So Much for Life: Selected Poems

A long awaited collection of poems by Mark Hyatt, one of the great lost writers of mid-century British poetry. Scarcely published in his lifetime, Hyatt’s work ­survives thanks to the intervention of poets and friends who saved his manuscripts and kept his poems in circulation. Queer in the decades before Gay Liberation; Romani; incarcerated in prisons and asylums; illiterate into adulthood: it’s tempting to read Hyatt according to the familiar script of the doomed poet, resounding with loneliness and isolation. But his poetry—“hot and tender,” funny and sad—tells another story: of love, liberatory commitment, and desire. A long awaited collection of poems by Mark Hyatt, one of the great lost writers of mid-century British poetry.

Scarcely published in his lifetime, Hyatt’s work ­survives thanks to the intervention of poets and friends who saved his manuscripts and kept his poems in circulation. Queer in the decades before Gay Liberation; Romani; incarcerated in prisons and asylums; illiterate into adulthood: it’s tempting to read Hyatt according to the familiar script of the doomed poet, resounding with loneliness and isolation. But his poetry—“hot and tender,” funny and sad—tells another story: of love, liberatory commitment, and desire.

• | Author: Mark Hyatt, Sam Ladkin, Luke Roberts
• | Publisher: Nightboat Books
• | Publication Date: Jul 20, 2023
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781643621784
• | ISBN-10: 1643621785