John Burnside, who died in May 2024 at age 69, was an extraordinarily prolific writer. He published nearly a book a year across a career that included 17 poetry collections, novels, and memoirs revealing his troubled early life. His final work, The Empire of Forgetting, contains 19 carefully crafted poems focused on mortality, reflecting a deeper engagement with his own impending death. Burnside's poetry has always been shadowed by themes of death, but this collection confronts those issues with a new intensity and clarity, marking it as one of his finest contributions to literature.
Burnside's final poetry collection, The Empire of Forgetting, consists of 19 poems that reflect a coherent exploration of mortality, making it one of his finest works.
Burnside published almost a book a year throughout his career, producing 17 poetry collections, several novels, and three memoirs that detail his early life struggles.
Reading Burnside's poetry evokes a sense of clarity and expansion, offering readers a glimpse into deeper aspects of existence and mortality.
His last collection serves as a profound grappling with death, focusing on personal mortality rather than general themes of loss and decay.
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