Especially appealing to anyone interested in the visual arts, this new collection is the result of collaboration between poet Jackie Wills and painter Jane Fordham. The poems have a touch as deft as the seamstresses and other craftspeople who populate the book, before pulling out into the wider worlds of mythology, folklore and the visceral routine of daily life. 'She is at her best when most surprising, bringing flashes of the extraordinary to the everyday.' - Christina Patterson, The Independent 'Her talent for thoughtful... observation, accompanied by brisk injections of the personal and the strikingly real, is indisputably clear.' - Kate North Jackie Wills's most recent poetry collection is Commandments (Arc, 2007). Her first, Powder Tower (Arc, 1995), was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, while Party (Leviathan, 2000) was acclaimed by Ruth Padel in the Independent on Sunday. She has been a Poet in Residence at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, and her work appears on a dress by designer Helen Storey, in the animated film Alphabetic (2006), and on a path in Farnham by potter Julian Belmonte. She lives in Brighton. This title is also available from Amazon as an eBook.
Jackie Wills has worked for newspapers, magazines and several universities. A former journalist, she's been a writer in residence in business, schools, arts and community organisations, including Unilever, London Underground, Shoreham Airport, the Surrey Hills, the London Symphony Orchestra and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. She has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and run reading groups. Over three decades, Wills has organised live poetry events and mentored many emerging writers, consolidating her experience in The Workshop Handbook for Writers (Arc, 2016). Her poems feature in several anthologies including Writing Motherhood (Seren, 2017) and Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry (Forward Arts Foundation, 2015). Wills writes short stories and creative non-fiction as well as poetry. She has collaborated over many years with visual artist Jane Fordham and Fabrica Gallery in Brighton. |
