Picador signs 'exceptional' poetry collection from Giles

Picador has signed Deep Wheel Orcadia, an “exceptional” poetry collection from Harry Josephine Giles.

Poetry editor Don Paterson acquired world rights direct from the author, for publication in autumn 2021 in trade paperback.

The synopsis states: “The collection is, effortlessly, a first: a science-fiction verse novel written in the Orcadian dialect of Scots. It comes with a delightfully readable and witty English translation that allows us to get up close and intimate with a tongue very unfamiliar to most of us: as a result, we not only have the sense of immersion in a new landscape and community, but of learning a new language as we go.

"The rich and large cast of Deep Wheel Orcadia weave a compelling tale around themes of place and belonging, work and economy, generation and gender politics, love and desire—all with the lightness of touch, fluency and musicality one might expect of one the most naturally talented poets to have emerged from Scotland in recent years.”

Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney, living in Edinburgh. Their 2015 collection Tonguit (Stewed Rhubarb) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and 2018 volume The Games (Out-Spoken Press) for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and Saltire Prize for Best Collection.

Paterson said: “We’re delighted not only to have acquired a fiercely original and genuinely groundbreaking book, but to have recruited such an exciting young writer to the Picador stable: Harry Josephine Giles is one of the most verbally adept, entertaining and intellectually uncompromising voices to have emerged from Scotland in recent years. We’re very proud to be their publisher, and excited to see where their work goes next.”

Giles added: "Orcadian is the language I grew up with, and it’s important to me to be part of the big, imaginative project of keeping small languages alive and thriving. I started work on this book in 2014, and it’s had so much support and interest along the way, from my island home and internationally. That makes me very excited about the interest in minority language work right now, and about being in a community of writers pushing at what poetry and language and stories can do. Now I’ve written a future in which the language goes into space and further, and it’ll be great to bring other people along on that voyage.”