dolores in spanish is pain, dolores in lolita is a girl – Ashley Miranda
This is an unflinching bleed of a book. Glistening and raw, it has so much to say about how we treat young women and it says it all with blistering yet beautiful power.
Paisley – Rakhshan Rizwan
An absolutely exquisite read which refuses to leave my consciousness even though it’s been over a year since I read it. Paisley introduced me to the beauty of ghazals, for which I will be forever grateful, and I recommend it to everyone.
WITCH – Rebecca Tamás
This is an earthy, empowering reclamation of the occult. Utterly gorgeous and unapologetically fierce, blending the poetic with the magical to create something very special indeed.
The Republic of Motherhood – Liz Berry
I am a big Liz Berry fangirl, and this soft exhalation of poems really warms my heart. She captures both tenderness and struggle in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever read before.
The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy
When I studied this collection for my A-levels in sixth form, it was like a poetical awakening; this is the book that made me want to really write. From start to finish, The World’s Wife is a masterclass in voice, form, persona, language, mythology, wit, and feminism.
Ellora Sutton, 22, is a poet living in Hampshire, UK. Her work has been published in Poetry Birmingham Literary Review, The Cardiff Review, Blue Marble Review, Lackadaisy, The Hellebore, Eye Flash Poetry Journal, Poetry News, and The Bangor Literary Journal, among others. Her debut chapbook, All the Shades of Grief, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow.