The Five o’clock Ferry Across the Mersey
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Maria, from Liverpool, creates Coast to Coast to Coast. Writer in residence for Mersey Care NHS Trust, Maria has published six pamphlets – the latest, winner of Litfest/ Wayeave Competition is Subcutaneous (2025, Wayleave Press) and a collaborative pamphlet with John Glenday.
Otters for 1 ¾ Miles
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Alice Stainer teaches English Literature and Creative Writing to visiting undergraduates in Oxford. Recent work appears in Dust, Bad Lilies and Under the Radar and her debut pamphlet Headlands came out in September 2024 as a winner in the Live Canon competition.
Milestone
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Niall M Oliver resides in Ireland with his wife and sons. His poems have appeared in Acumen, Atrium, The Honest Ulsterman, and he is the author of ‘We Will Eat Breakfast With Our Children’ by Nine Pens Poetry Press.
Six lies about my father
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Susannah Hart’s first collection Out of True won the 2018 Live Canon First Collection Prize. Susannah won the 2019 National Poetry Competition, is on the board of Magma Poetry and a member of the Poetry in Aldeburgh Organising Committee.
Our featured publication for Summer is How to Leave a Body by Holly Winter-Hughes, published by Verve Poetry Press.
‘Holly Winter-Hughes’ visceral writing turns the human form inside-out, mapping the contours of trauma, abuse and hard-won resilience. It urges the reader to follow and ‘Breathe deep to the creak of your heartwood’. Darkly imaginative and pearled with fresh phrase-making, these are poems that compel attention and linger.‘ John McCullough
‘Holly’s poetry leaves red shapes on my skin, and teeth marks. Unapologetically incandescent images twist tightly and then open into wide, revelatory spaces. The thin blade of a plastic- handled knife flashes in the dark of cold-roomed poems, but beside my shoulder as I read there is always an older, kinder spirit. It says, ‘Look – this, yes, and this.’ And yet, somehow, the spirit is still singing. I love this collection.‘ Tom Hirons
‘Holly writes with the whiplash of thunder.’ Antony Owen
‘An electrifying poet with Plath-like power and potency. Such fire!‘ Anna Saunders
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Straight Girls Are Easier to Imitate
Previously published in Impossible Archetype
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Thin Air
Previously published in Clarion
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How to Find Your Way Home
Previously published in Lapidus Magazine
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Holly Winter-Hughes is especially passionate about using writing to express the stories we hold in our bodies. This comes through in both her poetry and her facilitation. Her work has been commissioned by various organisations including Apples & Snakes, Live & Local and Arvon. She has performed extensively across the UK including at Ledbury Poetry Festival, for Raise the Bar, for Cheltenham Poetry Festival and for the BBC. She is passionate about raising the voices of underrepresented people and as such, is the founder and CEO of The Word Association CIC (who have published over 30 anthologies from marginalised communities). She is currently studying for a Masters degree in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, and starts her PhD in restorying the body in autumn 2025 at University of Birmingham. Holly is a widely published writer, most recently appearing in Atrium, Clarion, Impossible Archetype, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Lapidus and Tears in the Fence.
Copies of How to Leave a Body are available to purchase from the Verve Poetry Press website, or directly from Holly Winter-Hughes, here.
Imagine
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Though I’m a Palestinian living in Palestine, I’ve never visited Jerusalem, never tasted Nablus’s kunafa, never seen Al-Aqsa Mosque, nor the Church of the Nativity, never seen a mountain, nor a lake. Actually, I’ve never stepped out of a small besieged city called Gaza. – Mahmoud Qaddoho, journalist, 8/2/24
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Janet Hatherley’s pamphlet, What Rita Tells Me, and collection, On the road to Cadianda, were published by Vole in 2022 and April 2024. She won 2nd prize in Enfield competition, 2023 and was placed first in Vole anthology, 2024. @JanHatherley
Refusal
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Laura’s work appears in Poetry, Oxford Poetry, Northern Gravy, The Caterpillar, Magma, Rattle, Aesthetica, iamb, etc. Her new collection Introduction to Cloud Care and her children’s debut Poems from a Witch’s Pocket are both forthcoming in 2025.
Body-swap
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Lesley Curwen is a poet and broadcaster from Plymouth. She won the Molecules Unlimited Poetry Prize and was a finalist in Wales Poetry Award. Her pamphlet ‘Rescue Lines’ is published by Hedgehog and another, ‘Sticky with Miles’ by Dreich. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and 3 times for BOTN. Her work has been published by Bad Lilies, Dust, Winged Moon, Broken Sleep, Spelt, Black Bough, Broken Spine & East Ridge Review. Website: www.lesleycurwenpoet.com @elcurwen.bskyb.social Insta/X @elcurwen
The Beam
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Nia Broomhall’s debut pamphlet Backalong won the Mslexia Pamphlet Prize 2023 and she won the Poetry Society’s Hamish Canham Award in 2024. Nia is Poet in Residence at Painshill Park in Surrey and co-Head of English at a comprehensive school.
I wish I had a Sylvia Plath Rolling Pin
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Rachel Burns is published in literary magazines including 14 Magazine, Butcher’s Dog, The Rialto, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Atrium, The Friday Poem, Magma and The London Magazine. Her poetry pamphlet, a girl in a blue dress, is published by Vane Women Press. Socials: X @RachelLBurnsme INSTA rachelburns3224
