Steph Morris

Dramatic sketches full of surprising, unpredictable twists and turns from a major twentieth-century German-language author. A member of the Gruppe 47 writers’ group which sought to renew German-language literature after World War II, Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) achieved great acclaim as a writer of fiction, poetry, prose, and radio drama. The vignettes in At No Time each begin in recognizable situations, often set in Vienna or other Austrian cities, but immediately swerve into bizarre encounters, supernatural or fantastical situations. Precisely drawn yet disturbingly skewed, they are both naturalistic and disjointed, like the finest surrealist paintings. Created to be experienced on the page or on the radio rather than the stage, they echo the magic realism of her short stories. Even though they frequently take a dark turn, they remain full of humor, agility, and poetic freedom.

Steph Morris achieves a fine engagement between affection and refined outrage across a sequence of poems that excited me for their focus on the family and the nation. A hugely enjoyable debut Daljit NagraLike the plants he nurtures as a gardener, Steph Morris's poems are fed by a desire to believe the world is a benevolent place; but his jaunty humour and O'Haraesque casualness can often mask his more serious concerns about the environment and our attitude towards it. This is a playful and exuberant debut from a poet with a wonderfully original voice. Tamar Yoseloff