The Wall Game

The Wall Game is a new selection of work by Greek-British poet Fani Papageorgiou, a writer known for her intense, enigmatic, and arresting poetic voice. The collection includes poems from Papageorgiou’s last three book-length works as well as a new poetic sequence, “The Wall Game.”

The title of the new poem comes from a barbaric little game played by students at Eton, notable for the rigidity of its rules, the ferocity of its play, and the fact that almost no one ever wins or—across decades—even scores. In Papageorgiou’s poems, this maddening, elliptical game serves as the metaphor for a similarly elliptical meditation on desire, despair, and aging. Taken together, this collection of new and older work constitutes a poetic autobiography of sorts reminiscent of the work of Lorine Niedecker, Fanny Howe, and Anne Carson.