My new novel comes out in March 2026 and there are bound proofs! of the U.S. edition (from Zando, on the left) and the U.K. edition (from John Murray, on the right). I know social media is kind of broken beyond repair, so apologies for still acting like it’s 2014 when it felt meaningful for non-celebrities to announce things!
If you copy and paste this into your Online Internet Browser, it will take you to it:
/news/2026/poetry-prophecy-and-the-book-of-jonah-professor-luke-kennards-inaugural-lecture
A real honour to read with and talk to the Rt Revd Rowan Williams at Launceston Poetry Festival. A fearless and compassionate intellect and a wonderful poet. Whole festival was just gorgeous - thank you @causleytrust and the entire team. x
THIS SATURDAY!!!
Join award-winning poets Victoria Adukwei Bulley @victoriaadukweibulley and Luke Kennard @luukekennnard for a poetry reading, featuring selections from their back catalogues alongside work from their latest collections, including QUIET (Victoria) and The Book of Jonah (Luke).
🗓 Saturday, 2 May
⏰ 2:45–3:45pm
📍 Town Hall – Guildhall
🎟 £10
🎫 Tickets: /events/launcestonfestival/2051491
Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer and artist. An alumna of the Barbican Young Poets and recipient of an Eric Gregory award. Her debut pamphlet, Girl B, was published by the African Poetry Book Fund in 2017. Her debut collection, Quiet, was published by Faber in 2022. It was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and won the Rathbones Folio Prize for Poetry and the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize.
Luke Kennard is a poet and novelist. He is the author of six collections of poetry. His first book, The Solex Brothers, won him an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2005. His second, The Harbour Beyond the Movie made him the youngest poet to be shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.
For the last stop of my press junket for Black Bag I made the mistake of writing about writing about sex for the Guardian. It got condensed and edited out, but I was actually very complimentary about *not* writing about sex, for rhetorical and other reasons.
Still coming down from the LRB launch on Wednesday. Beyond grateful for @willaldeneaves for his
peerless hosting and interlocution. Possibly my favourite conversation I’ve ever had, publicly or otherwise. And to John Clegg and the brilliant team for having us. And to everyone who came, including old friends and famille 💕.
Also had a v good review in the TLS. (The TLS don’t have a bookshop as far as I know. I think it would be really funny if they opened a rival bookshop.)
Being online so much for book promotion drives you slightly bats. And also probably sells exactly 2 books. I accidentally looked at a bestseller list the other day and the book at No. 8 had sold 230 copies. Hahahahah! Seriously. But we keep going, don’t we? It’s not like anyone has any better ideas, like putting books on the moon or something. So thank you for tolerating me.
Okay, that’s my gratitude journaling done, I can shut up for the bank holiday now. xoxo
Print version of the guardian review just to make me feel special. / My novel projected on my face. / A Roman theatre mask of a character called ‘Pornoboskos’ (via Dr Nina Willburger). / Rigatoni Pasta. / Bold of them to use *my* torso for the cover of Wayne Koestenbaum’s novel. / Scary teapot. / The night we found an abandoned office chair by a bin so I thought it would look really good to pretend I was typing in a bin. x x x
