—Rachael Allen, poetry editor Fitzcarraldo Editions:
‘Simon Costello’s work is an utterly unique take on the lyric self in poetry. Bombastic, linguistically utterly inventive, formally adept, yet skittish, Simon combines contrary and contradicting ideas of selfhood with charged, lyric experimentations to create one of the most poignant profiles of a human I’ve ever seen in poetry.
Within a mode that looks to tear itself to shreds while building something up, this is a poetry that demolishes to build. From the first line, it is as though the wind has been knocked out of you. What Simon creates is a space for challenge and difficulty (both in life and poems) to live out, and be formally replicated. The work becomes a space for generative reclamations of the self. In this way it seems to heal even as it wounds; there is not another voice like his.’
—Caroline Bird, UK poet:
‘Simon Costello’s poems peel the top of my head off like a can-opener. One of the most talented new poets I’ve read.’
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Simon Costello 