Living by Troubled Waters

Living by Troubled Waters is the third poetry collection by Roy McFarlane – an extraordinary, uncompromising book exploring slavery, colonialism, and the continued tragedies visited upon Black bodies whilst these legacies remain unresolved. In his close examination of the horror of racialised violence, McFarlane examines how the strong currents of the past and present flow side by side. His poems ask us to think about the Black Mediterranean of today as much as we do about the Windrush scandal and the aftershocks of trans-Atlantic slavery, where Black people are still imprisoned, enslaved and drowned as they flee persecution and poverty.
Living by Troubled Waters is innovative, formally experimental and far ranging in scope; erasure & inclusion (to make known) poems interweave and speak to the wider body of the collection. In his use of archival documents as a space for activism and linguistic intervention, McFarlane writes back into history, reclaiming voices and reshaping narratives. His poems also draw strength from themes of place and displacement, social justice, Black motherhood, family, art - and from the power of poetry itself as a witness to troubled times.

Roy McFarlane is a Poet, Writer and former Youth & Community Worker born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage, spending most of his years in Wolverhampton and the Black Country and now living in Brighton. Roy is the former Birmingham Poet Laureate and National Canal Laureate and is the co-editor of Celebrate Wha? Ten Black British Poets from the Midlands (Smokestack). He has three collections published by Nine Arches Press: Beginning With Your Last Breath and The Healing Next Time (shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize). Roy is also currently touring with Take Flight a performance collaboration of words, jazz, gospel and blues which is heavily influenced by his third collection, Living by Troubled Waters (Nine Arches Press 2022). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Wolverhampton. Roy continues to perform nationally, sharing his passion for social justice, equality, identity, love and the healing power of poetry as a witness to our times.