Our featured publication for May and June is You’ll Never Be Anyone Else by Rachael Clyne, published by Seren.

You’ll Never Be Anyone Else offers a unique story of survival and empowerment told in spite of experiences of violence and prejudice – this from a poet who has spent a lifetime learning self-acceptance and as a psychotherapist helping others to do similar. Treating even dark subjects with playful wit and colourful imagery, Clyne is a distinctive new voice with a powerful message about self-acceptance.

‘Rich, cinematic and sensuous‘ Joelle Taylor

‘Take a front row seat in Clyne’s very particular theatre of life; witness the tale of a woman’s self-discovery and self-acceptance in a world where the odds are stacked against her. Meditations on history, culture, identity and mortality offer up a simultaneously witty, discomforting and uplifting read.’ Jacqueline Saphra

‘This is a touching and potent body of work where we see a girl grow into a woman through a series of masked and costumed performances, before finally having the courage to be herself.‘ Helen Ivory

‘These poems embrace the risky, sensuous and camp, holding up a bulb-lined mirror to the scripts the world tries to impose. Clyne’s work traces the prickle of overt and covert discrimination, whilst celebrating the self-liberation performance can offer, both on and beyond the page.‘ Caleb Parkin

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Girl Golem

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Previously published in Tears in the Fence

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You’ll never be anyone else

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Previously published in Obsessed With Pipework

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A Man Threw Knives at Me

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Previously published in London Grip

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Rachael Clyne from Glastonbury, is published in journals including: Atrium, Iamb, Ink Sweat & Tears, Lighthouse , Rialto, Shearsman and Tears in the Fence. Recent anthologies: #Metoo, Out on the Page, Rebeltalk. Rachael has been a professional actor and a psychotherapist. Her passions are eco-issues and identity. Her prizewinning collection, Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams), concerns our broken connection with nature. Her pamphlet, Girl Golem (4word.org) explores her Jewish migrant heritage and sense of otherness. Facebook: Rachael Clyne or Twitter: @RachaelClyne1 Blog: https://rachaelclyne.blogspot.com/

Copies of You’ll Never Be Anyone Else are available to purchase from the Seren website.