We’re delighted to congratulate Lorraine Mariner on being nominated for the 2009 Forward Prize for Best First Collection for Furniture (Picador). Magma was the first national magazine to publish Lorraine’s poems in the early 2000s and we arranged some of her early readings.
From the start, audiences have experienced surprise, delight and laughter, then asked where to buy her poems afterwards. Her best poems are completely original – both very funny and existentially bleak – and many of them are in the book: poems that say a touching farewell to an imaginary boyfriend; that discover she’s due to marry a Methodist called Trevor in Preston next Wednesday; that places the Ikea-wardrobe-curse on a sister’s ex-boyfriend; that has her father backing his Volvo into the Beast’s carriage so she has to be sent to his castle as compensation… No-one else is writing poems remotely like these.
It’s good to see Lorraine’s been recognised by a major publisher and we hope the Forward judges recognise her complete originality too.
Here here; very well done and an absolutely marvelous choice deserving to be in there on merit, skill and the creative courage alone.
I remember when I first read a Mariner poem:The Fat Controller visits the commuter belt, and being struck by how contemporary it was, combining the demotic with the rare high-blown register exhibited by skilled ancients. Casting a wry and incredibly humorous glance at Thomas the tank engine, making a comment on childhood and also, being a parent; the twin dilemmas of indulgence and restraint. A lovely, lovely poem using fresh, innovative language which will stand the test of time; as relevant in 50 years as it is now.
A brave and remarkable choice.
Congratulations to Lorraine – a wonderful and original voice.