"I wrote a draft of the first poem, ‘Sonnet 66’, while I was at a house party surrounded by men who work in the video games industry, none of whom I particularly knew or liked. The party had atomised into cliques and I was worrying about how I’d get back to my hotel when I realised the apartment block was right next to it. I was happy with the poem, so over a couple of months I started trying to write a few more, avoiding the more famous sonnets, but reading through until I found an image or an idea to react to with a prose poem. The setting just stuck: what changes when we introduce a new, consistent setting? Some peculiar sense of community, collective, the temporary fragile allegiances and conflicts, the fact that everyone has come to the party to lose themselves or face themselves in different ways"
Luke Kennard is the author of five collections of poetry and three pamphlets. His second collection, The Harbour Beyond the Movie, was shortlisted for the 2007 Forward Prize for Best Collection and his fifth, Cain, for the 2017 Dylan Thomas Prize. He lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.
Join the PBS to read Luke Kennard's full interview in the Summer Bulletin. Notes on the Sonnets is officially published 23rd April but we have advance copies with 25% off for PBS Members.