Staying Human

Staying Human is the latest addition to Bloodaxe's bestselling Staying Alive series of world poetry anthologies. The first title in the series, Staying Alive (2002) has sold 253K copies worldwide, including 50K copies of an American edition (2003) licensed to Miramax (9781401359263), launched in New York by Meryl Streep and others at a gala event at the Cooper Union in New York, which became a set text at many US colleges. The second and third titles in the series were Being Alive (2004), which has sold 55K copies, mainly in the UK and Europe, and Being Human (2011), 25K copies, mainly in the UK and Europe. Staying Human is the first title in the series to be published in the US since Miramax's US edition of Staying Alive ("real poems for unreal times") in 2003. Anthologies in the Staying Alive series have been endorsed by leading writers and other cultural figures including Meryl Streep, Van Morrison, John Berger, Edmund White, Helen Dunmore, Mia Farrow, Jane Campion, Anne Michaels, Ellie Goulding, Philip Pullman, Kamila Shamsie and Beth Orton. "This is the one poetry book you need to buy this year." - O The Oprah Magazine on the Miramax edition of Staying Alive. This fourth Bloodaxe world poetry anthology offers poetry lovers an even broader, international selection of 500 more "real poems for unreal times". There's a strong focus on the human side of living in the 21st century in poems from the past two decades relating to migration, oppression, alienation and the individual's struggle to hold on. Staying Human also draws on poems suggested by readers because they've been so important in their own lives, as well as many poems which have gone viral after being shared on social media because they speak to our times with such great immediacy. Late additions have brought it right up to date with the inclusion of some amazing poems written in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The poems are by writers from around the world but principally from the UK, US, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. Bloodaxe's promotion will have a strong social media component. Galleys (and e-galleys via Edelweiss) available 4-6 months in advance of publication.