HER BIRTH

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2015

Buy the book here

Links to reviews, interviews and readings online:

REVIEWS:

Her Birth reviewed by Sarah Crown, The Guardian, October 2013: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?showdoc=1893;doctype=review

‘Our Favourite Books of 2020’, Spectrum Culture: https://spectrumculture.com/2020/12/13/our-favorite-books-of-2020/

Dove Grey Reader: http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2013/09/poetry.html

Bel Mooney’s Books of the Year: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2526490/POETRY.html

Tracey M. Smith writing for DURA (Dundee University Review of the Arts): https://dura-dundee.org.uk/2014/02/16/her-birth/

Jade Cuttle for Next Generation Poets: http://nextgenerationpoets.com/rebecca-goss-reviewed-jade-cuttle/

PRAISE FOR HER BIRTH:

‘The poems in Her Birth unfold their story of love, loss and grief for a baby daughter with pared-down precision and scorching intensity. The language, like sea-glass, has been ground by a tide that might have crushed words completely. Instead, it has shaped these translucent poems’ – Helen Dunmore.

‘A testimonial of love and of grief, Her Birth plots an arc of bitter elegance. Rebecca Goss’s daughter was born with the ‘wicked gift’ of a disabling heart condition – Ebstein’s anomaly – and her poems show tremendous clarity, variety, honesty, and beauty. Few of us ever glimpse the details of living with such a diagnosis, but Goss reveals the power of poetry not to console, but to illuminate.’ – Gavin Francis, Judge, Warwick Prize for Writing 2015.

‘It must be at once the most painfully personal and the most restrained and sparsely written poetry collection of the year… It’s poetry of witness. The language is simple; the images are simple; the feeling is all. It’s feeling no one wants to have, and it is handled with immense grace.’ – Katy Evans-Bush, Poetry London, Spring 2014 (extract)

“I read the book from cover to cover in one go and couldn’t keep back the tears. It’s the story of the brief life of her firstborn, who had an incurable heart disease. ‘I scoop her from her metal cot and rest / her broken heart on mine.’ “A raw story told with great clarity and one that eventually takes in the birth of a second child, who lives. Rebecca has terrific self-awareness too – watch out when you get to the poem ‘Bench’.” – Michael Mackmin, editor of The Rialto, and poetry judge for The East Anglian Book Awards 2013.

Ian McMillan on Her Birth: https://youtu.be/6_KiEqnkCsU

Micro-reviews:

Poet Sarah Wescott on her blog The Literary Loper: http://literary-loper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/micro-reviews.html

Poet Sarah James, on her blog: http://www.sarah-james.co.uk/?p=4253

The Wordsworth Trust, September 2013: http://kimmoorepoet.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/sunday-poem-andrew-mcmillan/

Manchester Literature Festival, October 2013 http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/blog-posts/review-open-the-windows-at-manchester-museum-872

READ POEMS ONLINE:

‘Her Birth’ was The Saturday Poem in The Guardian in October, 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/10/her-birth-rebecca-goss-poem

The Poetry Archive: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/rebecca-goss

Next Generation Poets 2014: http://nextgenerationpoets.com/rebecca-goss/

Peony Moon: I was delighted to be asked to write about Her Birth for the excellent contemporary poetry blog Peony Moon. You can read the piece and three poems from the collection here: http://peonymoon.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/the-old-and-the-young-by-rebecca-goss/

INTERVIEWS:

Next Generation Poets 2014: http://nextgenerationpoets.com/rebecca-goss/

My interview in The Observer about Her Birth, Ella and The Forward Prize: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/07/rebecca-goss-poet-forward-prize-shortlist

Interview on Woman’s Hour 2013 about Her Birth, Ella and The Forward Prize: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f6c6f

To help mark the start of Children’s Heart Week in 2009, I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, about the collection I have written about the death of my young daughter in 2008. (Her Birth, Carcanet/Northern House, 2013). You can listen to the interview here.

READINGS to watch:

Medicine Unboxed 2015: Reading/discussion with Jane Draycott and Jo Shapcott https://vimeo.com/154315757?ref=tw-share

Next Generation Poets 2014: http://nextgenerationpoets.com/rebecca-goss/

Mini-film of Next Generation Poets event at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London now online: http://nextgenerationpoets.com

International Literature Showcase/British Council/Next Generation Poets/Writers’ Centre Norwich reading with Patience Agbabi, Luke Kennard and Zaffir Kunial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkGLd1_w-H4

Reading from Her Birth for Manchester Literature Festival 2013: https://youtu.be/SxrG-rFVUsU

An extract from my reading for Poets and Players in 2009 can be seen here.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION

WINNER OF THE POETRY CATEGORY, EAST ANGLIAN AWARDS, 2013

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WARWICK PRIZE FOR WRITING 2015

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2015

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