Jacob Sam-La Rose’s poetry has been described as “fresh, vivid and masterly” (Poetry Book Society), “pensive and carefully structured” (Lauri Ramey, Director of the Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, Los Angeles) and “wonderfully ironic” (Stephen Waling, The State of British Poetry). His work is grounded in a belief that poetry can be a powerful force within a community, and that it is possible to combine the immediacy of poetry in performance with the rigor of poetry rendered for the page.
His poetry has been published in Identity Parade – New British & Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), Penguin’s Poems For Love (Penguin), I Have Found A Song (Enitharmon Press), Red (Peepal Tree), Learn Then Burn: The Ultimate Poetry Guide for the High School or College Classroom (Write Bloody) and Michael Rosen’s A-Z: The Best Children’s Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah (Puffin), among other anthologies and journals.
Jacob’s pamphlet ‘Communion‘ was a Poetry Book Society selection in 2006. His new collection ‘Breaking Silence’ was published through Bloodaxe in Autumn, 2011. It is available to purchase from InPress or Amazon.
What They Say
Poetry that is… fresh, vivid and masterly in its evocation of contemporary Britain
–Poetry Book Society selector for the Pamphlet Choice award, 2006 (referring to ‘Communion’)
…Jacob Sam-La Rose, whose wonderfully ironic ‘How to be Black’ is one of the many highlights of this collection
–Stephen Waling @ Brandoshat
I thoroughly admired this thoughtful, pensive and carefully structured collection, where the finest poems quietly but firmly capture relationships in all of their tenuousness, tenderness, disappointments and promise.
–Professor Lauri Ramey (referring to ‘Communion’)
Director, Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, CSU, Los Angeles
The highlight though, for me, was Jacob Sam-La Rose’s final piece. He took us through the journey from poet foisted on reluctant teenagers in a school classroom … To hear it, framed in such perfect language, and given back to me from the stage, was a really powerful experience. Thank you, Jacob.
-Sarah Butler on the final performance of spoken word tour Speechless at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Poetry International 2008 Blog
A one-man literary industry… Passionate about poetry and its power to change people’s lives, he’s a lesson to us all. He’s also a damn fine writer.
-Patrick Neate, writing for the Spoken Word column of the website for the BBC’s poetry season