Our Real Red Selves

In war and in birth we reveal OUR REAL RED SELVES, and this volume brings together three poets whose work moves between life and death.

JL Williams’ The History of Fire takes us to war. Her poems are savage and hallucinatory. She writes not about a single war but a patchwork conflict, whose battlefield moves from ancient Greeks to the Gulf conflict to a nightmarish Vietnam-era ticker-tape parade.

Marion McCready’s The Birth Garden reflects on the way childbirth has been viewed by the medical establishment over the past century. Disturbing scenes set on sinister wards and in a natural world both real and raw are captured in McCready’s vivid, urgent language.

Harry Giles’ Drone explores modern warfare and office life. His “drone” is both a remote-control killing-machine and office drudge who is lonely and lacks job satisfaction. Somehow funny and achingly sad, the drone is the most unforgettable character you’ll read this year.

The subjects depicted by these poets are contrasting, but their imagery and intensity echo each other.

An interview about the book with JL Williams 

The book launch at Golden Hare Bookshop 

By jlwpoetry

Books by JL Williams include Condition of Fire (Shearsman, 2011), Locust and Marlin (Shearsman, 2014), House of the Tragic Poet (If A Leaf Falls Press, 2016), After Economy (Shearsman, 2017) and Origin (Shearsman, 2022). Published widely in journals, her poetry has been translated into numerous languages. She has read at international literature festivals and venues in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Turkey, Cyprus, Canada, Hungary, Romania, Montenegro and the US. She wrote the libretto for the opera Snow which debuted in London in 2017, was awarded a bursary to develop a new opera with composer Samantha Fernando at the Royal Opera House and was a librettist for the award-winning 2020 covid-response Episodes project by The Opera Story. Williams curates writing events and creates workshops and professional development activities for poets. She is hopeful about the simple and mysterious power of poetry that allows us to know ourselves, each other and the world more deeply.

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