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Kostya was included in issue 2 of Fourteen Poems and his work really captured my imagination so I was really pleased to read this his debut collection.
The poems engage with his Greece identity and heritage and how being gay shaped his relationship with that identity, how they conflict yet also enrich each other.
I found Tribute of Children powerful, its historical setting able to speak about contemporary experiences of exile and return.
1981 is a subtle poem, it hints at what will come as AIDS engulfs gay men, but not yet – I find being born the year of the first recorded cases unsettling.
marble bf looks back to the world of ancient Greece, what were the understandings of male beauty, what were the understandings male desire for other male bodies, how does that inform our own experiences…
Overall this is a collection that more that lived up to my expectations – smart and creative, skilful and perfectly crafted.
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