‘In trying to enthuse the students, I definitely enthused myself’

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, United Kingdom on 2022-02-13 03:43Z by Steven

‘In trying to enthuse the students, I definitely enthused myself’

Islington Tribune
London, United Kingdom
2022-02-10

Anna Lamche, Reporter


Hannah Lowe

The recipient of the Costa book of the year for The Kids, Hannah Lowe may have just about achieved her goal, learns Anna Lamche

TRACKING down a physical copy of Hannah Lowe’s The Kids has been difficult since the poet won the Costa Book Award last week, a fact she attributes more to a “national shortage of paper” than to her publisher’s surprise at her unexpected win.

Hannah won the prestigious prize last Tuesday for her book of sonnets, a beautiful and haunting ode to teaching and childhood. Her collection reflects on the junctures between education and the superstructures of history, class and race – the result is a tightly rendered meditation on human experience, spanning birth to death and grief to laughter, often within a matter of lines…

…Born to a “half Jamaican, half Chinese” father, Hannah’s own experience – she recalls being called “white wog” at school in one poem – allows her to relate to the alienation of her own black and diasporan students in the wake of the 7/7 bombings and beyond. The Kids continually demands we consider “the stakes when teachers rarely look like those/they teach”….

Read the entire article here.

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