PJ Harvey will publish a new narrative poem, Orlam, via Picador Poetry in April 2022 in the UK. Six years in the making, the full-length work is composed in the Dorset dialect and set in a magical realist version of Harvey’s native West Country, the press release notes. (A page-by-page English translation is included in the book.) Check out the cover below.
The Scottish poet Don Paterson, who edited the book, said in the press release, “Orlam not only breaks new ground as a long poem—it brings an entire dialect back to life from the edge of its own extinction, and reminds us how radically the world is altered by how we speak of it.”
Harvey added: “Having spent six years working on Orlam with my friend, mentor and editor Don Paterson, I am very happy to publish this book of poetry with Picador. Picador feels absolutely the right home for it, and it’s an honour to be in the company of poets like Jacob Polley, Denise Riley and Carol Ann Duffy.”
A special edition illustrated by Harvey will arrive next October. Harvey released a poetry collection, The Hollow of the Hand, in 2015.
