BOOKS
Paper Crusade
Arachne Press, 2022
A book-length poem re-imagining The Tempest as a tragedy.
'A visionary, intertextual journey that takes us far beyond standard retelling or response
to Shakespeare. Penn brings new life to the characters here, with an incantatory power
that threatens to lose us in the words and the waves but always takes us somewhere
captivating and unexpected.'
Luke Kennard, cover blurb
'There must be something of Prospero in @mich_penn, because #PaperCrusade
is utterly mesmeric & captivating.'
Jade Marshall, Shout About Books, Instagram
'Penn's poems draw on and move beyond the intertextual reverberations of Shakespeare's
play to unfold themselves in voices that are both archetypal and unpredictable...Through
imaginative experiments in form and punctuation, space and silence, line and stanza break...
Penn skilfully reframes the drama, the questions, the voices and their authority.
Lesley Sharpe, review, Alchemy Spoon
Paper Crusade has itself been reimagined as a theatre piece, 'Storm Child.' It's a collaboration
with Théatre Volière as part of the Poetry Plays festival at The Cockpit Theatre, London, 18-20 April, 2024.
Self-portrait as a diviner, failing
Winner, 2018 Paper Swans Prize
Paper Swans Press, 2018
'Self-portrait as a diviner, failing has real finesse. ... This is an incredibly moving
read, rhythmical, each poem almost moans from the page'
Abegail Morley, Judge, 2018 Paper Swans Prize
'Distinctively voiced and formally inventive'
Jeffery Sugarman, Poetry Wales