Pain Songs

Pain Songs, Daniel Sluman’s fourth poetry collection, is written through the writer’s experience of chronic pain, examining the ways the body and the world interact and intersect. Reflecting on love, family and relationships, the poems explore intimacy, fertility, pregnancy, and what the repercussions are of living inside a body that feels like ‘an alarm that rings and rings’. Pain Songs, Daniel Sluman’s fourth poetry collection, is written through the personal experience of chronic pain, examining the ways the body and the world interact and intersect. Tender and often sensual, we encounter the internal weather systems and shifting states of the bodily self, challenging conventional ideas of wellness and illness. Reflecting on love, family, and relationships, the poems explore intimacy, fertility, pregnancy, and what the repercussions are of living inside a body that feels like ‘an alarm that rings and rings’. Sluman’s poetry, with its immense lyric clarity, brings the human song of the self alive by witnessing its pains and pleasures intimately. Forward Prize for Best Collection longlist, 2026 PEN Heaney Prize shortlist 2026