Populist strong men rule based on division and finding enemies within. Poetry does the opposite. It finds what unites us as humankind. As poet John Burnside says: "poetry is the science of belonging'. These poems look at the conflicts created by strong men and how the human spirit survives them. The narrative that surrounds these poems will explain how.
The project is part of the subtheme Literature as a tool for social equality.
Author
Mark Fiddes
Mark Fiddes is an internationally awarded poet from London living and working in the Middle East. His third collection ‘Other Saints Are Available’ (Live Canon) features poems that have won in the UK National Poetry Competition, the Oxford Brookes University International Prize and the Montreal Prize among many others.
His work has recently appeared in Poetry Review, London Magazine, The Moth, Oxford Poetry, Stand Magazine, the Irish Times and The New European. His previous two books were ‘The Rainbow Factory’ and ‘The Chelsea Flower Show Massacre’.
He studied Philosophy Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford University and worked in the US Congress before becoming a creative director in design and advertising. For services to creativity, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is currently translating the poems of Miquel Martí i Pol from Catalan.
