A CREATIVE writing lecturer at the University of Chester has published the third volume in his trilogy of prose poetry and flash fiction.

Dr Ian Seed, who is also the programme leader for the BA in creative writing at the university, has written New York Hotel, which is the final volume of the trilogy, published by Shearsman Books (who specialise in contemporary poetry). It follows on from Makers of Empty Dreams (Shearsman, 2014) and Identity Papers (Shearsman, 2016). Identity Papers was showcased by BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, and reviewed by the presenter of the programme, and the Bard of Barnsley, Ian McMillan.

Dr Seed said: “I am delighted with the reception that New York Hotel has received so far, and understand that there are other reviews to follow. I am very grateful to my editor Tony Frazer of Shearsman Books, and very much appreciate the support and encouragement of colleagues in the English Department.”

This latest volume has already received a number of positive reviews including:

‘Seed’s collection is a perfect combination of witty, bizarre, inventive and compelling. You find yourself invested in the characters and their narratives, like you would a novel, as they move through labyrinths of hotel lobbies, Italian streets, monasteries, and ultimately themselves.’

Georgia Matthews, Stride Magazine (http://stridemagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/lucid-dream-like-and-raw.html?view=magazine)

‘The delight of Ian Seed’s brilliantly droll poems is that they are not entirely droll. They look and sound normal, like brief prose anecdotes told in a bar but the apparent normality is edged with disorientation, menace and anxiety. We slip over the edge in an instant and look to recover our balance but can’t quite. The world has gone, leaving behind a comical void. And that, we understand, is the nature of the world. The voice is controlled, in fact it’s perfect. It’s just that nothing else is.’

Poet George Szirtes.

Dr Ian Seed has lived and worked in different countries, including Italy, France and Poland. He is a poet, critic, fiction writer, editor and translator. His poetry, prose poetry, fiction, reviews and translations have appeared in such journals as Blackbox Manifold, Free Verse, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, The North, PN Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Poetry Wales, Shearsman, Stride and Tears in the Fence. It has also been featured in a number of anthologies, including The Best Small Fictions 2017 (Braddock Avenue Books), The Forward Book of Poetry 2017 (Faber & Faber), and The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt).

Dr Seed was also longlisted (top 10) for an international book prize last year – the Best Translated Book Award for Poetry 2017 (BTBA) - for The Thief of Talant, the first translation into English of the French poet Pierre Reverdy’s Le Voleur de Talan.

New York Hotel, by Dr Ian Seed and published by Shearsman Books, can be bought directly from the publishers, or from many of the well known bookselling websites: https://www.shearsman.com/store/-p102839110