Featured Publication – Tiny Bright Thorns by Jen Feroze

Our featured publication for September and October is Tiny Bright Thorns by Jen Feroze, published by Nine Pens.

‘Tiny Bright Thorns is a love-song to the tender, fierce and ‘tar-thick’ days and nights of early motherhood, the ‘feathered cries of the new’. Rich in startling imagery, open-hearted and often movingly truthful, these poems shine – a ‘beacon’ passed from ‘mother to mother to mother’. How I wish I had read them as a new mother myself navigating those perilous, unmoored early weeks. Jen Feroze writes with grace and humanity of the ‘herbaceous bite/ of exquisite and terrifying love’ in all its forms and the power of imagination to connect us all.‘ Sarah Westcott

‘Playful, moving, tender and true; this pamphlet is a magical yet honest reflection on the wonder of motherhood. Nature, art and folklore run through these poems so deftly they continue to sing long after they’re put down. A joy.‘ Maria Ferguson

‘Dark yet tender and full of wonder, in these lyrical poems motherhood is an ocean as dangerous as it is beautiful. Feroze sculpts sleepless nights to show us each sharp shining star. A startling, stunning debut.’ Angela Readman

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Duality

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Previously published in Dust poetry magazine

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Self Portrait at 35 Weeks

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Previously published in Poetry Wales

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The Weather App Gives A 100% Chance Of Snow

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Jen Feroze lives by the sea in Essex. Her work has been featured in publications including Under the Radar, Poetry Wales, Magma, Black Iris, Berlin Lit, And Other Poems, One Hand Clapping, Okay Donkey and Butcher’s Dog. She won the Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition in 2024 and placed second in the 2022/2023 Magma Editors Prize. Her pamphlet, Tiny Bright Thorns, is out now with Nine Pens. Jen loves chunky knitwear, turquoise things and cheese you can eat with a spoon. Find Jen @jenlareine on X and @jenferoze on Instagram

Copies of Tiny Bright Thorns are available to purchase from the Nine Pens website, here. Signed copies are available to purchase directly from Jen, here.