Bloodaxe Books
banner
bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
Bloodaxe Books
@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
Bloodaxe Books, Britain's leading international poetry publisher.
www.bloodaxebooks.com
Pinned
Huge congratulations to Bloodaxe poets Selima Hill and @georgeszirtes.bsky.social, who were presented with The King's Gold Medal for Poetry for the years 2022 and 2024 respectively a joint audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
🌟 Gillian Allnutt – T. S. Eliot Writer’s Notes 🌟

Our Writers’ Notes series is back! Gillian Allnutt shares how practising different poetic forms helped create her collection 'Lode'.

📚 Read the full piece:
Gillian Allnutt – T. S. Eliot Writer’s Notes • Poetry School
Gillian Allnutt talks about how she wrote her recent T.S. Eliot Prize shortlisted poetry collection 'Lode'.
poetryschool.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Huge congratulations to Bloodaxe poets Selima Hill and @georgeszirtes.bsky.social, who were presented with The King's Gold Medal for Poetry for the years 2022 and 2024 respectively a joint audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...
November 27, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
The Shadow of Words by Ana Blandiana @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social

#poetry
November 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
This thursday! Join us for a gorgeous night of poetry and live music hosted by the one and only Joelle Taylor.

Featuring:
~ Dzifa Benson
~ Luke Kennard
~ Haia Mohammed
~ Jared Nandra
~ Shantéh

📅 27 November, 7.45pm
@southbankcentre

🎟️ Tickets — southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/out...
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Back home from @ptbopoetry.bsky.social and want to thank the festival not only for the poetry itself but the company of poets and pals in general. So many lovely people in 24 hrs (followed by a 12 hour recovery sleep). You can watch the Versus Versus @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social event here: #Poetry
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:26 PM
'Sunshine' by Selima Hill was Poem of the Week in The Scotsman Magazine, chosen by @byleaveswelive.bsky.social.

'witty, acerbic, sad, tender, philosophical, beautifully observed ... another groundbreaking work by an important poet at the top of her game, always pushing the envelope of possibility.’
November 21, 2025 at 3:24 PM
We are delighted that Patricia Smith's The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems has won the prestigious US National Book Award for Poetry 2025!

First published in the US in Sept by Scribner/Simon&Schuster. Bloodaxe will publish the book in the UK & Ireland in May 2026: shorturl.at/B7dai
November 21, 2025 at 12:43 PM
If you missed last night's wonderful online launch event, you can still catch it on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/live/OTRTqP2...

We were joined by Pia Tafdrup, Tomas Venclova & his translator Ellen Hinsey, plus Ivan V. Lalić's translator Francis R. Jones & Professor Svetlana Šeatović.
November 21, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
"When you go, space closes over like water behind you"

Wonderful reading last night of poems by Ivan V. Lalić, read by his translator Francis R. Jones.

Thanks @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social
The Taste of Lightning is a new selection of poems by Ivan V. Lalić, one of 20th-century Yugoslavia’s most crucial poets.
‘Lalić’s work…crackles with brilliant, arresting imagery forged by the heat of concentrated thought...' – Celia Hawkesworth, The Independent
November 21, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Almost here! I'll be there on friday evening and saturday day time, reading in the Versus Versus @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social anthology event at 12.30 on saturday. #Poetry #BookTalk #BookSky
Push the Boat Out 2025 is here! You can browse our programme, download a brochure, and book now 📣 🛶🎫

This year’s festival sets sail from 20-23 November with a bold mix of poetry, performance, music and art in a sparkling celebration of words in all their forms. pushtheboatout.org/programme/
November 20, 2025 at 6:35 PM
It's publication day for our November titles! 📚

This month we have new translations of Tomas Venclova, Pia Tafdrup and Ivan V. Lalić. Available now from our website and your local bookshop.

www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/new_titl...
November 20, 2025 at 11:21 AM
'...layered with myth, philosophy, and political wisdom, shimmering with rich context and thoughtful diction' - Jason Gordy Walker, Asymptote, on Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova's new retrospective The Grove of Eumenides (trs Hinsey, Senechal & Uzgiris).
www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2025/11...
What’s New in Translation: November 2025 - Asymptote Blog
New work from India, Serbia, France, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Iran, Spain, Lithuania, Palestine, and the Vietnamese diaspora!
www.asymptotejournal.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Join us tomorrow for our online launch event for new November titles by Tomas Venclova, Pia Tafdrup and Ivan V. Lalić (1931-96), with readings from the poets & translators, plus discussion with editor Neil Astley.
Watch live (or later) on YouTube on Thurs 20 Nov, 7pm GMT:
youtube.com/live/OTRTqP2...
November 19, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Forgot to mention I did the Wee Sparrow Poetry Podcast. Was lovely to chat about LIVES OF THE FEMALE POETS @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social theweesparrowpoetrypress.substack.com/p/episode-66...
Episode 66 - Clare Pollard
In this episode, Claire chats to acclaimed poet, novelist, playwright, translator and editor Clare Pollard about her fantastic sixth collection of poetry Lives of the Female Poets published by Bloodax...
theweesparrowpoetrypress.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
“If structural violence – settler colonialism, empire – sustains itself by insisting that the past is past, Lotfi’s poetry works to remind us that violence in actuality operates as a series of ‘not yets’ and deferrals”

Yumi Pak reviews THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK
www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2024/11/the-...
‘The Wrong Person to Ask’, by Marjorie Lotfi - The Bottle Imp
The last time I wrote a review for The Bottle Imp, the world had not yet experienced the public health crisis we now know as Covid-19; according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), ‘[a]lthough...
www.thebottleimp.org.uk
November 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Take out his heart,
lungs, one arm, the whole
belly, and the belt strap
that holds it all in place.
Let the lighthouse beacon
throw its false light
through him…

—Marjorie Lotfi, “Refuge”
in THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2023
#poem #poetry
www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/...
November 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
“And what is home if not the choice – over and over again – to stay?”

Marjorie Lotfi – winner of the 2024 Forward Prize for Best First Collection for THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK – on becoming a writer, from fleeing Iran as a child in 1978 to arriving in Scotland
writersmosaic.org.uk/people/marjo...
Marjorie Lotfi | WritersMosaic Magazine
Forward Prize winner 2024 for The Wrong Person to Ask, Lotfi moved to Tehran as a baby from the US and fled during the Iranian Revolution
writersmosaic.org.uk
November 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Lovely to see this staff recommendation of New Arcana in @hodgesfiggis.bsky.social ✨️

It's always so meaningful to know that the people who share our books with the world enjoy the work. ❤️
November 12, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Reading from LIVES OF THE FEMALE POETS tonight at Todmorden Library with Sarah Corbett as part of their literary festival @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/roc...
www.ticketsource.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Enjoyed The Censor’s Notebook by Liliana Corobca, so it’s nice to see her latest novel getting some attention. Longtime Tóth fan too - gorgeously spare, funny, quotidian cum metaphysical poetry. Interesting non-fiction picks. Such a great short list! #BookSky #Translation
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors."
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
November 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Many congratulations to the writers and translators on the @womenintranslation.bsky.social shortlist, especially to Hungarian poet Krisztina Tóth and her translator @georgeszirtes.bsky.social, shortlisted for My Secret Life: Selected Poems, published by Bloodaxe in February this year.
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors."
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
November 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
'Krisztina Toth’s luminous and haunting poetry tells the story of a self, in public and private.'

My Secret Life: Selected Poems, translated from Hungarian by poet @georgeszirtes.bsky.social, has been shortlisted for the @womenintranslation.bsky.social Prize.
www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...
November 11, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Bloodaxe Books
Animals and healing

Friday 14 November, 7—8.30pm GMT

The Resurgence Centre, Hartland

An evening with poet @pascalepetit.bsky.social and author @jay-griffiths.bsky.social exploring how animals can help us heal

Buy a ticket > www.tickettailor.com/events/there...

#Animals #Healing #Poetry #Writing
October 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM
A video is available of the @southbankcentre.bsky.social launch for @rachaelboast.bsky.social's anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets. Rachael Boast was joined by Karthika Naïr, Daniel Sluman, and Lisa Kelly. Starts at 18:22.
www.youtube.com/live/Ek9Bu6g...
Rachael Boast: Versus Versus – Live Stream
YouTube video by Southbank Centre
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:00 PM