Southern Sunrise is here.

Jessie Pope (1868–1941)

Jessie contributed articles, comic stories and poetry to newspapers and magazines including Vanity Fair and Punch. Her work often presented portraits of independent, resilient women. Her reputation plummeted because during the First World War, she published poetry – often not very good poetry – in the Daily Mail designed to drive readers to enlist, and encouraging the shaming of those who didn’t.

War Girls is here.

Sheenagh Pugh (born 1950)

Sheenagh has published nine collections of poetry and translations, two novels and a critical study of fan fiction. She also translates poems, mostly from German and sometimes from French and Ancient Greek, and taught creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. Sheenagh’s interests include language, history, northern landscapes, snooker and cyberspace. She says she has been accused of being ‘populist’ and ‘too accessible’, and that she hopes both things are true. What if this road is here.

Shazea Quraishi

Shazea was born in Pakistan, grew up in Canada and lived in Madrid before moving to London where she works as a writer, teacher and translator. Her poems have been published in anthologies and magazines in the UK and the US. Her latest collection is The Art of Scratching (2015) and she is adapting her chapbook The Courtesan’s Reply (2012) as a play.

You May Have Heard of Me is here.

Lola Ridge (1873–1941)

Lola moved from Dublin to New York with her mother. Having married and separated from a goldmine owner, she worked as a copywriter, artists’ model, factory worker, illustrator and educator, as well as writing poetry inspired by life on the Lower East Side. She and her second husband were socialist activists, taking part in protest marches and holding lively parties in their shabby apartment for other writers. Lola wrote about subjects considered shocking at the time, including race riots, but her book The Ghetto and Other Poems made an immediate impact. She was always sickly though this impression was reinforced by the fact that she lied about her age, so people – including the writer of her New York Times obituary – thought she was ten years younger than she actually was when she died.

The Destroyer is here.

Michèle Roberts (born 1949)

Michèle is half French and divides her time between England and France. She has worked as a librarian, secretary, teacher, journalist and hospital cleaner, often writing at night, but was able to write full-time when one of her novels, Daughters of the House, was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize. She is currently Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Michèle is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was created a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, but declined an OBE because she is a republican. She has presented on BBC radio, judged several literary prizes and chaired the British Council’s Literature Advisory Committee.

Flying to Italy is here.

Rachel Rooney (born 1962)

Rachel worked for many years as a teacher of children with special needs, and now travels the country, performing at schools and festivals. She has written rhyming picture books and poetry collections including My Life as a Goldfish (2014), A Kid in My Class (2018) and The Language of Cat (2011), which was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and won the 2012 CLiPPA award. Target is here.