Full Description
Static Exile is a powerful and meditative debut collection which combines acute political observation with caustic humour.
George Ttoouli draws on his Greek heritage through daring re-imaginings of myth, whilst the title poem remakes the Godzilla story for the 21st century; an energetic and experimental satire of the paranoid rhetoric of modern Britain. A work of both tenderness and fire, Static Exile is a call to arms that introduces a bold new voice in poetry.
"I don't expect poetry to make me laugh my ass off, but this totally got me."
China Mieville
"Static Exile fizzes with energy, and it's fun. I mean, laugh out loud, read-it-again-and-again fun. This is satire, and often genuinely caustic satire, too - if, as I suspect, it's about to make a comeback in UK poetry, then I'll be applauding all the way, and cheering Ttoouli's place in the vanguard."
Matt Merritt
"The title poem is a runaway monster. [...] It is packed with all kinds of parodic jabs, structural intertextualism, sneaky nods to pop, gadget and café culture and gleefully critical political commentary. Many of its sections are laid out to look like something between chaotic fleeing-crowd scenes and giant footprints. It's sprawling and grandiose, yet easy to grasp. There are other poems in the book that capture the same spirit, as well as numerous pieces that see him in investigatory mode, either on the move or stationed in museums and libraries, interrogating the scene for all its fluctuating detail."
Jon Stone
"'Ghosts' is my favourite poem ever."
Luke Kennard
All the houses in this city
have ghosts. The shops in Little India
and the stalls in China Town all
full of ghosts. Sometimes you'll see a pickup
full of ghosts, Sri Lankans, Tamils,
making their way to a construction site,
under bridges or in alleys
howling with airconditioning units.
- from 'Ghosts'
George Ttoouli is an Honorary Teaching Fellow for the Warwick Writing Programme. He co-founded the Heaventree Press in 2002 and has worked in the education team at the Poetry Society. He's now mostly skint, in Coventry. He co-edits poetry blog-zine Gists & Piths. In 2004 he received a Jerwood-Arvon Young Writing Apprenticeship to work on a novel, which he still hasn't abandoned. Static Exile is his debut collection of poetry.
Contents
Gists and Piths Ghosts Love on a Monday Evening This Poem All the Time Peaks Artefact Time Distortions Dear K, Breakers Nearing Extinction Translations Self-Portrait as a Tangent Mutatis mutandi The First Hanged Static Exile Anecdotalism For Lilly from Parchment, Scalpel, Rock Dryad The Eginan Greek Fire The Alarms The GNER 'Flight' Passing Newport Driving through the Conwy Valley On Francis Egginton and Matthew Boulton's method for the staining of glass Optimism Noise Reduction Three Warnings Headless State Static Exile: DVD Extras Fable To Joe, from Kris
