In the acclaimed poet's first collection since 2013, Calypsonian renderings of the sonnet bubble with febrile lyricism, musicality, and breathtaking emotional depth

**WINNER OF THE T S ELIOT PRIZE FOR POETRY 2022** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR POETRY 2022** **LONGLISTED FOR THE OCM BOCAS PRIZE 2023** With Sonnets for Albert, Anthony Joseph returns to the autobiographical material explored in his earlier collection Bird Head Son. In this follow-up, he weighs the impact of being the son of an absent, or mostly absent, father, Though these poems threaten to break under the weight of their emotions, they are always masterfully poised as the stylish man they depict.

"After much silence and absence in life, the poet’s father is painstakingly restored in death in a book-length “calypso sonnet” sequence ... Sonnets for Albert movingly makes peace with his shade" - Guardian