Manland

Peter Raynard's Manland is a bold, brilliant and outspoken new collection of poems that scrutinise men and manhood, mental health, working class lives and disability. Aloud and alive with music, wit, anger and rebellion, this is an accomplished, politically-aware and vital book. Raynard is a skilled observer, and these razor-sharp poems document parenthood through the lens of a stay-at-home dad, attempt to tell the truth about men and depression, study our cultural, social and medical relationships with drugs and drug-taking, and lay bare the realities of life at the sharpest edges of society. By turns frank, painful and bleakly funny, this humane and brilliant book encompasses pride and prejudices, the bonds between lads and dads, the toxic pressures of masculinity and the way illness and poverty irrevocably shape lives.

Peter Raynard is the editor of Proletarian Poetry: poems of working class lives (www.proletarianpoetry.com), featuring over 150 contemporary poets. He is an associate editor of Culture Matters and former member of Malika's Poetry Kitchen. His two books of poetry are Precarious (Smokestack Books, 2018) and The Combination: a poetic coupling of the Communist Manifesto (Culture Matters, 2018). He has written two plays on the Arab Spring, which were performed in Brighton (2012) and London (2014). His poetry is widely published and he lives in St Albans. His third book Manland will be published by Nine Arches Press in 2022.