How to Build a City

Tom Chivers was born in London in 1983. A writer, editor and promoter, he is Director of Penned in the Margins, Co-Director of London Word Festival and Associate Editor of Tears in the Fence. He was Poet in Residence at The Bishopsgate Institute, London. A limited edition sequence entitled The Terrors was published by Nine Arches Press in 2009. How To Build A City is his first full collection.

WINNER OF THE 2011 ERIC GREGORY AWARDS
"How To Build A City" is the Crashaw Prize-winning debut collection of poetry by Tom Chivers. It is a poetic interrogation of the twenty-first century urban experience, peopled by ghosts of London's past as well as the distinctly modern spectres of international terrorism, spam email and the credit crunch.

Tom Chivers' debut collection excites with its loose and fiery language play. Beneath the linguistic fireworks lurks a steely vision of London past and present that is contemporary, inventive and substantial. -- David Caddy With How To Build A City Tom Chivers has created a rich and challenging collection that reflects all that is beautiful and disturbing in the city. These poems speak civic rhythms; they mimic the sway and staccato motion of the city. Poems like 'Seven Varieties of Knot' and 'The Trial of Margery' also show how precise and technically adept Chivers is as a poet; with 'T, C & I' and 'How To Build A City' he shows an experimental and innovative flair with language and form. But this is also a personal work; a human text. Poems such as 'Postmark Tullamore' and 'Photographs' are deeply moving as well as unsettling. This is an ambitious and brave collection from a poet with a distinctive voice, one which will deepen our understanding of the city that lives in us. -- Anthony Joseph

Part I Tube This is yogic Citizen Rush Hour Tina is a Rottweiler Seven Varieties of Knot Stopping Doctor Syntax Queer Things in Egypt The Coder Your Name Has Been Randomly Selected Big Skies over Docklands The Trial of Margery Shaikh and the Fruit Pickle Invasion A Tourist's Guide to the East End Hasty Excise Fifteen Days How To Build A City Part II Snapshot Iconic Marpha Newborn Guthlac The Voyages of Ottar and Wulfstan On Kinder Scout Shatton, Kinder Working in Stone Postmark Tullamore Photographs Paramnesiac Thom, C and I