Zebra by Ian Humphreys

In Zebra, a boy steps tentatively from the shadows onto a strobe-lit dancefloor. Ian Humphrey's much-anticipated debut shimmers with music, wit and humour while exploring mixed identities, otherness and coming-of-age as a gay man in 1980s Manchester. These acutely-observed, joyful poems pay homage to those who took the first steps - minority writers, LGBT civil rights activists, 1970s queer night clubbers and the poet's own mixed-race parents.

A heady cocktail of the playful, political and mythical, Zebra is also a creature of opposites - light and dark, countryside and cityscape, highs and lows. The collection moves from semi-rural England to the metropolitan hubs of Hong Kong, London and New York, circling its subjects, often finding the uncanny in the familiar, always drawing the reader centre-stage. 

'A powerful, moving, original body of work. The material in Zebra is often high-voltage and emotionally risky...These are poems which will find readers, hit nerves, matter to people... and what more can we want for our work?' Jean Sprackland

Paperback / 80 pages