Brat Generator (Charli XCX and Atlantic Records 2025).

On Wednesday the 12th of February, I attended the first Topping & Company Poetry Reading Group of 2025. If you are living in Edinburgh, below are 5 reasons why you should consider joining this group.

  1. Discover new collections of poems

Peter Gizzi’s collection Fierce Elegy, the recent winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, was the focal point of this first event. This was my first introduction to Gizzi and despite winning the T.S. Eliot Prize, I would never have considered picking up this collection. The Reading Group is a great way to push the boundaries of your reading lists. The poem I’m Good to Ghost has quickly become one of my favourites – I was taken by the following lines:

Where do you go

when I don’t see you?

Or who am I when

You’re not around?

Fierce Elegy Book Cover (Murphy 2025).
  1. Meet new people

The Poetry Reading Group is a great opportunity to meet new people with a common interest (namely reading poetry). Although a reader and writer of poetry myself, with work published in established Irish literary journals and a Creative Writing degree under my belt, I was still anxious that I wasn’t “poetic” enough for the Reading Group. To put it bluntly, I was scared I would not be as knowledgeable about poetry as the other attendees.

However, after brief introductions from everyone in the room, it became obvious what a melting pot of poetic interests were in attendance at the event. While one attendee had a PhD in English literature, the next admitted to never having read a full collection of poetry. Despite such a range of experience with poetry, everyone was incredibly welcoming and friendly. To have such a range of personal and poetic backgrounds greatly added to the discussions on Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy and the overall merits of the event.

Zain, who (wonderfully) led the event, ensured that the space was an inclusive and safe one for everyone involved.

  1. Support your local bookseller

By attending the Topping & Company Poetry Reading Group, you are supporting independent UK booksellers. Tickets are £5 and fully redeemable against any book on sale on the night (so it is also a great excuse to add new books to your bookshelves!).

Reading Group Table (Murphy 2025).
  1. Deepen your understanding of poetry and engage in interesting discussions

At the February event, discussions stemmed from Gizzi’s use of the word “thou” in his poetry. The following excerpt is taken from the opening poem Findspot Unknown.

I get it, it was good to leave the world,

to find myself in thou.

Was the use of “thou” pretentious or did the use of “thou” slot neatly into the collection’s overall connection with elegies and with death? Attending this event, one can see the unique approaches people take in understanding poetry.

The discussions at the event are extremely contemporary. Topping & Company’s Reading Group is quite possibly the only Reading Group to liken Peter Gizzi to Chappell Roan. I was even persuaded of the similarities between Charli XCX’s song Everything is romantic and Peter Gizzi’s poem Romanticism!

  1. Free wine

Free wine, free crisps, free tea – need I say any more?

The perfect evening out in Edinburgh: Topping & Company’s Reading Group, wine, Charli XCX and, most importantly, poems.

Bibliography and Further Reading

El-Moudden, Y. 2025. ‘Transcendental beauty’ of Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy wins him TS Eliot poetry prize. The Bookseller. [Online] 13 January 2025. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/13/transcendental-beauty-of-peter-gizzis-fierce-elegy-wins-him-ts-eliot-poetry-prize [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Frears, E. 2024. Goodlord – An Email. Rough Trade Books.

Gizzi, P. 2024. Fierce Elegy. Penguin.

Poetry Foundation. 2025. Peter Gizzi. [Online] Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/peter-gizzi [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Topping & Company Booksellers. 2025. Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi. [Online] Available at: https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/books/peter-gizzi/fierce-elegy/9781802065244/ [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Topping & Company Booksellers. 2025. Poetry Reading Group. [Online] Available at: https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinburgh/poetry-reading-group-2025-2/ [Accessed 10 February 2025].

T. S. Eliot Prize. 2025. Peter Gizzi Wins Eliot Prize with Collection of ‘Transcendental Beauty’. T.S. Eliot Prize. [Online] 13 January 2025. Available at: https://tseliot.com/prize/peter-gizzi-wins-eliot-prize-with-collection-of-transcendental-beauty/ [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Snow, M. 2025. Peter Gizzi wins TS Eliot Prize with collection of ‘transcendental beauty’. The Bookseller. [Online] 13 January 2025. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/peter-gizzi-wins-ts-eliot-prize-with-collection-of-transcendental-beauty [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Images

Charli XCX and Atlantic Records. 2025. Brat Generator. Image Generator. Available at: https://www.bratgenerator.com/ [Accessed 13 February 2025].

Murphy, H. 2025. Fierce Elegy Book Cover. Photograph.

Murphy, H. 2025. Reading Group Table. Photograph.