Verity Spott (born in 1987) is an English neo-modernist poet. Spott was born and raised in the central region of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and moved to

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 2006. Since then Spott has been teaching poetry in local institutions, as well as co-running a monthly poetry and musical performance called "Horseplay". Spott is an alumnus of the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

Reception

Spott's work has been described in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' as, "mesmerizing, oneiric, enchanted, with language that surprises". An analysis of their poetry in the ''

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

'' alludes to critical correlations between political situations and escapism, calling in to question the "very binaries of political engagement and escapist withdrawal, the idea that hope is the foundation for action...and the relationship between imagined actions and real ones." Spott's work has been discussed in the ''Cordite Poetry Review'', and critiqued in the book, ''Wound Building: Dispatches from the Latest Disasters in UK Poetry'', among other publications. One of Spott's poems, "from Coronelles – Set 2", is included in ''100 Queer Poems'', which ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described as 2022's "most notable anthology".

Selected works

* ''Three Poems''. (Broadside) London: Sender Broken, 2013. * ''Effort to No''. Brighton:

Iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

, 2013. * ''(with Jonny Liron) Dear Nothing and No One in It''. Brighton:

, 2013. * ''Gideon''. London:

Barque Press {{No footnotes, date=March 2021 Barque Press is a London-based publisher of experimental poetry. Founded in 1995 by Andrea Brady and Keston Sutherland. Barque's list includes Andrea Brady, Keston Sutherland, J. H. Prynne, John Tranter, John Wilkin ...

, 2014. * ''(with Megan Alan) Three Poems'', Edinburgh Sad Press, 2014. * ''Balconette''. Guildford: Veer Books, 2014. * ''9 11 16''. Brighton:

, 2016. * ''Trans* Manifestos'', 2016. * ''We Will Bury You''. Guildford: Veer Books, 2017. * ''Click Away Close Door Say''. Contraband Books, 2017. * ''Kate's Dream Diamond Anti Fatigue Matting Surface''. Crater, 2017. * (with Timothy Thornton) ''Poems''. Face Press, 2017. * ''The Mutiny Aboard the RV Felicity''. Tipped Press, 2018. * ''Prayers, Manifestos, Bravery''. London: Pilot Press, 2018. * ''Caterpillars''. TL:DR Press, 2019. * ''Poems of Sappho''. Face Press, 2019. * ''Prayers, Manifestos, Bravery''. London: Pilot Press, (second edition), 2020. * ''Hopelessness''. London: The 87 Press, 2020. * ''Coronelles Set 1''. London: Veer Books, 2020. * ''70 Sonnets''. Brighton: Hove Space Program, 2021. * ''Désolation (French translation of Hopelessness)''. Lyon, Même pas l'hiver, 2022. * ''Woodvale (written collaboratively by "The Beam-Eye Babies")''. Brighton, The Minutes Press, 2022. * ''Songs of the Morning''. London: Slub Press, 2023.

References

External links

Two Torn Halves
poet's blog 1987 births Living people Alumni of the University of Sussex 21st-century English poets {{England-poet-stub