Look Away Now

This brave, outspoken book of poetry is a collective response by women to the horror of the images that fill our screens with their grotesque inhumanity, violence and pain. With sickening regularity, newsreaders say, 'Some viewers may find this report distressing.' How else could we respond? Director, Lynn Michell, did what she could - she made a book. After a call out, from over two-hundred-and-fifty submissions, we chose those which best expressed an almost unspeakable despair, and hope. Many of those who submitted writing also thanked us for publishing women's voices that are louder together than separate, and which record a communal cry of shock, disbelief and fear. And amongst the despair, you will find truth, courage and hope. Wars, genocide, famine and a melting planet have reduced some of us to a powerless silence. Others have found the courage and strength to clothe unbearably painful thoughts and emotions with words. Women poets, emergent and established, come together here to write about their incredulity and fear. It is an honour for Linen Press to have these wise voices in a single book.