A whistle-stop tour of our poets and books from 2017 to the present day.
ALL THE NAKED DAUGHTERS BY ANNA KISBY
Populated by bold, brave women: showgirls, mothers, suffragettes, patients, artists’ models. Kisby is an expert ventriloquist, comfortable inhabiting the voices of others. Poet biography and sample poems.
HOW TO GROW MATCHES BY S.A. LEAVESLEY
A fiery retort to the silencing of women’s voices and bodies over the centuries. Leavesley wields her power with the tightly controlled precision of surgeon. Poet biography and sample poems.
FLOOD-JUNK BY SEAN MAGNUS MARTIN
A Scandinavian creation myth that talks about the gods happening upon a piece of ash and elm, which become the first man and woman. Poet biography and sample poems.
METASTATIC BY JANE LOVELL
The lyric is clothed in urgency and is used to powerful effect in articulating the traumatic situation of her husband facing a rare cancer diagnosis and them both wondering if he will survive. Poet biography and sample poems.
THE DANCING BOY BY MICHELLE DIAZ
We traverse a mother’s depression, childhood pain and abuse loss, sickness, sex, pregnancy, birth and menopause. Humour and tenderness bring their balance. Poet biography and sample poems.
WELL BY GRAHAM CLIFFORD
These are pitch-perfect poems powered by luminous and revealing images, a razor-sharp voice and a beguilingly dark humour. There is irony too and witty insights. Poet biography and sample poems.
THE VENTRILOQUIST DUMMY’S LAMENT BY COLIN PINK
WOODCUTS BY DANIEL GOODWIN
An exciting collaboration between poet and artist. 21 villanelles by Colin Pink with 21 woodcuts by Daniel Goodwin inspired by the poems. Poet biography, sample poem and woodcut.
COLLISION BY CLAIRE WALKER
An enchanting and lushly lyrical pamphlet full of startling images and mesmeric narratives – an immersive and compelling world, part magic realist, part poignantly recognisable. Poet biography and sample poems.
APPLE, FALLEN BY OLGA DERMOTT-BOND
Poems that make their way towards searing emotion via craft, detailed observation and a kind of glittering, Dermott-Bond makes art from the flawed things around us. Poet biography and sample poems.
LITANY OF A CARDIOLOGIST BY DENISE BUNDRED
A love letter to the heart, and the working lives devoted to its complex chambers. A remarkable poetic distillation of a lifetime’s medical experiences. Poet biography and sample poems.
CUT THE BLACK RABBIT BY BENJAMIN CUSDEN
A moving record of a breakdown in a relationship that eventually leads to life on the streets. Darkly playful, difficult to read, and just as difficult to ignore. Poet biography and sample poems.
OH BE QUIET BY NATALIE SHAW
These short, spare poems are little acts of resistance and rectification. Shaw creates her own mythology of girlhood with its reliquaries, talismans, and heroines. Poet biography and sample poems.
ARRIVAL AT ELSEWHERE CURATED BY CARL GRIFFIN
A book-length poem from 100 poets across the world who speak in one voice in response to 2020’s life-changing pandemic whilst contemplating life elsewhere. Curator biography and book extract.
IN AN IDEAL WORLD I’D NOT BE MURDERED BY CHAUCER CAMERON
Exact and devastating in her depiction of an underworld of exploitation, sex and violence; this poet refuses to spare her reader. Poet biography and sample poems.
MATERNAL IMPRESSION BY CHERYL MOSKOWITZ
Moskowitz interrogates familial love with a wounding sharpness and compelling strangeness, unearthing uneasy truths. It is a call to maternal arms. Poet biography and sample poems.
WE ARE ANIMALS, DON’T FORGET IT BY IMOGEN DOWNES
Written from a precise questioning lens that captures identity, desire and becoming a woman. How do we emerge from childhood into adulthood? Perhaps by not forgetting that we are animals. Poem biography and sample poem.
SLEEPING ON THE WING BY ELEANOR PAGE
Delicate, exquisite and precise, these poems lightly pin down fleeting moments from the natural world and shine an ethereal light on the transient beauty of all living things. Poet biography and sample poem.
GUERRILLA BRIGHTENINGS BY JOANNA NISSEL
These poems of domesticity, family, love, death and lockdown thread sadness and loss with brightness, warmth and compassion. With Brighton’s seascape as their bedrock, they build like a high tide that always carries you back to the beach. Poet biography and sample poems.
LEMONADE IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER BY SARAH MNATZAGANIAN
Sarah Mnatzaganian leads the reader through the gentle landscape of her English childhood into the colourful world of her Armenian family in Jerusalem. Written in a voice unlike any other, these delicious, stimulating, and honest poems make the heart sing. Poet biography and sample poems.
HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY!!!
Abegail, Karen and Jess
Against the Grain Poetry Press 