A WRITER who left South East Cornwall for the bustle of New York City has just published a new volume of poetry.

Before emigrating to the US, Billy Cancel went to Looe Primary School and played cricket for Looe, contributing reports to The Cornish Times.

Now Billy is a New York-based poet and performance artist and his new book, Mock Trough Rasping Crow, was published last year.

American critic Todd Colby said: ‘He is our era’s John Donne, doused with the spittle of Mark E. Smith, while he dances to Captain Beefheart. Cancel’s poems are rich and sophisticated, blending the guttural and surreal with a delicacy that knocks me out every time I read him or see him perform.’

And the book was named among the favourite poetry collections of 2017 on the website Literary Hub.

Billy’s poetry has appeared in Boston Review, PEN America, Bombay Gin and Westwind Review.

He said: ‘I regularly perform my work in the US and am looking to promote it in Cornwall when I return to visit later in the year.’

Billy lives in Brooklyn with his wife Thursday Fernworthy and together they perform as the noise-poetry duo Tidal Channel.

His new work, published by BlazeVox Books, features 64 poems ‘all tightly-packed into a spasmodic convoy which blends the guttural and the surreal while moving erratically through an ancient /post-industrial / digital landscape.’

You can find out more at www.billycancelpoetry.com