BOOKS
THE RED AND YELLOW NOTHING
POETRY
Jay Bernard
BFI Flare film fest programmer, poet, artist, DIVA columnist and all-round queer-about-town, Jay Bernard continually defies all expectations. Following her 2013 collection, English Breakfast, Jay turns her phenomenal intelligence and boundary-defying imagination to the tale of Sir Morien, son of Agloval, knight of the round table. Taking inspiration from a 1901 translation of a Middle Dutch poem, Bernard constructs a prequel to the story of Morien, a “Moor” come to Europe in search of his father. Taking an irreverent approach to issues of race, gender and literary history, Bernard turns the story of a little-known medieval knight into a fresh, witty and exciting quest for identity, in an imagined medieval world that is equal parts strange and familiar. The poem is interspersed with gorgeous, richly textured images.