New Writer 2021: Tim Craven

Tim Craven was raised in Stoke-on-Trent. He has an MFA from Syracuse University and completed his PhD thesis at the University of Edinburgh on the characterisation of mental illness in confessional poetry. His poems have recently appeared in The Scotsman, The London Magazine, The Manchester Review and the SPL's Best Scottish Poems 2019. His pamphlet, Lake Effect, is published by Tapsalteerie.

You can find him on Twitter(this will open in a new window), Instagram(this will open in a new window) or his website(this will open in a new window).

Writing sample

BONE

My job is to pick; I am a picker.

I harvest stock from the shelves

like ears of corn and pass it

to the ringer at the register

who compiles the orders

and onwards to the amender

who checks the consignment

against the warehouse manifest.

I staple a receipt to the pick-sheet

so it can be removed

by a dispatcher down the line.

A knot of days becomes a week;

weeks pile up like shed skins.

In the beautiful bite of coolness

at 5.30 am, before the sun hits its stride,

before the streets teem, a partial moon

hangs like a half-eaten egg in sky

the pink of a healing wound.

Change feels graspable.

I walk to my shift, my back

worked stiff from yesterday’s;

the only remedy is more work.

I pick. I pass. Repeat. Careful

not to suggest improvements.

Bone: the toil has reached the bone. 

Tim says:

'I am thrilled and immensely grateful that my writing has been recognised in this way. The award is a terrific opportunity to focus on my poems as I work towards compiling my first full collection.'