Jay Bernard is a writer from London. She is primarily a poet - her first collection of poems is entitled Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl and was recently selected as the Poetry Book Society‘s pamphlet choice for summer 2008. Jay is the recipient of a Foyle’s Young Poet of the Year Award and has read her work on various radio and television shows including ‘The Verb’ and ‘The Culture Show’. Visit Jay Bernard‘s website for more information.

Radio ‘for the people’

Tthe contradictions that arose when Romanians fought their own governments in favour of the US are more apparent now, when America has shown its actions rarely are in the interests of the countries it invades.

Textured masculinity

Brian Cox’s performance as a hardened criminal, whose life is suddenly given meaning, is communicated through his impatience, his long, hard stares when being contradicted, his tactility and his frustration.

The youth that cannot forgive

The violence raises an important question: why is the present punishing the past? The boys’ actions seem mindless, unnecessary, unprovoked, until you realise that this is a segment of time – a particular emotion that has been zoomed in on until the point of distortion.

Trading places

Evaristo’s book is funny, and she avoids the fallacious trap of equating suffering with moral authority.

Thermal mass housing

A welcome breath of fresh air in a climate that collocates any discussion about alternative approaches to the environment with pointless schemes such as ‘offsetting’ your carbon footprint.

Gift Songs

Burnside strives to depict the meaning of words, rather than their physical reference. This yearning to define the indefinite - like art, like religion - is both cause and consolation for a puzzling existence.