Lucy Coats
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lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Lucy Coats
@lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
1.4K followers 550 following 340 posts
Writer/Poet/Myth witch. Classical Association Prize 2017. Latin Programme Poetry Prize 2022. Bridport Poetry Shortlist 2024. Holy rage Feminist/Animist. 🐝 🐍
Lover of owls & goddesses.

ADHD/ND & ME\CFS🥄
Free 🇵🇸
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Threads: @lucywriter
Web: lucycoats.com
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lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Lucy Coats @lucycoatswriter.bsky.social · Nov 14
Just made the beginnings of a starter pack for the #PoetryCommunity here, because I couldn’t find one. I’d like to add a few more small poetry presses/lit journals/magazines, so hit me up with your suggestions. Also, any fab poets I missed! go.bsky.app/HkRFQHo

#PoetsOnBluesky #Poetry
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Delighted to have my poem ‘If’ published in this quarter’s Beyond Queer Words magazine. Hope you enjoy it.

#poetry
#PoetsOfBluesky
#lgbtqia+
#QueerPoetry
Lucy Coats is a bisexual writer and poet living in Northamptonshire, UK. She writes about queerness, war, goddesses, the minutiae of the countryside where she lives, and the effects of patriarchy on the lives of women everywhere. In 2024 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize, and has been published in many magazines and literary journals, including Clarion, BQW and The Winged Moon. If I could start again, I would ask the Fates to send me lush-bodied witches with midnight hair, and pillow soft breasts to lay my head in the long light of solstice dawns. A back strong as oak boughs yet supple as willow fronds, so that I could dance fandangos without pain; a gut that could ingest the heat of scotch bonnets and laugh; a heart that loves without fear of becoming burnt sugar in a neglected copper pan. I would demand a life that fitted me like green velvet gloves on a plump holy whore
September 17, 2025 at 8:38 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Please fill in if you can, whether you are a @societyofauthors.bsky.social member or not.

#NoToAI
#GenerativeAI
#Books
#Authors
#Reading

societyofauthors.org/2025/07/11/h...
Human Authored Survey - The Society of Authors
We're looking for your opinions on schemes which certify that novels or books have been fully created by humans. Complete our survey here.
societyofauthors.org
July 28, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Lucy Coats
saltpublishing.com
Pre-order Chris Emery’s new collection ‘WONDER, with a massive 25% discount from Waterstones today – head to bit.ly/3GWJNdA

You will need to enter “SUMMER25” at the checkout to redeem the offer to receive 25% off RRP

Offer ends 31 July.
#WPreorder #BookSky
July 28, 2025 at 7:03 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
I am so excited to be starting to work on my new/first collection with the much-needed counsel of @hironstom.bsky.social. I have a framework, I think I have a title—now it’s down to making shortlists of poems and editing. Hard work ahead, but I know it will be worth it🤞🏻.

#PoetsOfBluesky
#Poetry
June 2, 2025 at 10:54 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
She’s not on here, but today’s #LiftToTheSky is for Joelle Taylor (elsewhere as @jtaylortrash) and her newest collection ’C+nto’ which has been a revelation & delight to me. Really—read it.
@brokenspinearts.bsky.social

#PrideMonth 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜
Cover of C+nto and Othered Poems by Joelle Taylor. Black and white lettering on dull gold background.
June 2, 2025 at 8:34 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
I added my name to demand real action from the UK government – not just words - to protect civilians and humanitarian workers in Gaza with @dotwuk.bsky.social. 💙 Please take a minute to do the same.
petition.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/page/171651/...
PETITION : The UK must put pressure on Israel
Doctors of the World humanitarian workers are responding to the mass violence in Gaza and the West Bank. Please sign the petition to protect civilians and medical workers.
petition.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk
May 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Wednesday is #gardening day for me, so I present to you (with pride) my beautiful, just picked French Breakfast Radishes. I may write a poem about their peppery crunchiness, and the way they feel in the mouth when I put sea salt with them. Later, though, when I’ve finished the weeding…
A bunch of radishes with leaves and one spring onion on a grey-blue wood background.
May 21, 2025 at 6:44 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Hooray! Just discovered #ThickTrunkTuesday is here. This is one of my own favourites—an ancient oak in Somerset, where I used to go for a writing retreat every January. He has very comfortable roots to lie in and dream.
An old oak tree standing in a frosty field, surrounded by sleeping sheep.
May 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
A #LiftToTheSky @brokenspinearts.bsky.social this week for poet and writer @nikitagill.bsky.social whose work on myths and goddesses is stellar, and whose poetry uplifts me every time I read it. Here’s one of hers about rage and justice, very appropriate for the times we live in.
May 19, 2025 at 9:58 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
A #LiftToTheSky @brokenspinearts.bsky.social this week for poet and Clarion Poetry lit journal editor @hironstom.bsky.social whose poetry lifts the soul. Honestly, if you haven’t read ‘Sometimes A Wild God’ yet, what are you waiting for? tomhirons.com/poetry/somet...
Sometimes a Wild God
The underground poetry classic by Tom Hirons - read it, listen to it, buy the poem as a book or poster
tomhirons.com
May 12, 2025 at 10:19 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Part of my poem 'How To Heal Your Own Wolf Souls' which I read at last night's launch for Clarion 5 (recording here: clarionpoetry.com/videos) It was a wonderful evening full of love and poetry, compèred most ably by Clarion Poetry's founder and editor-in-chief, @hironstom.bsky.social

#poetry
How To Heal Your Own Wolf Souls A spell for inflorescence in thirteen parts Lucy Coats Do not feed your gaunt, black wolf, the one whose many nightmare names intimidate your dreams; the one who gnaws down the roots of your soul, even as she hungers for sticky morsels of hate, the bitter rage broth of despair. Instead, feed those to the dandelion seeds; let them spin out on a westerly wind, touching sun and descending once more to ground, becoming forever gold in spring after blooming spring.
May 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
There's a tradition of challenges by female deities and mythological characters to their lovers (or tormentors)—this is mine. Not much is known about the nymph Cyrene of Thrace/Ares’ relationship, which leaves a lovely big information void for me to write what I needed to.
#PoetsOfThreads
#Mythology
Cyrene to Ares, God of War Would you love me more if I returned my rage to Thracian earth, became once more the shy, sweet nymph you courted for her safe behaviour (and maybe for her looks)? You say I’ve changed, become a Fate, perhaps the one with scissors, and it’s true. But know I only do what burning Gaza now demands, deadhead the rotten roses, cut them out of time—politicians who lie, the child killers, women rapers and the genocidal pricks. Maybe you should call me Nemesis and have done. ©️Lucy Coats/@lucywriter
May 8, 2025 at 11:55 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Please share. This ship of humanitarian aid workers needs rescue NOW.
#HumanitarianAid
#Gaza
#SOS
May 2, 2025 at 7:01 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
A new birthday poem from the lakes of Switzerland. And a statutory selfie to mark the day, from the same place.

#Poem
#PoetsOfBluesky
#HappyBirthday
#Switzerland
Birthday Meditation Overlooking The Moritzersee Still waters run deep, they say, but still is not the same as silenced, and deep is what an old heart craves. Underneath the paddling coot, feathers all awry from landing wrong, swim mountain char, silver scales reflecting sun. Below lake mud is rock so old it knew the world before the world began. Yesterday its mica glitter caught my eye, a shard ripped out of place. So shall I be in my ripened age, a shining stillness framed and held by ground, rooted soul-fast and loved by earthen things and stars. ©️ Lucy Coats/@lucywriter A white haired woman with a yellow red and black scarf, and a lake with snowy mountains and woods behind her. She is wearing glasses and smiling. Her hair is in a bun.
April 29, 2025 at 11:37 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
A new sad love poem for small poem Sunday. Enjoy!

#SmallPoemSunday
#PoetsOfBluesky
#Love
Sometimes our souls are in the river holding on despite the flow. Sometimes our hearts are nested swallows who never yet flew south. Sometimes I dream I am the sun, remember I’m alone. ©️Lucy Coats/@lucywriter
April 27, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Lucy Coats
magickitten.bsky.social
'It's my life, their life, and our shared story… This is Gaza as it truly is' MOTAZ AZIZA

We Are Not Numbers is so close to becoming the first UK bestseller of the year written by a Palestinian @wearenotnumbers.bsky.social

Order your copy now:
uk.bookshop.org/a/1353/97815...
A photo of a hardback book against a pinky brown background. The text says WE ARE NOT NUMBERS Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey 'These pages carry the truth of our struggle and the beauty of our humanity. This is Gaza as it truly is, written by those who live it every day' MOTAZ AZAIZA ‘Impossible to put down or forget' RIZ AHMED ‘This book is a jailbreak - and a miracle’ NAOMI KLEIN The Voices of Gaza's Youth 'Light streams out of this collection - it etches the angles and curves of Palestinian humanity’ TA-NEHISI COATES
April 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
I’m beginning to chronicle my poetry journey over on Substack. Free for now. I hope you’ll join me.

#Substack
#PoetsOfBluesky
#WritersofBluesky
📚💙

open.substack.com/pub/lucycoat...
How the Muse of Poetry Upturned My Life
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
open.substack.com
April 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
For my trans sisters and brothers, a poem I wrote for you after yesterday’s terrible news.

#PoetsOfBluesky
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
A Meditation on Cornflowers Consider the cornflower (mixed), making meadows lovely since time began, blue, white, pink, scatter stars among the green. Does each choose a colour, or are they perfect in their own difference, being exactly what they are in their transitions, not mown down by hate but loved for their exact beauty? ©️Lucy Coats/@lucywriter
April 17, 2025 at 4:56 PM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
I stand with my trans sisters and brothers, and against JKR’s hatred and bigotry every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Just so we’re crystal clear here.

#transrights
#transwomenarewomen
#transmenaremen
sloanelysbeth.bsky.social รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️‍🌈 @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · Nov 26
jk rowling funded a case going before the supreme court that argues it should be legal to discriminate against and persecute trans ppl.

yet still we have to listen to ‘centrists’ claiming she isn’t bigoted she just has ‘a difference of opinion’.

no trans ppl have a voice in these proceedings.
April 16, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Lucy Coats
mckelvie.bsky.social
This is where your Harry Potter money goes
sloanelysbeth.bsky.social รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️‍🌈 @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · Nov 26
jk rowling funded a case going before the supreme court that argues it should be legal to discriminate against and persecute trans ppl.

yet still we have to listen to ‘centrists’ claiming she isn’t bigoted she just has ‘a difference of opinion’.

no trans ppl have a voice in these proceedings.
April 16, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Lucy Coats
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
CALLING ALL #AGENTS In this thread are three packs of GREAT WRITERS who are looking for representation. Check them out and you won’t be disappointed. Everyone else, please repost to help these brilliant people if you can. PACK ONE (full). Thank you! #amquerying #querying #writingcommunity #booksky
April 16, 2025 at 6:59 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
It’s Monday. I’m utterly enraged by all those who so casually play the AI ‘action doll’ game. Does nobody realise it’s based on art stolen from actual artists? So…I wrote a sweary thing. Call me a killjoy. I don’t care.
#PoetsOfBlueSky
#GenAI
#ActionDolls
To All Those Jumping On The Fake AI Doll Wagon I do not need AI to tell me I am not a fucking doll. I am abundant flesh, red hot rage blood, and a dose of star dust. Put that in your algorithm and smoke it, yeah? ©️Lucy Coats/@lucywriter
April 14, 2025 at 8:50 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Early Muse call this morning at 5.30. I dictated this draft from her in the drifting space between sleep and waking for day 5 of #NaPoWriMo after seeing yet more horrifying video footage last night. Anyone else have a Muse prodding them into action? 🆓🇵🇸
#PoetsOfBluesky
#Poetry
#Mythology
#Goddesses
When Humans Fly Like Birds If you want to play with Minerva, find a bright coffin in deep waters. Line it with silk, spun from the hair of ravens. Let there be a sword in its belly. For so She will demand, She the lightning dweller. Her playground is war, but She will have justice before the end of time. Never forget She is also Nemesis. Where will you run to, faithless dogs? You who snipe the flesh of children, you who kill the healers, you who drop death, make helpless humans fly inair stained grey with blood. For She will hunt you down, Her Gorgon shield turn you to stone until the final day of judgement comes. Take your coffin, set sail down a chute of red rocks, till you come to the wine-dark sea, and find Her, waiting. ©️Lucy Coats/@lucywriter
April 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Lucy Coats
fossilfreebooks.org
The Society of Authors needs to change. But it won’t without you.

Join – or rejoin – as a Full Member by Wednesday 30th April to vote in this year’s Management Committee elections.

Writers, translators & illustrators face huge challenges right now… (1/5)
The Society of Authors needs to change. But it won’t without you. Join – or rejoin – as a Full Member by Wednesday 30th April to vote in this year’s Management Committee elections. Writers, translators and illustrators face huge challenges right now including: falling earnings, the threat of AI, the sector’s complicity in genocide and fossil fuel extraction, challenges to free speech. Can you resist these threats? Yes! But only if you have a member-led union that truly represents you. Fossil Free Books recommends that writers, translators and illustrators join the Society of Authors. With its wealth of resources and powerful industry connections, it has great potential – but without you it can’t channel that potential into meaningful action. Recent successes at the 2024 AGM and EGM have already shown that you have the power to use its existing democratic processes to make it the healthy, bold trade union that you need and deserve. The only way to create a fairer, more sustainable industry is to create it together. Your union won’t change without you – and the first step is to join. If you need support with your union fees, you can claim £50 through our Open Collective fund (link in post).
April 4, 2025 at 11:52 AM
lucycoatswriter.bsky.social
Never written a folk horror poem before, so was thrilled to get this one published in Vial of Bones zine’s ‘My Eldritch Horsey’ edition last month. Prepare to have your socks scared off by the Mari Lwyd.
#Poetry
#PoetsOfBluesky
#Horror
#Folklore
She comes, she comes, she always comes, beware, you golden, dancing girls and black-maned boys, who line the streets with shouts and laughing eyes, you who cry taunts and brazen challenges, snapping fingers and clicking phones, daring her skull to come and get you, shivering at your own fear, for always, underneath you know you know you know the night mare comes. Between the flicker and the flame she dwells, where light and shadow meet the wall, behind the lamp, beside the bed. And she will come, all sheet-less now, bones held apart with naught but air, her mane astir with frozen griefs, teeth sharper than the banshee’s screaming knife. She comes for you, you silly child, you who shouted loudest, who caught her empty eye and smiled, not knowing her for what she really is, Mistress of Revels at dark Arawn’s Ball, she who lurks in Annwyn, dark and drear, till she is called again to fill his halls for New Year’s Night. No human door for her— that thing you think is twig, tapping your pane, is not. A soft brush of her ghostly mane is all the warning she will give before her teeth are at your throat, draining out your human blood to serve as wine for morgens. Your frail flesh is entrée for Arawn the king, roasted with bitter herbs, served on a plate carved from your hips, licked white by her vanished tongue, and fashioned by the Elf Queen’s smith himself, pinned with silver, for no iron may enter here. Your fragile skin she takes in one fast strip, hangs it it with other fools from previous years, grim pink bunting on a washing line of thorns. Your soul she holds in a jar, made from the heart of a kelpie maid, who spurned her once, centuries ago. They’ll find you gone, no trace, no clue, no sign, and never know your fate hung on one smile. So all you black-maned lads and golden girls, beware: she comes, she comes, she always comes, the ghost-maned mare, she made of air and bones. ©️Lucy Coats Lucy Coats is a writer mostly focused on mythology, but her poetry takes in a wider view, encompassing the minutiae of nature and the countryside, as well as war, grief, Celtic folklore, witches, queerness and sacred feminism. She is currently working on her debut poetry collection as well as researching and writing a book on matriarchal goddesses. In 2024 she was shortlisted for The Bridport Poetry Prize, and in 2022 won the Latin Programme Poetry Prize. Her work has also appeared in The Winged Moon,ThreadLitMag, Beyond Queer Words and Clarion. She is based in Northamptonshire. Roll Up, Roll Up For The Mari Lwyd Show’ is a poem steeped in the folkloric carnival tradition of the Mari Lwyd, the skeletal horse skull who dances through the streets of South Wales on New Year’s Day, above a sheet-clad bearer. But behind the carnival revels is a darker truth, and a sacrifice for the feast of Arawn, king of Annwyn, must be paid. Only the brightest and best may apply all unknowing for an honour they never asked for. Mari Lwyd, Mistress of Ceremonies, will have her due. There are things that go bump in the night… and things that merely whisper your fate. Think Shiver by Nox Arcana, and that thing you can’t quite see out of the corner of your dreaming eye.
April 4, 2025 at 12:59 PM