Joe Carrick-Varty is a British-Irish writer who lives in London. He is the author of two pamphlets, Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business, 2019) which won the 2018 New Poets Prize, 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, Poetry London, and elsewhere. He is co-founder of bath magg, and a book reviewer for PN Review. In 2019 he was selected by Poetry Ireland as one of Ireland’s emerging poets – for the Introductions Series.
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
