We Look Like This

Burt Dan

"We Look Like This" anatomizes how history, violence, power, lust and mortality work on us. Burt's formal, muscular language evokes a world of war, want, cruelty and hope, as well as childhood among "tough Jews" in Philadelphia, dominated by his father Joe, son of Ukrainian immigrants, butcher, boxer and, late in life, coastal fisherman. Joe's last world, Barnegat inlet and the sea off the New Jersey coast, are counterpoint to and salvation from hard streets for father and son.

About the Author

Dan Burt was born in South Philadelphia in 1942. He attended state schools and a local Catholic college before reading English at St John's College, Cambridge. After graduating from Yale Law School he practised law in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain before moving to London in 1994 and becoming a British citizen. He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College and lives and writes in London and Cambridge. His poetry publications include the pamphlets "Searched For Text" (2008) and "Certain Windows" (2011), and "Cold Eye", a collaboration with the artist Paul Hodgson (2010), all published by Carcanet Press in the Lintott Press imprint. His poetry was included in "Carcanet's New Poetries V" anthology and has been published in periodicals including the "TLS", "Poetry Review", "The New Statesman", "Financial Times" and "PN Review".

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