Andy Jackson was born in Salford in 1965 but has lived in Scotland for thirty years. He is the author of three collections of poetry including The Saints Are Coming (Blue Diode, 2020). He has also edited a dozen poetry anthologies including Scotia Extremis with the late Brian Johnstone (Luath, 2019). He was Makar for the Federation of Writers Scotland in 2017. He is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and co-editor of the long-running broadsheet Poetry Scotland.

 

Games Night is Andy Jackson’s fourth poetry collection, showcasing his customary witty, acerbic and inventive style across a variety of forms. Poems draw on themes of politics, place and popular culture, with the centrepiece being a sequence of 12 poems inspired by indoor games and pastimes.

 

‘These ludic poems can interrogate sense till it becomes nonsense then they shine a light in its eyes until it summons the whole story. The story that not all games are innocent pastimes, some are human theatres, methods of containment and order, where rules are made and remade and may not be worth the paper they are written on. Jackson writes with a clear eye for metaphor and a sharp ear for the song of language. These poems find slanted pathways to the nitty-gritty.’

 

—Helen Ivory

 

‘Andy Jackson is adept at turning the world slant, even spinning time, history and memory into reverse. His poems turn up disguised as games, entertaining and ingenious, with both serious and comic intent. Be prepared to see the world as you’ve never seen it before, lit by a “Tiny Clanger Triolet”, a different kind of song.’

 

—Rob A. Mackenzie

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