
REVIEW: CATHI RAE’S ‘YOUR CLEANER HATES YOU’
By Stella Backhouse | “Your Cleaner Hates You is eclectic in range, with poems covering subjects as diverse as ageing and retrospection, family history, the writing process and the valued companionship of dogs and horses. Notably strong on list poetry, if a single idea could be said to unite it, I think it would be the idea of […]”

Press Release: Springboard Festival
Springboard Festival will be a week-long string of performing arts events over eight days, from Saturday 25th March to 1st April. Held in Coventry, at The Criterion Theatre (Earlsdon), Springboard offers artists and audiences offers the chance to try out something different in a dynamic and supportive setting…

REVIEW: VIV FOGEL’S ‘IMPERFECT BEGINNINGS’
Reviewed by Stella Backhouse | “Inherited trauma is a major theme of Fogel’s new collection Imperfect Beginnings, and with a story like hers, there’s a lot of trauma to inherit. If there’s a single defining image here, that image is the heartbreak of […] “

REVIEW: JOHN MCCULLOUGH’S ‘PANIC RESPONSE’
By Stella Backhouse | “John McCullough’s 2022 collection Panic Response is a delicate and moving evocation of grief, mental breakdown and eventual re-emergence. Although primarily a frank and deeply personal memoir, recent lockdown events and the ever-present […]”

INTERVIEW: FIRE&DUST MEETS JOE COOK
Joe Cook is a musician, lyricist, music producer and spoken word artist from Birmingham (UK). Joe was our first headliner of 2023 at our Fire & Dust poetry night on 5th January. His entertaining set was well-received by the audience and we caught up with him after the event, to ask a few questions…