Poems

Iain Banks is celebrated as a novelist and science fiction writer. It is less well known that his first published work was the poem '041', in New Writing Scotland in 1983. Like the poems that appeared within his novels, this was selected from the many he had written between 1973 and 1981.

Banks took his poetry seriously and worked on it assiduously, but showed it mostly to friends. He first thought of publishing his poetry late in 2012, though insisted it be a joint collection with his life-long friend Ken MacLeod. The two writers were working on this project when Banks learned of his terminal diagnosis, and continued thereafter. He made his final revisions just days before his death.

Readers of Iain Banks' novels will find in the poems a further affirmation of the humane, sceptical and clear-eyed sensibility that informed all his work, shot through as ever with a dry wit that continues to disturb and delight.

Ken MacLeod edited and introduces this collection.

“Striking images and sharp insights . . . a chance to watch a writer come into being . . . [Macleod's] style is more typically reminiscent of Auden or MacNeice”

[Banks's] verse is angry and rough, with phrases punctuated to smithereens; it truly lives Sunday Telegraph
Scotsman
Experimental and angry, studded with sex and violence, puns, myths, gods and apocalyptic warfare. There's space for beauty too Telegraph

Iain Banks (Author)

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. He gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels. Iain Banks died in June 2013.

Ken MacLeod (Author)

Ken MacLeod was born on the Isle of Lewis and now lives in Gourock, Scotland. He has a postgraduate degree in biomechanics and worked for some years in IT. Since 1997 he has been a full-time writer. He is the author of seventeen novels, from The Star Fraction (1995) to The Corporation Wars (2018), and many articles and short stories. He has won three BSFA awards and three Prometheus Awards, and been short-listed for the Clarke and Hugo Awards.

He was a Writer in Residence at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum at Edinburgh University, and Writer in Residence for the MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier University.

Ken MacLeod's blog is The Early Days of a Better Nation

His twitter feed is @amendlocke

Days unstrung by us and spent, Slattern's litter, wrenched necklace; fallen beads, Three calm hearts in a fevered corpse, And history an old man sweeping up. - Examine all your selves, Over each logged belief pore; Make up your mind (From spare parts) (That are memories) Tell me: - The truth is just a lie That happens to correspond to the facts.

Iain Banks is celebrated as a novelist and science fiction writer. It is less well known that his first published work was the poem '041', in New Writing Scotland in 1983. Like the poems that appeared within his novels, this was selected from the many he had written between 1973 and 1981.Banks took his poetry seriously and worked on it assiduously, but showed it mostly to friends. He first thought of publishing his poetry late in 2012, though insisted it be a joint collection with his life-long friend Ken MacLeod. The two writers were working on this project when Banks learned of his terminal diagnosis, and continued thereafter. He made his final revisions just days before his death.Readers of Iain Banks' novels will find in the poems a further affirmation of the humane, sceptical and clear-eyed sensibility that informed all his work, shot through as ever with a dry wit that continues to disturb and delight.Ken MacLeod edited and introduces this collection.

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