Joey Connolly is a poet, essayist and critic, currently writing about the intersections of technology and AI, literature, ecology and the human. His first collection of poems, Long Pass (a Poetry School book of the year), was published by Carcanet in 2017, and was followed by The Recycling (a Telegraph poetry book of the year) in May 2023. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2012. He grew up in Sheffield and currently lives in Belfast.
Books
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Long Pass (Carcanet)
“Connolly’s is sophisticated poésie, for sure, but also contains something of what the Shangri-Las called ‘Sophisticated Boom Boom’. This is a serious attempt to write philosophy as poetry, to render complex arguments about nominalism and epistemology in verse without losing sensuality’s boom boom.”
— Will Harris -
The Recycling (Carcanet)
“A kaleidoscopically varied, endlessly ambitious collection… Connolly’s innovative, surprising language walks the high wire between joy, terror and collapse. This is a thrilling, tender, extraordinary book.”
— Rebecca Tamás
Essays and reviews
2026
- The Hills are Alive (with the Sound of Screaming), London Magazine, October
- On the Uncleanness of Poetic Pleasure, Poetry London, September
- Metrics: Machine Tooling a New Human Poetry, North Sea Poets Substack, May
2025
- Slippage, Pitch and Bark (conversation with Brenda Hillman reviewing Susan McCabe and Hal Coase), Poetry Review, September
- Syzygy, or, How to Talk to Your Dog About the Fall of Constantinople and the Liz Truss Economic Event, London Magazine, January
2024
- Notes on Comp, Poetry Review, November
- A Pretext for Desire, Poetry London, June
- Todo, PN Review, May
2023
- Review: Sarah Wimbush & Mark Pajak, PN Review, July
- Against Nature Poetry, PN Review Blog, May
2021
- Review: Arundhathi Subramanian, Robin Robertson, W.N. Herbert, PN Review, May
2020
- On ‘The Ocean’ by Isabel Galleymore, Blog, December
- The Benefit of the Doubt, Poetry London, January
2018
- Fuck Lyric, Poetry School Blog, August
- Review: Adam O’Riordan, Matthew Olzmann, Miriam Nash, PN Review, May
- Review: ‘Insistence’ by Ailbhe Darcy, Poetry School Blog
2017
- Review: Katherine Gallagher & Siobhán Campbell, PN Review, September
- on ‘Lines starting with La Rochefoucauld’ by Denise Riley, WordPress, February
- On Honeycomb, Prac Crit, January
2016
- Review: Jane Hirshfield, Sean Borodale & Paul Durcan, PN Review, September
- on ‘Eagle Eating a Flamingo’ by Amali Rodrigo, WordPress, June
- Review: Nelson & Hitchens, Cameron and Crewe & O’Loughlin, Poetry Wales, April
- Spreadsheet Politics, WordPress, April
- Rebuttal: Tom Bamford, Cryptozoology, WordPress, February
2015
- A (Brief, Highly Subjective) Introduction to Kei Miller, Wild Court, November
- The Poet, the Pug and the Train Tracks, Faber Academy Blog, January
2014
- Review: Sheenagh Pugh, Short Days, Long Shadows, Poetry Wales, December
- Progress and Form in Dear World & Everyone In It and New British Poetry, Oxford Poetry, December
- Review: Mir Mahfuz Ali, Midnight, Dhaka, Poetry Wales, September
- The Glittering Prizes, Poetry Review, July
- Review: Lawrence Sail, Peter Hughes, J. O. Morgan & Brendan Kennelly, PN Review, July
- Review: Rachel Boast, David Morley & Helen Mort, The Poetry Review, January
2013
- Review: Nick Laird, David Harsent and Derek Mahon, PN Review, November
- Review: Jorie Graham, The Taken-Down God, The Warwick Review, September
2012
- Review: John Peck, Contradance, PN Review, July
- Review: Michael Mackmin, from there to here, Zagmuk Blog, April
- Review: Ailbhe Darcy, Imaginary Menagerie, Zagmuk Blog, March
2011
- Review: Arthur Rimbaud / John Ashbery (translator), Illuminations, Kaffeeklatsch, December
- Review: Ian Pople, Saving Spaces, PN Review, November
- Review: Robert Hass, The Apple Trees at Olema, PN Review, September
- Review: Tom Warner, Faber New Poets 8, Kaffeeklatsch, May