Tim Relf, "Not Even October"

 

Tim Relf, photo by MadMann photography

Tim Relf is a Leicestershire-based poet, novelist and journalist. His debut poetry collection, Not Even October, is out soon with Salt Publishing. His poems have been published in most of the UK’s leading poetry journals, including Poetry London, The Rialto, Stand, Under The Radar, Poetry Wales, The Dark Horse, Acumen, Banshee and Bad Lilies. He is a former poet-in-residence at Leicester Botanic Garden. His most recent novel, published by Penguin, was translated into more than 20 languages and turned into an audiobook starring Emilia Clarke and Charles Dance. You can find out more about his writing on his website here.  

About Not Even October, by Tim Relf
Not Even October is a collection about the easy-to-miss moments that shape lives. Moments in hotel rooms, petrol stations, cafes and vets. In suburban gardens and city parks. In small-town streets and country lanes. Evoking love lost and found, nights of excess, threads of friendship, the rip of grief and the flickering, beautiful absurdities of life in a digital, distracted age, the poems trace how we make sense of memory, mortality, place and home. Not Even October vaults from humour to heartache – then back again – in a breath, attuned both to the anxiety-inducing barrage of turbulent times and the calming comforts offered by the natural world. In this tender, relatable debut, Relf navigates contemporary Britain, finding everyday magic in everyday places, while asking readers: How do we hold on to what matters – and let go of what doesn’t?

You can read more about Not Even October on the publisher's website here. Below, you can read a sample poem from the collection. 

From Not Even October

Windfall

It was going to be about how, if you sit in an orchard

in September, it surrounds you:

falling.

It was going to be about the soft drop of decades as you rest

between Ribston Pippins. But now I see – hear –

this poem isn’t about that, after all.

It’s about waiting for the word

for the sound apples make

landing:

the exact right word for the noise they make

as they hit the ground.

Poetry Workshop at Leicester University's Botanic Garden with Tim Relf

Enjoy poetry? Fancy spending some time in Leicester University’s Botanic Garden?

The Garden’s Poet in Residence, Tim Relf, will be running a small, half-day workshop on May 20th 2023, suitable for poets of all levels.

It will be opportunity to write, share and discuss poetry. So whether you're a budding novice or an established writer, come along and join poet, novelist and enthusiastic amateur gardener Tim Relf for this friendly session at the venue in Oadby.

You can find more details of the workshop here. 

Tim Relf's poetry has appeared in such titles as The Spectator, Acumen, Bad Lilies, The Rialto, Stand, The Frogmore Papers, Poetry Salzburg, Wild Court, One Hand Clapping, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Friday Poem and The Alchemy Spoon. He was runner up in the Prole Laureate Competition 2022 and the 2021 McLellan Poetry Prize; was longlisted in The Rialto Nature and Place competition 2023; and has had work in various anthologies. He's had three novels published – the most recent by Penguin, which has now been translated into 20 languages. 

You can read an interview with Tim Relf on Everybody's Reviewing here.