Monstrance
Will be published approx. on 5. March 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
978-1-0676939-7-8 (ISBN)
Description
Al Anderson's debut collection Monstrance is about queerness, the occult, and the slowly collapsing dreamscapes of post-industrial Britain. With characteristic black humour this collection poses Birmingham as an urban embodiment of our times.
A monstrance is a sacred vessel found in Catholic churches, used to contain the consecrated sacraments. Here the monstrance becomes a symbolic vessel for memory, desire, and a means for containing the ruins of failed utopias.
In a fractured cityscape, the figure of Ram, an occultic leakage that emanates from the monstrance, guides us through Anderson's lyric imaginary. Holy visions are delivered in newbuilds at the city limits, beautiful young men hang from Judas Trees in suburban parks and Ram clings to the balustrades of history and time dealing out lust, solace, and retribution.
Monstrance is the latest in the urban-homosexual lyric continuum. Equal parts indebted to the surrealist and confessional traditions, this is a collection of erotics and the ennui of queer desire under late capitalism.
A monstrance is a sacred vessel found in Catholic churches, used to contain the consecrated sacraments. Here the monstrance becomes a symbolic vessel for memory, desire, and a means for containing the ruins of failed utopias.
In a fractured cityscape, the figure of Ram, an occultic leakage that emanates from the monstrance, guides us through Anderson's lyric imaginary. Holy visions are delivered in newbuilds at the city limits, beautiful young men hang from Judas Trees in suburban parks and Ram clings to the balustrades of history and time dealing out lust, solace, and retribution.
Monstrance is the latest in the urban-homosexual lyric continuum. Equal parts indebted to the surrealist and confessional traditions, this is a collection of erotics and the ennui of queer desire under late capitalism.
More details
Person
Al Anderson is a writer of poetry and essays. He grew up in Birmingham and moved to London at 19. That city has been his home since then, bar 3 years in Norwich where he completed a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. Before his PhD he completed an MA in Creative Writing, also at UEA, and an undergraduate degree in History of Art and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths college. His work is strongly influenced by, and works in the traditions of, Anglo-American avant-gardes. He started writing poetry during the 'Alt-lit' period of the early 2010s, dispersing work, of varying quality, over various blogs and microjournals. After that he became particularly drawn to the work of Jack Spicer, Frank O'Hara, Alice Notley, Dennis Cooper and Denise Riley. He has published three pamphlets: Tenderloin (Blush Lit), Custodian (Earthbound) and The Tired Angel (Slub) and generally considers his current literary production to be within the late modernist tradition. Monstrance is his first collection.