A new book of poetry by internationally-acclaimed poet David Herd, Professor of Modern Literature at the University, addresses the hostile language that surrounds the reception of people seeking asylum in the UK.
The book, entitled Through (Carcanet, April 2016), considers the ways official public language has set out to undermine human relations. The poems address the cost of such official hostility to human intimacy while re-exploring possibilities of solidarity and trust.
Professor Herd, whose poems, essays and reviews have been published widely, is co-organiser of the Refugee Tales project. He is Head of the School of English.
Previous works by Professor Herd include the collection of poetry All Just (Carcanet, 2012) and Outwith (Bookthug, 2012).