In this interview we talk to Andrew McMillan about his poetry, his recent anthology with Mary Jean Chan (‘100 Queer Poems’), as well as his debut novel, ‘Pity’.

Andrew McMillan was born in Barnsley in 1988. His debut collection of poetry, ‘physical’, was ‘the sort of once-in-a-generation debut that causes us to sit up and take notice’ according to Sarah Crown. physical was the only poetry book to ever win the Guardian First Book Award; it was also awarded a Somerset Maugham award, an Eric Gregory Award, the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and in 2019 was voted as one of the Top 25 Poetry Books of the Past 25 Years by the Booksellers Association. His second collection, ‘playtime’, won the inaugural Polari Prize. A third collection, ‘pandemonium’, was published in 2021 and in 2022 he co-edited the acclaimed anthology ‘100 Queer Poems’, which was shortlisted in the British Book Awards. He is professor of contemporary writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Be sure to explore our collection, Speak its name, too. ‘Speak its name’ is a collection of contemporary and twentieth-century voices by queer poets and poems with queer themes through a transhistorical and archival lens. This collection celebrates the work of contemporary LGBTQIA+ poets and the voices that paved the way for them, irrespective of whether the identities of the twentieth century poets it includes was public knowledge, presumed, or speculated upon.

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