John McCullough's Crowd Voltage addresses yearnings for community. It probes fragmentation within groups and individuals - disturbances within the body of the crowd and the crowd of the body. Engaging with working-class and queer experiences, the poems move between solitude and togetherness, haunted by ghosts from history as they dream of unity and discover joy in deserted corners. To be common here is to share not only qualities but stories with many others - to be classed alongside people with similar origins and become connected also to what is commonplace in the world of animals and plants, days and tables. Sky and sea dominate as the speakers search for oneness and completion, confronted by vast silences and the shadow of Brighton's collapsing West Pier. John McCullough has published four previous collections, one with Salt and three with Penned in the Margins, most recently, the Costa-shortlisted Reckless Paper Birds (2019), winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and Panic Response (2022), which included his long poem 'Flowers of Sulphur', shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

About the Author

John McCullough lives in Hove. His first collection of poems, The Frost Fairs, was published by Salt in 2011 and won the Polari First Book Prize. It was a Book of the Year in The Independent as well as a summer read in The Observer. Spacecraft, his second collection, was published by Penned in the Margins in 2016 and shortlisted for the Ledbury-Forte Prize as well as being a summer read in The Guardian. His third book of poems, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins, 2019), won the 2020 Hawthornden Prize for Literature as well as being shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. His fourth collection, Panic Response (Penned in the Margins, 2022), was a Book of the Year for The Telegraph and one of The Times' Notable New Poetry Books of 2022. The collection's long poem, 'Flower of Sulphur', was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. His fifth, Crowd Voltage, is published by Bloodaxe Books in 2026. John is a Senior Lecturer in creative writing at the University of Brighton as well as teaching on poetry for organisations including the Arvon Foundation and the online Creative Writing Programme.

Reviews
Elegant, curious, and surreal, McCullough's poetry invades like moss, making everything alive again. A stunning, vibrant collection from one of the UK's most inventive thinkers. Glorious. -- Joelle Taylor * on Crowd Voltage *
McCullough is a visionary, a genius polymath. His worlds and miniature observations are deeply satisfying to stumble into. McCullough's writing feels tender, intimate, zany and yes ...cool. -- Monique Roffey * on Panic Responses *
A rare literary phenomenon...a frank and militant declaration of joy. -- Christopher Reid * The Times Literary Supplement *
McCullough's poetic terrain is one of subtly-rendered and political surrealism... Reckless Paper Birds is a timely and necessary collection which vibrates with protest; these poems are talismans against hate. -- Richard Scott * on Reckless Paper Birds *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780377810
Author John McCullough
Format Paperback
Page Count 72
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm