Bloodaxe Books

30/09/2025

'Concluding Gwyneth Lewis’s latest collection, First Rain in Paradise, 'An Explanation of Doily' opens a strange, humorous, mysterious window out of trauma.' - Carol Rumens, Poem of the Week, The Guardian

For reviews of First Rain in Paradise & interviews with Gwyneth Lewis, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1480

A strange, humorous, mysterious window out of trauma is both desolate and decorative

29/09/2025

Jessica Traynor's just-published fourth collection New Arcana is featured as James Patterson's Book of the Week in Culture on RTÉ. A wonderfully perceptive and considered review.

Jessica will be launching New Arcana online with Bloodaxe tomorrow, 30 September, at 7pm (available to watch live or later via YouTube), and in person at The Gutter Bookshop, Dublin on 2 October and at No Alibis Bookstore in Belfast on 21 October, with a reading at Kildare Readers Festival on 10 October & a reading and workshop at Waterford Writers Weekend on 25 October. Details below, where there is also a video of Jessica reading four poems from New Arcana.
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/events?articleid=1188

One of the most remarkable things about Jessica Traynor's New Arcana is how successfully it manages to evoke the expansive honesty at the heart of John Berryman's 1969 masterwork The Dream Songs.

27/09/2025

We are immensely saddened by news of the death of Tony Harrison, aged 88, who had been unwell for some years. A tribute has been published on our website: https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1560

25/09/2025

It's publication day for our three brilliant September titles: Clare Pollard's Lives of the Female Poets, Jessica Traynor's New Arcana, and Emilie Jelinek's The Sky Around My Father, winner of the Mslexia Women's Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2024.

Their joint online launch event will be held on Tuesday 30 September at 7pm. All three poets will be reading from their books and discussing them with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Available to watch live or later via YouTube.
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/events?articleid=1543

24/09/2025

Pascale Petit's ninth collection Beast was featured for a second time on Poetry Extra as Daljit Nagra's Book of the Month for September. Daljit read and introduced Pascale's poem 'Murmurations at Roughtor’ on 21 September from 30:18.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jslz

For a link to the programme of 7 September in which Daljit read from Pascale's poem 'The Pelts of Animals', see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1523

24/09/2025

A video of Jessica Traynor reading a poem from her fourth collection New Arcana has gone online in Books Ireland to mark the book's publication this week.

For a link to a review in The Irish Times of 20 September and more on New Arcana, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1559

Jessica Traynor reads from her new collection, New Arcana (Bloodaxe) https://youtu.be/g1V-pzKK8d0 New Arcana, by Jessica Traynor (Bloodaxe Books), launches Thursday 02 October at The Gutter Bookshop, Dublin You can catch the Bloodaxe Books launch live on 30 September —or watch back any time https:...

23/09/2025

‘New Arcana is Jessica Traynor’s striking, ambitious elegy for an old school friend who died by su***de and speaks here through the persona of Lydia Deetz from Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. Poems imagining a new Major Arcana are interwoven throughout the sometimes funny, always heartbreaking dialogue between Traynor and Lydia.’ – Martina Evans, The Irish Times

Jessica Traynor's fourth collection New Arcana is published in the UK and Ireland this week. Bloodaxe's joint online launch will be held on Tuesday 30 September at 7pm. For details of Jessica's launch readings in Galway, Dublin and Belfast, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/events?articleid=1188

Martina Evans on New Arcana; Chic to be Sad; Over Here; Afterparty

22/09/2025

Poet Katrina Porteous contributed new poetry and narration to this evocative Overtone Productions feature marking the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. The programme was one of the Radio Times' Today's Choices for 21 September. Available now on BBC Sounds.

For links to reviews, radio and more for Katrina Porteous's fourth collection Rhizodont, which has just won the Laurel Prize 2025, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1423

200 years after the birth of the modern railway we explore its impact on our modern world.

19/09/2025

We're absolutely delighted that that poet Katrina Porteous has won the Laurel Prize 2025 for her fourth collection Rhizodont.

'We were impressed by the way her attention to the small and local belied the sweep and depth of her project. Rhizodont displays modern lyricism by a senior poet, loving, knowing, and authoritative.' - Kathleen Jamie, on behalf of the Laurel Prize Judges

For full details, a video of the ceremony and readings, and a link to an article by Katrina Porteous about Rhizodont for the Poetry School's Below the Surface Laurel Prize feature, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1558

18/09/2025

A fascinating piece by Laurel Prize Finalist Katrina Porteous about her shortlisted fourth collection Rhizodont has gone online in the Poetry School's Below the Surface feature for The Laurel Prize 2025.

Katrina will take part in the Laurel Prize readings tomorrow, Friday 19 September, 5.30pm. The ceremony will be livestreamed from Bradford. Register to watch for free. For more details of the prize, and a booking link, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1547

These pieces shine a light on the creative practice behind these outstanding collections. Here’s Katrina Porteous on Rhizodont.

18/09/2025

'Each poem feels chosen with intelligence and care: accessibility matches profundity. […] a searching anthology that is both elegy, and celebration.’ – Martyn Halsall, in the Church Times, on Neil Astley & Pamela Robertson-Pearce's anthology Soul Feast: nourishing poems of hope & light.

For links to print and podcast interviews with Neil Astley about Soul Feast, along with a video of seven poets reading their poems from the anthology, see:
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1413

Martyn Halsall reviews recent collections of contemporary poetry

17/09/2025

September books, news & events from Bloodaxe - https://mailchi.mp/263b340dbcf3/september-books-news-events-from-bloodaxe-10134786 -
New books by Clare Pollard, Jessica Traynor & Emilie Jelinek - online launch
Matthew Caley wins International Milan Nenadić Prize for Poetry
Kris Johnson's Ghost River shortlisted for Michael Murphy Prize
Niall Campbell's The Island in the Sound longlisted for The Saltires (Poetry)
Pascale Petit’s Beast is Poetry Extra Book of the Month
Greta Stoddart's Fool discussed on Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast
Ruth Fainlight London film premiere.