but when wedded to feeling, as it is here, technical excellence rises above mere flair in to something very special. These are assured and beguiling poems. – Kayo Chingonyi (Judge’s commentary – New Poets Prize)
Somehwere Far is an auspicious debut. – John McAuliffe