Responding to Eliot in the 21st Century: Introducing This Wilderness & Other Concerns by Martin Kennedy Yates

If you’re a fan of contemporary poetry books that don’t just sit pretty on the shelf but demand to be read aloud, scribbled in, and carried through grimy city streets—, meet Martin Kennedy Yates. His debut collection, This Wilderness & Other Concerns, will be published by ourselves on September 5th. It is a fierce, lyrical commentary on the state of Britain today.

However, this isn’t your standard current poetry fare. This is a bold, full-throttle poetic response to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – written not from Bloomsbury, but from the canals and culverts of 21st-century Birmingham. Post-pandemic, post-truth, post-hope – Yates drags us through the real wilderness: the economic fallout, the culture wars, the false prophets in hi-vis jackets.

Split into three gripping parts: “This Wilderness”, “Other Concerns”, and the dialect-rich “Scousenlish” – this is UK poetry with dirt under its fingernails. Think affective shape poems that punch visually and verbally. Think mythic graffiti, wild swimming as epiphany, and working-class prophets quoting Shakespeare in the dark.

Why should you care? Because Yates is one of the few UK poets to watch who can bridge the raw energy of performance poetry with the serious craft of the page. His voice is equal parts preacher, punk, and prophet. He writes about the places the literary establishment pretends not to see – inner cities, roadside shrines, derelict spaces – and finds grim beauty in the debris.

Whether you’re into poetry about modern life, literary responses to the pandemic, or searching for emerging British poets with something real to say, This Wilderness & Other Concerns is the collection that hits hard, rings true, and refuses to fade quietly into the archive.