{"title":"Books by Todd Swift","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781915406460","title":"Optician To The Stars","description":"In OPTICIAN TO THE STARS, the British-Canadian Todd Swift, one of the leading poet-editors of his generation, takes a look at life with and without rose-tinted specs, considering the sublunar world in all its beauty and horror. The collection favours briefer, more epigrammatic poems, often composed on his iPhone while waiting forblood tests or unable to sleep. For the past two years have seen Swift survive a blood clot on his heart, and a life-changing diagnosis. Not a diary of disease and recovery, and never seeking easy epiphanies, the poems nevertheless unfold a tapestry of humane, witty, and often formally-delightful perceptions. From remembering poets who have died, to celebrating seeing a movie star from Mad Max: Fury Road cycling past, these are poems always seeking to see things, and say things, with craft, skill, elegance, and joy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308959314293,"sku":"9781915406460","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915406460_dc9c4233-389f-455e-b37b-776270350a59.jpg?v=1786030584"},{"product_id":"9781913606299","title":"Spring In Name Only","description":"Spring In Name Only is Todd Swift’s first full collection since his 2014 ‘American Selected’ and marks the first with Black Spring Press. Responding to the age of Brexit and Covid-19, these are lyric modern poems that take their bearings from both Auden and Empson, F.T. Prince and Dylan Thomas - as such, they seek to explore the ‘40s style’ of heightened rhetoric, emotion and personal myth Swift has elsewhere celebrated, as in his edition of the Collected Tiller. Fusing irony and sincerity, confession and oratory, they build a bridge of eloquence, with which to address the key themes of Swift’s now-36-year career as a published poet of international stature: fear of death, anxiety in life, faith, despair, love, desire, empathy and critique. No other contemporary poet is as willing to push language to the pitch of perverse stylishness, in the services of poetic majesty. Here springs a restorative fluency that raises the bar.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309293384053,"sku":"9781913606299","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913606299_9b4c2643-08d9-4217-938e-0bf73ce08593.jpg?v=1786030816"},{"product_id":"9781915406026","title":"Last Poems Before Heart Failure","description":"Christmas 2021, Todd Swift was in ICU, close to death. His heart had failed and was operating at less than 20%. Now, in early 2022, he continues to be treated at the Royal Free Hampstead for this serious health challenge. He also has a blood clot on his heart.   With a cover design by artist Edwin Smet, here are a selection of new poems, published as a fundraiser for Todd, who cannot currently work, as he waits for his implant device procedure.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309419180405,"sku":"9781915406026","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915406026_14df9309-f20d-42e0-8153-c56ead05442f.jpg?v=1786030564"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-todd-swift.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}