Sam Riviere was born in Norwich, UK, in 1981. In 2010 his poems appeared in Faber New Poets 7, his first poetry collection 81 Austerities (Faber & Faber), which won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, came out in 2012. He is also the author of the poetry collections Standard Twin Fantasy and Kim Kardashian’s Marriage.
He studied at the Norwich School of Art and Design, and holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. Currently he runs the poetry micropublisher If a Leaf Falls Press, and is Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh. He received an Eric Gregory award in 2009.
I know what you're thinking
it's dull unless they're sex dreams
dreams about violent murders
mine are pretty banal
...
she looks out of her
photos let's call her emma
with a mute appeal that might
mean something like 'whenever
...
there is no purer form of advertising
than writing a poem
that's what the monk told me
if I were a conceptual artist
...
Today I stand before you
uncertain of my guilt
of what I am accused
or should say sorry for
...
hi i should like to have the answers
to shall we say certain questions
and to wake up certain of directions
and a levelness of breathing and
...