Wolves is here.

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825)

Anna badgered her father to teach her languages, the classics and other things not considered necessary for a woman’s education – much to her mother’s consternation, as she thought her bookishness would put off potential husbands. She was wrong – Anna had offers from several men, including, it is thought, French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. The man she chose was, tragically, deeply disturbed and became violent, once chasing her round the kitchen with a knife until she leapt out of the window. He was institutionalized, but escaped and was discovered drowned, and Anna was distraught. Her glittering literary career saw her hobnobbing with the foremost writers of her day, producing poems, political essays, criticism and children’s literature dedicated to her nephew, Charles, whom she had adopted as her own. Praised as one of the nation’s greatest writers during her lifetime, her reputation suffered in the following centuries and she was remembered – if at all – as a children’s writer until rediscovered by feminist scholars in the late twentieth century.

Extract from Washing Day is here.

Patricia Beer (1919–1999)

Patricia was born into the strict Plymouth Brethren sect in Devon. Her mother died when Patricia was fourteen and this – perhaps combined with the fact that one grandfather made tombstones and the other coffins – might have inspired her often darkly witty writing about death. She was deliberately vague about her date of birth, which was usually incorrectly given when her work was anthologized. Patricia studied in Exeter and then at Oxford, and taught in Italy and London before returning to Devon. She wrote a historical novel set there, and a memoir of her childhood.

Birthday Poem from Venice is here.

Greta Bellamacina (born 1990)

Greta is a poet, actress and filmmaker. Born in London, she studied at RADA and King’s College London. She wrote and directed the film Hurt by Paradise, which was nominated for Best UK Features Film at the Raindance festival. Her 2016 documentary The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas campaigned for the preservation of public libraries, and she has edited anthologies and published several poetry collections, the latest being Tomorrow’s Woman (2020). Greta was shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014 and in 2019 her first bilingual collection, translated by Juan José Vélez Otero, was published in Spanish.

New Glass is here.

Fiona Benson (born 1978)

Fiona’s work has been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2015 and 2019. Vertigo and Ghost – which includes poems about motherhood and a rapacious Zeus – won Forward Prizes for best collection and best single poem. She was also the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. Fiona lives in Devon with her husband and daughters.

Wood Song is here.

Liz Berry (born 1980)

Liz was born in the Black Country and now lives in Birmingham. Her first book of poems, Black Country, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2014. Her pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood was a Poetry Book Society choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018. Liz is a patron of Writing West Midlands and tutors for organizations, including the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School.