Too Much Night is a remarkable debut collection whose roots stem from the deeply personal but whose scope is universal, offering a reflection on alienation, the duality of nostalgia and the lights of discovery; about the awareness that something is missing and the endless search for a name. Born from lived experience, Too Much Night was written as a response to Laurence Levy-Atkinson’s collapse into and return from the depths of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, something he was unaware he had been suffering his entire life and whose eventual diagnosis was nothing short of a revelation. Distinctive, conversational, and with a dash of humour, these poems chart a course of encroaching darkness and slow recovery, building towards a resounding expression of acceptance and hope. Much more than an autopsy of struggle however, Too Much Night is an attempt to reconcile the absurdity of the natural world, a return to a coastal childhood where missing pieces were always just out of reach, and a full-throated hymn to the power of names.‘In Too Much Night, Laurence has produced a collection of poetry whose roots stem from a deeply personal journey but whose audience is universal. The poems centre around their author’s lived experience of undiagnosed major mental illness and builds towards a resounding expression of acceptance and hope. It is a work of literary significance that deserves a wide audience.’ BRONWYN MEHAN, Spineless Wonders‘In a world of 24-hour news cycles and attention-grabbing TikTok videos, Levy-Atkinson’s lyric poetry is a soothing balm. His work touches on the lead-up to—and aftermath of—his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder diagnosis, a mental health condition first identified in the early 17th century yet still poorly understood by the general public. Importantly, he writes about his struggles in a way that is not alarmist or defeatist, illustrating that there is no linear road to diagnosis or recovery.’ BROEDE CARMODYLaurence Levy-Atkinson is a writer and poet, raised in Brisbane and based in Melbourne. His work has been widely published, including by Cordite, Southerly, Australian Poetry Journal, Penumbra and Spineless Wonders, and anthologised for the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award, Ros Spencer Prize and the inaugural Oystercatcher Anthology. Too Much Night is his first fulllength collection.
