Rebecca Watts

In this assured debut, Rebecca Watts positions herself where Wordsworth, Frost and Hughes have stood before her, and - with fresh perspective, a wholly original tone, and an openness to the possibilities of form - reinvigorates and remaps the landscapes of English nature poetry for a twenty-first-century audience. From ecology, social history and wide-open spaces to the domestic and intimate, these poems approach their often-unusual subjects with the clarity and matter-of-factness of Simon Armitage and a wit that recalls U. A. Fanthorpe, Dorothy Parker and Stevie Smith, spinning memorable scenes and vivid images from the material of plain language.

Met Office Advises Caution

Tessa Hadley

Helen Dunmore

Magnus Mills

Shagufta K Iqbal

Sanjida Kay

Christopher Fielden

KM Elkes

Valda Jackson

Asmaa Jama

Joe Melia

Celebrated for its creativity, communal spirit, and culture of resistance, Bristol is a city with a loud voice and progressive reputation. But it’s also a city that has experienced division and inequality. In this anthology, ten acclaimed and emerging writers portray a city full of secrets, scars, and stark contrasts. From the elusive angel who turns up at a stagnant café along the Malago River, to the jilted lover caught in the crosshairs of the police, the stories gathered here lean into the turbulent magic of Bristol and will leave readers with a renewed sense of the city’s complexity.

A City in Short Fiction

The Book of Bristol

In this follow-up to her acclaimed debut The Met Office Advises Caution, Rebecca Watts observes and tests the limits of humanity's engagement with the non-human. By turns lyrical and narrative, the poems examine familiar subjects - environmental crisis, hawks, hospitals, the sea, barbecues, flowers, Emily Dickinson - only to find their subjects staring, sometimes fighting, back. Nature and nurture, equally red in tooth and claw, power a book-long sparring match between the overthinking poet and the ever-thoughtless universe, between the craft's isolation and the world's irrepressible variety. Gloves on and gloves off, the poet's hands destroy and build, gather and scatter, caress and strike.

Red Gloves

Rebecca Watts

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