Sonnet XXXI is here.

Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957)

Born in a remote village in the Chilean Andes, Gabriela was determined to qualify as a teacher despite being barred from studying because of her political journalism. On succeeding, she taught all around Chile and, later, organized educational programmes in Mexico. Travelling widely, Gabriela spent her life writing and acting in defence of the downtrodden. She worked for the League of Nations in Paris and as a diplomat, always opposing fascism, in Spain and Italy during the turbulent 1930s. In 1945 she was the first Spanish American writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Footprint is here.

Elma Mitchell (1919–2000)

Elma was a Scottish poet who worked as a librarian for the BBC. She was fluent in languages including Russian and worked as a translator and freelance writer, publishing poetry from the 1960s onwards. She worked in thatched barn that served as both library and study, and was inhabited by rare bats. Elma read fiercely and brilliantly at her rare public readings, even when she was elderly and frail.

It’s the Sea I Want is here.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762)

Lady Mary’s husband was, briefly, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Her letters and the verses she wrote in Constantinople – now Istanbul – give a fascinating insight into the city, including the Turkish baths and Sultan’s harem, in which the ingenious Mary managed to learn political secrets her husband couldn’t access. She pioneered the use of the smallpox vaccination then popular among the Ottomans by volunteering her young children as subjects, though Edward Jenner – who popularized immunization nearly eighty years later – gets all the credit in the history books.

Extract from Verses Written in the Chiosk of the British Palace at Pera is here.

Virginia Moore (1903–1993)

Virginia published three poetry collections, essays, a novel and historical biographies including studies of women writers. Her most famous book was perhaps Virginia is a State of Mind (1942), about her home state’s history and geography. Although devoted to, and celebrated in, Virginia, she lectured on literature around America and travelled around the world twice.

Avowal is here.

Elin Llwyd Morgan

Elin is an author and translator at Glyndŵr University, Wrexham. Her debut novel, Between the Heavens and Las Vegas, was shortlisted for the Welsh Academy Book of the Year in 2005 and her second novel, The Moon Has Eyes, was longlisted for the same prize in 2008. She lives in Wales with her partner and son.

Iridescent lizard is here.

Esther Morgan (born 1970)

Esther was inspired to start writing after volunteering at the Wordsworth Trust, and has published four poetry collections. She has won an Eric Gregory Award, the Bridport Poetry Prize and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, among other accolades. Esther has taught at the University of East Anglia and in Australia, and now works for the Norfolk Museums Service.

The Long Holidays is here.

Michaela Morgan

Michaela is a children’s author and poet who has written more than 140 books. She has visited schools in the UK, Europe, the USA and Africa, and also gives workshops and readings in libraries, at festivals and in prisons. Her latest poetry collections are Wonderland: Alice in Poetry and Reaching the Stars: Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls (Macmillan). Michaela is really quite small. But very fierce.