Forthcoming
‘Becky Varley Winter’s striking debut explores themes of daring, danger and risk in poems that are packed with imagery from the natural world. Complex, hypnotic, memorable – this collection introduces a significant new voice.’
‘I finished reading the pamphlet thinking that the poems felt at home in their own lostness, and that the natural details — often powerful single images — are what binds the poet’s wider contemplation and thought processes.’ —Nell Prince, The Sphinx
‘Becky Varley-Winter’s Heroines on the Blue Peninsula is uncomfortable, but familiar. It’s the wondering if we have purpose or if we are allowed to change, or if we are stuck with the who that we are even we are not who thought we could be. Because “If I name discomfort well enough / I might find comfort without lying….” Because the heart is tricky and a witch, and doesn’t always actually know what the heart wants.’ —The Poetry Question
‘Tender and disorderly, the protagonists of BLOOM are women brave enough to choose adventure for themselves, even if it means renouncing the separation between reality and dream. I wanted them to teach me to do the same, so I could join them in the world Varley-Winter has constructed - so uncannily familiar to us, and comforting, but for the intensity of its colours, and landscapes, and hoping.’ —Livia Franchini, Shelf Life