Death Magazine

Matthew Haigh’s Death Magazine (Salt, 2019) is an accomplished debut full length collection that succeeds in capturing the tumultuous experience of online scrolling while tackling contemporary social issues and demonstrating an uncanny mastery of form.

-- Teo Eve * Nottingham Poetry Exchange *

These poems are beyond mesmerising. With themes of pop culture, sci-fi and our never-ending greed to consume, there is a lot to indulge in here. Haigh has not only picked up that dusty neglected snow globe sitting on the fire place and given it a shake. He has smashed it to pieces, emptied out all the glitter, handcrafted figures and fake snow before constructing a new, more accurate version of our world. And my word dear reader, will it leave you lost for words…

* Bunny’s Pause *

I read most of these poems several times, many out loud too, and they are certainly thought-provoking. They can be whip-smart, parodic or just laugh out loud funny but, equally, they can be touching, showing a vulnerability in their hearts. The cut-up technique exploits perfectly the lack of concentration that is becoming endemic in our Insta-soundbite-world, yet look beyond that and there is profundity to be found. Death Magazine is not only a bold statement, this book is terribly cool! (If I were John Thompson in The Fast Show’s ‘Jazz Club’ – I’d say ‘Nice. Grrreat.’)

* Annabookbel *

This collection offers an exploration of the consciousness, absurdity, oddness and complexities experienced as a modern man, and, a modern human. Some of the images and juxtapositions had me laughing, while others were so perceptive, they triggered knowingness or sadness. I hugely recommend it!

-- Nikki Dudley

Haigh’s use of cut-up reaches heights of comic absurdity in ‘Interview with a New Father’, juxtaposing the bland soundbites attached to the idea of ideal fatherhood with the rawness of human vulnerability. Death Magazine pushes back against the lie peddled by the lifestyle industry that with the right diet, fitness regime and skincare routine, death can somehow be evaded. These blackly humorous poems give an incisive yet touching look at what it means to be human in a post-human age.

* Book, Bell & Cand