Improvised Explosive Device examines extremism and hate crime in all its forms in the UK. In this ‘remarkable’ debut, to be published in October 2022, Arji Manuelpillai questions what makes a person radical, how the British government polices this thinking, and how marginalised groups are at risk. Unusually for a poetry collection, the book is informed by interviews conducted by the author with figures from a cross-section of society including the mothers of former ISIS members, former English Defence League and National Front members, academics and writers. Sri Lankan British, London-based Manuelpillai also interviewed members of his own community who have been affiliated with terrorist group The Tamil Tigers. Director of independent publisher Penned in the Margins, Tom Chivers, said, “What Arji is doing in Improvised Explosive Device is remarkable; I’ve not read anything quite like it. The level of technical skill in the poems is outstanding and they are thrilling to read, full of sudden twists and turns. His uncompromising focus on violence, or the suggestion of violence, is laced with gallows humour and framed brilliantly against the mundane detritus of life – from supermarket aisles to the lonely glare of laptop light. These poems are strange, side-swerving, unnerving and totally fresh.”