Yellow Studio

Romer Stephen

"Yellow Studio", Stephen Romer's fourth collection of poems, returns to the erotic intensities of "Tribute" (1998), counterpointed by the rueful satire that comes with age and a disbelief at having reached 'mid-life'. In this many-angled book the poet continues to meditate on home and exile, and on home-in-exile – the trauma of removal and the unsought joys of re-settlement. At its heart is the yellow studio, the perennial, private place of art and its creation, linked here to childhood memory. The book's final section is made up of poems to the poet's father, a sequence whose austerity and restraint are the means towards the encounter.

About the Author

Stephen Romer has been Maitre de conferences at the University of Tours since 1991. His anthology "20th Century French Poems" was published by Faber in 2002. The latest of his four collections of poetry, Yellow Studio, was published by Carcanet in 2008.

Reviews

"If Tribute is haunted by aphasia, exile and the loss of continuity, those fears are shadows that give body to the essences more insistently dwelt upon, and these are apprehended with a depth of spiritual resource that is almost mystical" – Clive Wilmer on Tribute, in Times Literary Supplement

"Stephen Romer has achieved a breakthrough in these new poems. The death of his father has torn away a veil, releasing a fresh energy and vision" – Hugo Williams

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