CROSSGAR poet, Andrew Jamison, has published his first collection — Happy Hour.
Happy Hour, pivots on moments in which a solitary figure (eating alone in an empty diner, or trudging a towpath remembering how a girl sipped her cappuccino) takes stock of ‘time’s avalanches’. They encompass Belfast, London, the North of England and — following a first, astonished visit — New York City.
There are plenty of local references among the rich evocations and wry observations — among them a trip to Ikea, the abandon of driving golf balls into Strangford Lough, and listening to Ash.
Educated at Down High School before studying at Queen Mary, University of London, and the University of St Andrews, Andrew won the Templar pamphlet award last year. Selected as a UK Young Artist, he also took part at the 2011 International Biennale in Rome. His Arts Council of Northern Ireland awards include the New York Residency (2011) and the ACES award this year.
Poet Billy Collins has said: “Reading Andrew Jamison made the poetry scales fall from my eyes. Now I blink at his poems with wonder at how he can be in real places and simultaneously in places of his own conjuring. He is a poet of constant and delightful little surprises.”
Happy Hour is published by Gallery Press.