Mancunia
Mancunia by Michael Symmons Roberts, published by Jonathan Cape in 2017, is a collection of 74 poems that explore the duality of a city that is both real and imagined. Rooted in Manchester, the work presents a vision of a fallen utopia, drawing inspiration from various artistic influences, including the formal tracks of De Chirico’s paintings. The poems invite readers into a world where historical and contemporary elements intertwine, featuring characters such as a merchant mariner and whimsical bureaucrats, all contributing to the rich tapestry of Mancunia.
In this collection, readers will find a blend of metaphysical and lyrical poetry that examines themes of value and existence. The poems reflect on the nature of place, identity, and transformation, portraying Mancunia as a space that is occupied, liberated, abandoned, and rebuilt. With its capacious and shape-shifting qualities, this edition of Mancunia offers a thought-provoking exploration of our changing times, making it a significant addition to the landscape of contemporary poetry.
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Shortlisted for the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize
Longlisted for the 2019 Portico Prize
PBS Autumn Recommendation
Mancunia is both a real and an unreal city. In part, it is rooted in Manchester, but it is an imagined city too, a fallen utopia viewed from formal tracks, as from the train in the background of De Chirico’s paintings. In these poems we encounter a Victorian diorama, a bar where a merchant mariner has a story he must tell, a chimeric creature – Miss Molasses – emerging from the old docks. There are poems in honour of Mancunia’s bureaucrats- the Master of the Lighting of Small Objects, the Superintendent of Public Spectacles, the Co-ordinator of Misreadings. Metaphysical and lyrical, the poems in Michael Symmons Roberts’ seventh collection are concerned with why and how we ascribe value, where it resides and how it survives. Mancunia is – like More’s Utopia – both a no-place and an attempt at the good-place. It is occupied, liberated, abandoned and rebuilt. Capacious, disturbing and shape-shifting, these are poems for our changing times.
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