Lucinda Roy's Recommended Books

Poetry:

• Michelle Boisseau A Sunday in God Years
• Kelly CherryThe Retreats of Thought
• Michael Chitwood Poor-Mouth Jubilee
• Fred D’Aguiar Continental Drift
• Kate Daniels A Walk in Victoria's Secret
• Rita Dove Thomas & Beulah
• Claudia Emerson Late Wife
• Carolyn Forche The Angel of History
• Nikki Giovanni Bicycles
• Kathleen Graber The Eternal City
• Bob Hicok Words for Empty and Words for Full
• Jeff Mann Flint Shards from Sussex
• Erika Meitner Ideal Cities
• Constance Merrit Two Rooms
• Debra Nystrom Bad River Road
• Tiaje Silverman Houses are Fields
• Quincy Troupe The Architecture of Language
• Lesley Wheeler Heterotopia
• David Wojahn World Tree
• James Wright Complete Poems

Ficton:

The Collector of Treasures by Bessie Head

This short collection  by the South African mixed race writer Bessie Head contains stories about the significance of small things and the power of tenderness.

For students and teachers of fiction:

SHORT FICTION:Classic and Contemporary, 6th edition, edited by Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant

This anthology is one I have used frequently with my classes. The selections include writers like Sherman Alexie, James Baldwin, and Isabelle Allende, as well classics by Chekov, Kafka, O'Connor, Joyce, and Porter.

Siobhan Dowd is posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for her new book Bog Child

See article in The Guardian newspaper

The late Siobhan Dowd was a friend of mine.  We grew up together in South London and both attended La Retraite High School. When Siobhan lived in New York and worked for PEN, we would exchange our writing. 

Siobhan's novels for young readers are stunningly beautiful.  The Carnegie has been awarded previously to Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, and other major writers. 

Top Pick for Young Readers:

This beautifully crafted story set in Ireland is full of vivid sensory detail and stark realism.

A Swift Pure Cry

by Siobhan Dowd