John McCullough

My poetry focuses in particular on mental health, loss, the body, queer politics, queer history and Brighton as a centre for unique LGBT+ subcultures. I have written three collections. The Frost Fairs (Salt, 2011) won the Polari First Book Prize and was a Book of the Year for The Independent and a summer read for The Observer. My second, Spacecraft (Penned in the Margins, 2016) was shortlisted for the Ledbury-Forte prize and was a summer read for The Guardian. My third collection, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins, 2019) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award and won the 2020 Hawthornden Prize for Literature for overall UK book of the year. Panic Response (Penned in the Margins, 2022) contains the long poem 'Flower of Sulphur', an experimental piece which engages with Renaissance friendship and Cicero and was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. It was a notable poetry book of 2022 for The Times.