Young in the Night Grass: Winner of The Laurence Sterne Prize 2021

Tim Murphy was born in Cork and lives in Madrid. His three previous chapbooks are: Art Is the Answer (Yavanika Press, 2019); The Cacti Do Not Move (SurVision Books, 2019); and There Are Twelve Sides to Every Circle (If a Leaf Falls Press, 2021). The visual artist, Man Ray (1890-1976), once remarked that his work was not experimental because art is "not a science". Instead of the term "experimental art", Man Ray preferred to use the language of artistic "experiences" and "adventures"; and he emphasised that art varies not only in its sources of inspiration but also "in its modes of execution". This chapbook includes poems executed in a range of different modes, that is, poems written in a variety of poetic styles and forms. Many poems are surrealist, including four "cut-up" surrealist poems based on work by celebrated Irish writers. There are several haiku, including three-line and one-line haiku as well as some senryu (sometimes called "psychological haiku"). And the chapbook also includes some conventional narrative poems, two rhyming poems, a response to a poetry exercise, and a poem with a visual dimension.