The Wall Game

An original collection of poems confronting desire, aging, and despair inspired, in part, by an infamous schoolyard 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.