Laurie Bolger: How I Wrote ‘Bants’
“[There] were scaffolders banging outside our window ‘talking loud’ shouting and swearing… I wrote this poem in my phone notes app whilst we listened to them and made ourselves a tea”
“[There] were scaffolders banging outside our window ‘talking loud’ shouting and swearing… I wrote this poem in my phone notes app whilst we listened to them and made ourselves a tea”
A poem by Jenny Mitchell, in solidarity with actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
“During these visits, I am immersed in familiar company, and it isn’t until I have short moments away from family, in solitude, when I take stock of my surroundings and focus on the unfamiliarity of everything”
“I’m always thinking about who gets to speak and be listened to, and who gets silenced”
“When I attempted to put my feelings on paper it became clear that it would be a long, slow process with hard work and determination at its core”
“If you let your characters speak, you can give them enough rope to hang themselves: they reveal their own nature without the narrator having to comment; you’re showing and not telling”