The prestigious Poetry Book Society (PBS) has chosen Mr Universe, by Rich Goodson, as their Autumn Pamphlet Choice.
Goodson's work is a new LGBTQ classic. His debut pamphlet wryly interrogates the male body – and finds it to be a place of risk and narcissism, shame and sensual epiphany. It begins with a famous politician urinating and ends with an Australian mechanic’s avowal of love. In between are Viking swords, terrorism, cosmetic surgery, Daniel Craig – and God disguised as a wasp. The voice is mischievous, restless and visceral. Its sensuousness belies the urgent nature of the interrogation: to ask what – if anything – the male body means.
Rich Goodson lives in Nottingham, UK, where he teaches English language to refugee and migrant teenagers.