‘Truly startling and powerful poems’ – Mia Farrow

‘These poems distil the human heart as nothing else… Staying Alive celebrates the point of poetry. It’s invigorating and makes me proud of being human’ – Jane Campion

‘Staying Alive is a magnificent anthology. The last time I was so excited, engaged and enthralled by a collection of poems was when I first encountered The Rattle Bag. I can’t think of any other anthology that casts its net so widely, or one that has introduced me to so many vivid and memorable poems’ – Philip Pullman

‘…this generous, compendious transatlantic volume is still the one [anthology] I most often recommend.’ – Kate Clanchy, The Week, 29 September 2020 (Best books feature), recommending Staying Alive

‘This celebrated collection …seems appropriate to the moment, an international anthology of 500 poems wrestling with the vicissitudes of human existence. It is not some feelgood froth of life-enhancing affirmations. These poems are carved out of daily struggles, embrace darkness as well as light, and have the metal taste of blood in their mouths. But in their vividness and empathy, they serve as reminders that we are not alone.’ - Neil McCormick, The Telegraph, best books to read during lockdown (on Staying Alive)

‘Staying Alive is a blessing of a book. The title says it all. I have long waited for just this kind of setting down of poems - and the way they work together is wonderful - all come together to talk at the same table. Has there ever been such a passionate anthology? These are poems that hunt you down with the solace of their recognition' – Anne Michaels

‘Staying Alive is a book which leaves those who have read or heard a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive’ – John Berger

‘Usually if you say a book is “inspirational” that means it’s New Agey and soft at the center. This astonishingly rich anthology, by contrast, shows that what is edgy, authentic and provocative can also awaken the spirit and make its readers quick with consciousness. In these pages I discovered many new writers, and I’ve decided I’m now in love with our troublesome epoch if it can produce poems of such genius’ – Edmund White

‘A vibrant, brilliantly diverse anthology of poems to delight the mind, heart and soul. A book for people who know they love poetry, and for people who think they don’t’ – Helen Dunmore

'Staying Alive is a wonderful testament to Neil Astley's liftetime in poetry, and to the range and courage of his taste. It's also, of course, a testament to poetry itself: to its powers to engross and move us, to its ability to challenge and brace us, and to its exultation. Everyone who cares about poetry should own this book.' - Andrew Motion

‘When you choose your book for Desert Island Discs, this should be it. Staying Alive proves that poetry is the most sustaining and life-affirming of literary forms. A triumph’ – Helena Kennedy QC

‘This is a book to make you fall in love with poetry…Go out and buy it for everyone you love’ – Christina Patterson, Independent

‘A revelation…An anthology like this should make poetry reviewers feel not just enthusiastic but evangelical. Buy it. Leave it around the house. Give it to friends. It could keep them alive’ – John Carey, Sunday Times

‘Anyone who has the faintest glimmer of interest in modern poetry must buy it. If I were master of the universe or held the lottery’s purse strings, there would be a copy of it in every school, public library and hotel bedroom in the land. On page after page I found myself laughing, crying, wondering, rejoicing, reliving, wishing, envying. It is a book full of hope and high art which restores your faith in poetry’ – Alan Taylor, Sunday Herald

‘The book is without equal as a handbook for students and readers’ – Sian Hughes, Times Educational Supplement

‘The best anthology I’ve read or am likely to read…devastating’ – Michael Colgan, Irish Times (Books of the Year)

‘I don’t often read poetry, so Staying Alive was a revelation’ – Ian Rankin, Sunday Telegraph (Books of the Year)

‘A book that travels everywhere with me… It is full of beautiful writing that can blow your mind’ – Beth Orton, The Times.

‘I love Staying Alive and keep going back to it. Being Alive is just as vivid… But this new book feels even more alive – I think it has a heartbeat’ – Meryl Streep [on Being Alive]

‘If you are going to buy one anthology of contemporary poetry, let it be this one. You will come across a depth of feelings and themes and a range of new writers that will break your heart and build it back up at the same time. Whether you know you love poetry or think you don’t, this book is for you. The title says it all.’ – Esylit Parry Lowther, Varsity, recommending Staying Alive

‘I often give people Staying Alive or any other anthology in that Bloodaxe series, so brilliantly edited by Neil Astley. There’s a poem for everyone there.’ – Jane Clarke

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably those in Bloodaxe's Staying Alive anthology series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011), and Staying Human (2020), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation; and three collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds (2008), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets (2008) and In Person: World Poets (2017). He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (2002), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (2005). He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books, and in 2018 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He also guest-edited a transatlantic all-poetry issue of the American literary journal Ploughshares, the first such issue in its 43-year history. He lives in the Tarset Valley of Northumberland, England.