Jay Bernard

Defiant, humorous, empathetic and insightful, 'Not Quite Right For Us' pierces through the hierarchical mechanics of class, race, gender. A celebration of outsiderness and an ode to otherness, 'Not Quite Right For Us' is a singular collection of stories, essays and poems by a dynamic mix of established and surging voices alike, edited by Sharmilla Beezmohun and including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Aminatta Forna, Xiaolu Guo, Johny Pitts, Rishi Dastidar, Tim Wells and Rafeef Ziadah. This remarkable anthology marks the tenth anniversary of the live-literature organisation co-founded by Sharmilla, Speaking Volumes. Part cri du coeur, part warning shot, part affirmation, this is the book we need now.

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again. Bookended by visits to Henry Tate's mausoleum and the tomb of Lord Mayor Henry Tulse, the author of critically acclaimed poetry collection Surge goes for a six-mile walk across London, 'this city I love', to think about the meaning of complicity. We live in the legacy of colonialism. It permeates the very fabric of the social structures in which we exist. It visibly haunts the streets of London, anchored by statues and monuments that commemorate a violent imperial past. What does it mean, then, to love this city that was once the heart of an Empire? Punctuated by works in Britain's national collection of art, Look Again: Complicity is an insightful meditation on how art can help us reckon with a dark history and an uncertain future.

**Winner of the 2020 Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award**Jay Bernard's extraordinary debut is a fearless exploration of the New Cross Fire of 1981, a house fire at a birthday party in which thirteen young black people were killed. Dubbed the 'New Cross Massacre', the fire was initially believed to be a racist attack, and the indifference with which the tragedy was met by the state triggered a new era of race relations in Britain. Tracing a line from New Cross to the 'towers of blood' of the Grenfell fire, this urgent collection speaks with, in and of the voices of the past, brought back by the incantation of dancehall rhythms and the music of Jamaican patois, to form a living presence in the absence of justice. A ground-breaking work of excavation, memory and activism - both political and personal, witness and documentary - Surge shines a much-needed light on an unacknowledged chapter in British history, one that powerfully resonates in our present moment.'The verse has anger and political purpose, but a rare lyrical precision, too. The combination is powerful' Sebastian Faulks, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020 *Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry**Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award; T. S. Eliot Prize; Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Dylan Thomas Prize; RSL Ondaatje Prize; John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize**Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2020*

In the short life span of the average adult, we have watched the first satellite being launched into outer-space, saw man walking on the moon, space travel becoming common place and computers taking a prominent place in our life. But our grand parents struggled with their day to day existence and strove toward happiness amid what we would consider today as the very basics of life's fiber. Within Memories, the reader is offered the opportunity to sit back, relax and take a trip into the past. To some, this will be a nostalgic journey, while others will gain a new experience. Whatever the case, only enjoyment awaits the reader within its pages.