Surge

Haunting, historical, archival and imaginative… a stunning debut – Bernardine Evaristo * New Statesman, Books of the Year *
Surge is a radical hybrid, painfully beautiful multigenerational ghost story, a social document, and a work of political archaeology. It is an indictment of this country’s systemic hostility to its black, Asian and ethnic minority population, and the scandalous lack of accountability when this system claims lives. It is a heartbreaking and brilliant book about an ongoing tragedy – Max Porter * Guardian, Books of the Year *
Politically and lyrically compelling – Raymond Antrobus * Observer, Books of the Year *
Sensitive but devastating verse * Financial Times, Summer Reads of 2019 *
A searing combination of artistic invention and meticulous research into the 1981 New Cross Fire – Pascale Petit, RSL Ondaatje Prize
This affecting poetic exploration of the New Cross Fire of 1981 (dubbed “The New Cross Massacre”) is incantatory, lyrical and documentary. It makes a deep impact both on account of its own narrative and in the wake of Grenfell – Elizabeth-Jane Burnett * The Sunday Times *
A sad and angry consolation, alert to the past… Surge is a mature work, with lyricism both poetic and pop… [One] of British poetry’s most distinctive new voices – Tristram Fane Saunders * Daily Telegraph *
Although the fire, the subsequent protests and the founding of the Black People’s Day of Action were documented by poets Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah among others, Bernard’s work uniquely addresses a new generation encountering this past almost afresh, as it is echoed painfully inthe present… The collection’s major achievement is its unfailing attentiveness to the framing of history through the stories of individuals and collectives that the poet holds, urgently, ethically and so skilfully, in their hands – Sandeep Parmar * Guardian *
If there were ever to be a twenty-first century Auden, with all the invention and cultural understanding, understanding of tradition and sense of the speed and the human outcome of foul politics, Jay Bernard is it – Ali Smith
Jay Bernard’s poems sing with outrage and indignation, with fury and passion. They tell the story of two terrible fires of our times, and shockingly show how the past holds up an uncomfortable mirror to the present. They have brio, they have brilliance, they are breathtakingly brave. An astonishingly accomplished debut – Jackie Kay

Jay Bernard is the author of the pamphlets Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl (Tall Lighthouse, 2008), English Breakfast (Math Paper Press, 2013), and The Red and Yellow Nothing (Ink Sweat & Tears Press, 2016), which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award 2017.

A film programmer at BFI Flare and an archivist at Statewatch, they also participated in ‘The Complete Works II’ project in 2014, where they were mentored by Kei Miller. Jay was a Foyle Young Poet of the Year in 2005 and a winner of the SLAMbassadors UK spoken word championship. In 2019, Jay was selected by Jackie Kay as one of Britain’s ten best BAME writers for the British Council and National Centre for Writing’s International Literature Showcase.

Their poems have been collected in Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (Bloodaxe, 2009), The Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt, 2011), Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe, 2014), and Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets (Bloodaxe, 2014).

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