Works by
Roddy Lumsden
(Editor, Poet)
[1966 - ]

As Editor

• Anvil New Poets 3 (2001, UK, US), Hamish Ironside and Roddy Lumsden, eds.
  The Anvil New Poets series has built up a reputation for introducing ground-breaking work from the best new poets. The first two volumes featured the first work published in book form by poets such as Kate Clanchy, Colette Bryce, Alice Oswald, Richard Price and Mimi Khalvati. For the third in the series, Ironside and Lumsden present ten poets who look set to emulate the acclaim of their predecessors. Picked from the several hundred manuscripts considered over a period of over six months, these are the poets who will be producing the best new collections of the next ten years. This is your chance to read them now.

• The Message (1999), Roddy Lumsden and Stephen Trousse, eds.

Non-fiction

• Vitamin Q: A Temple of Trivia Lists and Curious Words (2004, UK, US)
  Based in part on the popular Web site of the same name, this diverse collection mixes quirky lists, intriguing facts, and playful reflections in a unique brew that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and utterly absorbing. Building on the success of Lumsden's Web site, the lists in the book have been revised and expanded to include even more curiosities from around the world. Inside, readers will learn the answers to such fascinating questions as - Who wrote "Ode on the Mammoth Cheese"? - What thirteen things do we inevitably discuss in bars? - What are the world's most disgusting foods? - Where do people speak Bile, Poke, or Mango? - What kind of creature is the bloody trivia? From interesting general trivia ("Thirteen unusual mammals you probably haven't heard of") to pop-culture lists ("The real names of 35 comic superheroes") to the odd and unusual ("Twenty-five cheeses beginning with L"), the range of information in Vitamin Q offers something for every word lover and trivia buff or anyone drawn to funny and obscure facts.

Poetry

• Super Try Again (2007, UK)

• Mischief Night: New & Selected Poems (2004, UK, US)

• Roddy Lumsden Is Dead (2003, UK, US)
  With his exuberant and otherworldly poems, Roddy Lumsden has quickly established himself among Britain's leading younger poets. In his third book, the filmic tour de force of the title sequence, by turns comic, tragic and fantastic, follows the twists in a maze of madness, love and self-deception, from Edinburgh to Stoke Newington via the Philippines. The collection's second half brings together newer work with some favourite pieces which show why Lumsden is such a popular reader on both the literary and performance circuits.

• The Book of Love (2000, UK, US)
  Roddy Lumsden's poems eavesdrop on a half urban, half surreal world of ladies, men and misfits, trying on roles and acting out fantasies.  His latest collection The Book of Love is a celebration of love in all its delightful perversity, whose characters include a randy actor, a vinegar addict and couples courting in the filing cupboard and covered with marmalade.  As voyeurs sneak into one poem, naturists streak across another and there is the inevitable lurking presence of the poet's own (rich but square) alter ego.  These snappy, witty poems leave tantalizing echoes and reverberations that make you want to read them again and again.

• Yeah Yeah Yeah (1997, UK, US)

• Elsewhere Perhaps Later (1995)
  Privately published.

Other

• The Reater , Number 3: Poems & Prose (2003, UK, US)