Lorcán Black’s brilliant Seren debut, Strange Husbandry - a nominee for the 2024 Forward Prize - contrasts modern-day stories of queer passion with older stories from myth and history. The title references not just husbandry in farming of crops and animals, but a more personal rendering of the word, calling on the etymology of the word, meaning to manage carefully. Strange Husbandry is rooted in the city of London during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of war in Ukraine, and it is a strange moment in the metropolis characterized by lockdown, missing persons and terror attacks. Black’s world is indeed a place where care is needed, and the quality of care in these poems means acknowledging the pain and precariousness that exist in both personal stories and external conflicts.
