Kirsten Irving is a Lincolnshire-born, London-based poet and voiceover, and one half of the team behind collaborative press Sidekick Books. Her work has been published by Salt and Happenstance, widely anthologised and thrown out of a helicopter. She has won the Live Canon International Poetry Prize, judged competitions, and taught courses on folklore in poetry. Her second full collection, Hot Cockalorum, is out now from Guillemot Press. Kirsten works in a library, writes about toys, and is planning her woodland burial.
Based on the KÅshun Takami novel Battle Royale and the cult 2000 movie adaptation by Kinji Fukasaku, RUN is a series of short poetry portraits, written and voiced by Kirsten Irving and brought to life by animator Noriko Ishibe.
‘Laura’ in Clinic II
‘To a Crashed Pilot’ in Rising (April 2011)
‘No Matter’ in ,em>Stop Sharpening Your Knives 4 (Eggbox Publishing, 2011)
‘Sweet Death 500’ in Polarity, June 2010
Two poems in Dwang (Tangerine Press, 2009)
‘Quim is a Nice Word’ in Stop Sharpening Your Knives 3 (Eggbox Publishing, 2009)
‘What’s Up?’ in Rising 49 (February 2009)
Two poems in Shakespeare’s Monkey Revue (October 2008&rpar
‘Three reasons to love Teedie Roosevelt’ in Rising 47 (September 2008)
Three poems in Mimesis 2 (August 2007)
Two poems in The New Writer 81 (March/April 2007)
&lsquoPreservativ’ in Magma (Winter 2005)
The Lincoln Imp's Birthday, created in collaboration with BBC Radio Lincolnshire as part of #BBCLocalPoets, a celebration of local culture across the UK for National Poetry Day 2018.
Birdbook; Saltwater and Shore edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2016
The fourth and final volume of Sidekick’s wildly ambitious Birdbook series. New illustrations and poems documenting over 40 British species, including the razorbill, the avocet, the puffin, the peregrine and the oystercatcher. More information
Birdbook; Farmland, Heathland, Mountain & Moorland edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2015
The third volume in Sidekick’s Birdbook anthology series, featuring over 40 species celebrated in poem and visual art, including the barn owl, the swallow, most of the corvid family, the quail and the ptarmigan. More information
Birdbook; Freshwater Habitats edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2012
Rivers, lakes, marshes and reservoirs make up the backdrop to the second Birdbook anthology, with poems and illustrations celebrating over 40 species, including the osprey, the grey heron, the sand martin, the smew, the pintail and the egyptian goose. More information
Birdbook; Towns, Parks, Gardens & Woodland edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2011
The first volume in Sidekick’s four-part illustrated poetry ornothopedia, now in its second printing. Over 40 species of bird celebrated in contemporary poem and illustration, including the swift, the sparrowhawk, the nightingale and all the beloved garden birds you can rattle a feeder at. More information
Lives Beyond Us; Poems and Essays on the Film Reality of Animals edited by Kirsten Irving & Sebastian Manley Sidekick Books, 2015
Pouncing, playing or mugging for the camera, animals are Hollywood’s unspoken stars. In this genre-bending volume of poetry and essays, co-edited with film scholar Sebastian Manley, we celebrate these non-human actors. More information
Coin Opera II; Fulminare’s Revenge edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2013
The sequel to Sidekick’s first ever micro-anthology, Coin Opera, Coin Opera II: Fulminare’s Revenge is the bigger, brasher, more hotfoiled upgrade; a clickable love letter to the video game. Formal experiments mimic and subvert trope and genre, as Sidekick dives into the treasure chest of gaming. Expect fight poems, boss poems, team-ups and more. Features a foreword by Marvel writer and former NGamer journalist Kieron Gillen. More information
Korsakoff’s Paper Chain edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2010
False memory, or Korsakoff’s Syndrome, leads subjects to fill in the blanks of events they never experienced. In this pocket study, poets reconstruct a doomed text from fire, acid and the ministrations of a slow loris. With each iteration, the text takes on new life, and rapidly forgets its old one. More information
Pocket Spellbook edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2010
We’ve all been there. Out and about, you suddenly need to conjure an orchard, or transform one dog into one cat. If only you had a pocket tome to advise you on the best charm. Worry no longer! Dr Fulminare proudly presents Pocket Spellbook, a portable grimoire for all your magick needs! More information
Obakarama edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2009
Here, in their long-necked, cloud-dwelling glory, lurk the myths of old Edo and modern Tokyo. Scamper past the river, seek the ghost dog of Chikugo Fields, and watch out for that wind-twitching scarf…. More information
Coin Opera edited by Kirsten Irving & Jon Stone Sidekick Books, 2009 [NOW SOLD OUT]
The first ever Sidekick Books release was a micro-anthology of short poems inspired by computer games, from Bride of Pinbot to Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders to Street Fighter II, Paradroid to Portal. More information
