WHY I WEAR MY PAST TO WORK
Chris Campbell
Poetry º 2025 º Parlyaree Press
93 pages º Paperback º Ebook
Chris Campbell's full-length poetry collection explores fatherhood and a male perspective of family life. The 48 poems cover universal themes including life's stages and struggles, with remorse and self-questioning, all while appreciating its joys. It is a book that touches on the past, its effect on the present, and the contrast between the idealised and reality of life as a dad with two young children alongside marriage, work, illness and urban life.
Written in Bristol, UK, the collection highlights the city's nature, current and historic family relationships, and the effect of an ear infection that led to a brain hemorrhage. It tackles the journey of recovery, identifying dark and light moments and an appreciation for the everyday.
ABOUT
Chris Campbell
Chris Campbell
Chris Campbell is a Dublin-born former journalist who works as an Editor in Bristol. Chris has two pamphlets published, plus a collection of poems, called ‘All Island No Sea’ (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). He was highly commended in the 2024 Cobh International Poetry Competition and shortlisted for Canterbury Poet of the Year 2023. He was previously a Guernsey International Poetry Competition 2022 'Poems on the Buses' winner, won Third Prize in the Shelley Memorial Prize Poetry Competition 2022 and won The Portico Library’s ‘Poetry Prize’ in 2021. His poems appear in publications including Magma, Prole, Ink Sweat & Tears, Black Bough Poetry, The Broken Spine, Steel Jackdaw, Indigo Dreams, Streetcake and The Waxed Lemon. He features on BBC Radio Bristol and has been a guest at Cheltenham Poetry Festival.
Pronouns: He/him
Social media: Insta: @bychriscampbell, Fbook: www.facebook.com/ChrisCampbellWriter, Bluesky: @citizen-chris.bsky.social, X: @Citizen_Chris