A Dissident Voice

In his fourth collection of poems, Mike Jenkins addresses issues of the greatest concern to us in the nineties. His subjects include South Africa, Chile, the Falklands War, Northern Ireland, economic dereliction, the environment and sexual oppression. The 'dissident voice' of the title belongs to anti-nuclear campaigner Hilda Murrell, who died in such mysterious circumstances. Mike Jenkins's poetry of issues is also a poetry of ordinary people. Often writing in character, he brings vividly to life the problems and dilemmas which face us daily. Through the rich imagery of these poems we come to see the human values and rights which we must exercise and defend in a civilised society. " one of the wild men of poetry - a plugger, a pusher, a protester, a consummate rhymester, an agit-prop politiciser, a self-proclaimed Mr Oblong in a square hole" Peter Finch "Alive with imagery and insight: exhilarating to read" Morning Star A humorous and impassioned reader of his work, Mike Jenkins has performed at numerous and diverse venues, read on radio and TV, and is a previous winner of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry. He is a former editor of Poetry Wales, and a founder of the Red Poets Society, which organises regular performances and publishes an annual magazine of radical poetry. Wanting to Belong, his collection of interlinked short stories about teenagers in a south Wales valley, was Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year 1998, and has been filmed by the BBC.