My new chapbook ‘Love and Stones’ is available to pre-order

My new poetry chapbook Love and Stones is now available to pre-order from the small independent press Live Canon.

Poems in this short collection are set where I live, against a Wiltshire backdrop of standing stones and henges, at the time of extreme heatwaves, a global pandemic and the start of the war in Ukraine. At the time of writing, my two children were growing up and becoming adults and I was re-establishing life with my husband in a long marriage. All of these events have found their way into the 20 poems collected in Love and Stones, some of which (or versions of them) were previously published in Poetry Wales, Under the Radar, The North, Raceme, Ink, Sweat and Tears and the Morning Star; on the websites of The Poetry Society, Ledbury Poetry Festival and Paper Nations (Bath Spa University); or received a mention in different poetry competitions, including Live Canon’s International Poetry Competition, The Rialto Nature and Place Competition and the Teignmouth Poetry Competition.

The cover features a pen and ink drawing of Avebury Stones by Wiltshire-based artist Sue Burns.

My publication contract with Live Canon is the result of being a winner in their annual pamphlet/chapbook competition. The other two winners in the competition are Matt Bryden and Isabella Mead. You can find out more about their winning chapbooks here: Dear Rwanda by Isabella Mead and The Glassblower’s House by Matt Bryden. All three of us will be reading from our new works at our launch on Sunday, 21 May at The Bedford, Balham, London SW12. Tickets are free and bookable here and the event will be livestreamed.

Later on in the year, I’ll be reading in Exeter with Anthony Wilson on June 15; with Abigail Parry and Topher Mills in Penarth, Wales, on June 25; with Isabelle Thompson in Norton St Philip on 6 July. All three new Live Canon pamphleteers will read for Uncut Poets in Exeter in September. More about those reading dates soon.

Whether or not I’m offered more readings, whether or not I’m reviewed in magazines or websites or shortlisted for an award (there’s only one award for pamphlets published in the UK in any case, as far as I know) doesn’t matter to me – although all of those things are lovely, of course, and I wouldn’t be sad if they happened! But nor will I be sad if they don’t happen. What’s meant the most to me in my writing life, so far, is when a reader, sometimes out of the blue, has contacted me to say that a poem has resonated with them, or I’ve found out that one of my poems was used in a workshop or classroom to prompt other people’s writing, or has inspired visual art, or was included in a research project or a blog post or magazine article, or someone has bought a second copy of one of my books because they’ve wanted to share my work with others. Amazingly, all of these things have happened and given me a wonderful feeling of satisfaction and happiness. I hope these things happen again.

I’d also be very pleased if Live Canon didn’t lose any money by publishing me, if they at least recap what they’ve spent on publishing my small book. I love the work that Live Canon does and I’m proud to be one of their writers.