Cutting the Green Ribbon: OUT NOW

I am very proud to announce that my debut poetry collection, Cutting the Green Ribbon is available NOW. I'm even on Amazon. Wow!

The collection is published by Hesterglock, an experimental, Bristol-based publisher who in their initial submissions call specifically asked for feminist poetry. This collection is a collage of womxn's voices, attempting to call time on the 'female' identities attributed to women by particarchal culture. The poetry is personal, political and provocative. I have already received some excellent feedback from other female poets, whom I admire and respect inlcuding Deborah Alma and Sarah Leavesley.

I am incredibly proud of this collection, which I have been working on for some years now. It is informed by my own love of poetry, which began with the Romantics -Wordsworth, Keats and Blake - when I was a child, to the Modernists, particularly HD, and the Beats, namely Diane di Prima whom I discovered as part of my Undergradtuate and Postgraduate degree courses. It also reflects my appreciation of pop culture and the research I have undertaken in gender studies and identity politics. There were many times when I thought this poetry was too controversial or risky to ever be published. I perservered to prove to myself, if no one else, that womxn can fight for an equal place in this society, and that we have many different, equally valuable stories to share.

I shall be reading from this brand new collection on May 18th in the Studio at the Hive, Worcester from 6pm. I have also invited some guest poets to join me.