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Kink and Particle
By Tiffany Atkinson

Wins the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Award

Seren author Tiffany Atkinson has been awarded the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Award for Kink and Particle. This extraordinary book of poetry is also Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and is currently shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writer’s Award.

The 48 entries were judged by poet, editor and Poetry Trust Chairman, Michael Laskey and by poets Gillian Allnutt and Vicki Feaver. The judges’ praise was high; Vicki Feaver said: “for me it is the book that really stands out… Many of the poems excited me in a way that gave me a physical tingle. I loved their sideways angle on things.  I loved their casual but controlled voice… These were poems I would love to have written!” Gillian Allnutt said: ”I was astonished and greatly encouraged by the sheer variety of the 48 collections submitted. (Tiffany Atkinson) cuts to the quick of the contemporary.  Here’s the vernacular put to work - not a clip, not a cliché wasted.”

In addition to the £3,000 prize money, Tiffany receives an invitation to read at the 2008 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and a week’s paid protected writing time in Aldeburgh.

Kink and Particle offers us a view of multiple perspectives from a young woman on the brink of 30. This crucial birthday is both the cusp and milestone, from which the poet looks back to childhood experiences and to tangled family relationships, to the more indulgent pleasures of the 20s and then onwards towards a mysterious but much-anticipated future.

Her style is a seemingly casual, almost ‘throwaway’ vernacular that has nevertheless been formulated with great care. The effect creates an intimacy, as if in a letter from a friend, and offers a diary-like quality of authenticity. Atkinson’s eye for quirky detail, observed, recalled and imagined is striking.

Her eye and ear for Aberystwyth, the somewhat eccentric coastal university town where she lives, is also entertainingly apt;
‘But no-one-
No-one throws the curveball of your Aberystwyth
accent’.

At once grounded and lyrical, Atkinson’s beautifully poised tone makes Kink and Particle a varied, personal, contemplative and engaging read.

About the author:
Born in Berlin in 1972 Atkinson lived in Germany, Cyprus and Britain. After studying English at Birmingham she took a PhD in Critical Theory at Cardiff, and has lived in Wales since. She lectures in English at Aberystwyth, where she also co-hosts a weekly poems and-pints event. Her poetry has appeared widely in publications such as Orbis, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales and The Daily Telegraph. ‘Tea’ won the Ottakar’s and Faber National Poetry Competition, and ‘Photo from Belfast’ won the Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition; both included in this collection. Her work also appears in Seren Selections (Seren, 2006) edited by Amy Wack.

For further information please contact Jen Campbell at jencampbell@seren-books.com