But & Though

'Hawkey's poems are electric, buzzing with all the possibilities of language. He has much to say, and is saying it brilliantly' – Nick Laird, winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry and author of Up Late The characters that live and breathe in Jake Hawkey’s impressive debut poetry collection are playful and spiritual, often both defensive and desperately vulnerable. Taking its title from the language of addiction, with its circles of prevarication and excuse, But & Though leads us on a boy’s journey through a childhood overshadowed by parental alcoholism. These are poems on the move in the tapestry of London life – from the hospital ward to the back rows of the bus – where the desire for escape is also, paradoxically, a ‘Herculean search for home’. But & Though is a testament to the kinship ties that bind us together, however fraught they become, and a celebration of the working-class identity that defines the poet’s native south London. With a voice as spiky and irreverent as it is gentle, Jake Hawkey is a refreshing new talent in English poetry. 'This collection moved me to tears. It is not only daring and accomplished, it is real and written by a young man who has been on a long dark journey and found himself with light in his writing hand' - Sally Read, editor of 100 Great Catholic Poems

About the Author :
But & Though is the debut poetry collection by south London poet Jake Hawkey. Jake Hawkey was born in 1990 and grew up in Woolwich. He studied Fine Art at the University of Westminster and holds an MA in Poetry from Queen’s University, Belfast. His moving and hard-hitting collection grew out of an investigation into addiction within families for his PhD research, informed by his own experience of south London’s socio-political class dynamics. Hawkey’s poems are published in several journals and anthologies, including Hold Open the Door (UCD, 2020), The Honest Ulsterman and Proletarian Poetry. He has had sculpture works commissioned and has read his poems internationally, including on Beale Street, Tennessee, and at L’Abri Fellowship, Massachusetts. He was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions series in 2020. His chapbook Breeze Block appeared from Lumpen/The Class Work Project in 2020.

Review :
'Hawkey's poems are electric, buzzing with all the possibilities of language. He has much to say, and is saying it brilliantly' – Here is a wonderful new voice, full of a spiky energy accompanied by a wild imagination. His language bristles with a sense of its own freshness. His working-class world is alive and quivering. A brilliant collection A requiem to fathers, to the streets, to the estates; at times a smash in the face with a skateboard, laughing and ‘chattin breeze’. Hawkey unravels the raw truth behind grief, alcohol dependency, and family traumas, ultimately finding ‘God dwells in every man’ Hawkey writes with serious ambition: these poems are daring in their formal organisation and their political intellect. There is also a real humour here, an ironic, knowing sensibility that never gets in the way of the poems' emotional contents. Hawkey tackles difficult subjects - alcohol dependency, deprivation, and intergenerational trauma - with admirable lucidity, attuned to both their tragedy and comedy 'Brilliant . . . Hawkey never fails to surprise and stun the reader with his evocation of a childhood and youth spent in the long shadow of addiction. But even more than all of this, the poet takes us beyond the usual contemporary dimensions of poetry and – lyrically and with fierce beauty – addresses the great questions of how we can break best, what makes life cohere, and what it is all about. This collection moved me to tears. It is not only daring and accomplished, it is real and written by a young man who has been on a long dark journey and found himself with light in his writing hand Hawkey has written a book about working class life that is worthy of any collection in a poet’s oeuvre