We are proud to announce that Hannah Silva’s Total Man , commissioned for Electronic Voice Phenomena by Penned in the Margins and Mercy, has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work In Poetry. Silva’s innovative performance piece drives language down the lost highway of a struggle to understand the origins of humankind. In 1972 Stan Gooch published The Total Man , notes towards an evolutionary theory of personality. This extensive volume spans magic, religion, politics, art, morality and justice. As well as his preoccupation with Neanderthal man and left-handedness, Gooch posits that Labour MPs have larger ears than Conservatives, and better night vision. In Silva’s extraordinary and intense work, performed eight times on the EVP tour (in total blackout), she channels Gooch’s words through a musical layering of speech, sound, automatic writing, quotations and virtuosic vocal play. Hannah Silva joins a shortlist of five poets that includes another Penned in the Margins author, Chris McCabe , for his collaborative work Pharmapoetica . The winner of the Ted Hughes Award, which was won last year by spoken word artist Kate Tempest, will be announced at a ceremony at the Savile Club, London on Friday 28 March...