Poetry Book Launch: Volatile by Tom Branfoot, with Geraldine Monk & Adam Piette

Northern poet Tom Branfoot launches Volatile, his debut poetry collection in Sheffield's La Biblioteka Bookshop on Friday 20 November.

He will be joined by guest readers Geraldine Monk and Adam Piette.

Free entry, just turn up!

Tom Branfoot is poet in residence at Manchester Cathedral. Volatile won a Northern Writers' Award and features "A Parliament of Jets," which was shortlisted for a Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

Volatile explores nature during a time of political crisis, drawing its title from the Middle English use of 'volatile' to name birds and other winged creatures. Pulling apart what it means to dwell, habitat loss appears synonymous with eviction, and birds become fellow travellers in our precarious present.

These complex, formally daring poems are concerned with the entanglements between personhood, global catastrophes, and ecosystems. These poems swoop between the unpredictable relationship between a son and their alcoholic parent, fighter jets soaring over the Lake District, and the mercurial rustle between memory and truth when childhood is stored in waterlogged pastures.