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Hilary Menos

Friday Poem editor Hilary Menos has had two poetry collections published by Seren Books, Berg (2009), which won the Felix Dennis Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2010, and Red Devon (2013). Her pamphlet, Human Tissue (Smith|Doorstop, 2020), was a winner in The Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition 2019/20. She completed an MA with distinction in Creative Writing at MMU in 2013 and has reviewed poetry and theatre for Tribune, HappenStance, PN Review and Warwick Review, among others. She lives in France and has four sons.

    Chestnut ribbon of speed

    Chestnut ribbon of speed

    Hilary Menos reviews The Luck by Jane Routh (Smith|Doorstop, 2024)
    And blue things

    And blue things

    Helena Nelson and Hilary Menos discuss With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang (Corsair, 2024)
    Photos of Nell and Hilary. Both looking studious.

    Five Forward poems under the microscope

    Helena Nelson and Hilary Menos discuss the five poems shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (Written)
    Woodcut showing a woman holding a baby.

    Oh tears and blood

    Hilary Menos reviews The Snow Globe by Jenny Pagdin (Nine Arches, 2024)
    Curved off-white lines in a slightly art deco style, or maybe resembling pipes in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory surround the word Contra-flow in a block capital decorative font. All of this is on a dark brown background.

    The little Englands of my grief

    Hilary Menos reviews Contraflow: Lines of Englishness 1922–2022, selected by John Greening & Kevin Gardner (Renard, 2023)
    Part of the words "Many Professional Wrestlers Never Retire" in white italic script font on a purple background.

    The Heavyweight Champion of the World

    Hilary Menos reviews Many Professional Wrestlers Never Retire by Dane Holt (The Lifeboat, 2023)
    Hares cunningly disguised as squiggles. On a grey background.

    The story of herself

    Hilary Menos reviews nine by David Harsent (Guillemot Press, 2023)
    Ink line drawing on crumpled cartridge paper. A round face looks almost like a tribal mask with an open mouth and a block bad around and across the eyes (though we can still see the eyes). The nose is a triangle.

    No one wears Brooches anymore

    Hilary Menos reviews Savage Tales by Tara Bergin (Carcanet, 2022
    A close up black and white picture of a fallen wine glass, and dark liquid is splashing out.

    Blown like glass into brittle intricacies

    Hilary Menos reviews Slide by Mark Pajak (Cape, 2022)
    We see the back of a young girl standing on the stage at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. She is wearing a denim jacket and her arms are outstretched.

    Choose a poem, learn it by heart, share it out loud

    Julie Blake, co-founder of Poetry By Heart, talks about the benefits of learning poetry, the joys of performance, and the Poetry By Heart national poetry speaking competition

    Photos by Sam Strickland
    A photograph of Phillip Gross. He is looking quizzical and has grey hair and a beard.

    The difficult visiting times

    Philip Gross discusses writing poetry about his family in The Wasting Game and Deep Field, the importance of self-knowledge, and what makes a 'good' poem
    Portion of a book cover. It has a dark red background with parts of the words The and Red shown.

    Schist and quartz and sparks of mica

    Hilary Menos reviews The Red House by Sharon Black (Drunk Muse Press, 2022)
    A photograph showing golden wheat-like grass with a textured blue background.

    A soft labyrinth of signals

    Hilary Menos reviews The Grass Boat by Imogen Forster (Mariscat, 2021)
    Pop Art-style graphic showing a 50s style pin-up girl lounging on a big old American car.

    Hope is a thing with 1. Fur 2. Down 3. Feathers 4. An exoskeleton

    Hilary Menos reviews I Dreamed I Was Emily Dickinson’s Boyfriend by Ron Koertge (Red Hen Press, 2022)
    A detail from 'Hato zu' a woodcut by Konen Uchara. It shows a rolling blue ocean with white flecks and a blue sky.

    Letting the shadow out of the box

    Hilary Menos reviews Turn Up the Ocean by Tony Hoagland (Bloodaxe, 2022)
    Dark purple circles on a pale pink background. The circles look a bit like cells and are surrounded by dots and same shapes in swirling patterns.

    The year I was lost in the core of a star

    Hilary Menos reviews Ovarium by Joanna Ingham (Emma Press, 2022)
    A predominantly black and white old photograph of an oldish woman standing if front of a stone house, arms akimbo. She is dressed in black and wearing a black bonnet-like hat. Her apron is in colour and embroidered with large primitive flower shapes.

    Ce n’est pas une métaphore

    Hilary Menos reviews Our Lady of Tyres / Notre dame des pneus by Claire Trévien, translated from English to French by Marie Lando (Broken Sleep Books, 2022)
    A background of the stock exchange with the words "The economist can tell you about your bank balance, but the poet has a window into your soul" superimposed

    Like worms on the corruption in which they are bred

    Hilary Menos reviews The Poets’ Guide to Economics by John Ramsden (Pallas Athene, 2022)
    A tiny man defending himself from a large and dangerous looking cat! Its a poster image from the film " The Incredible Shrinking Man"

    After the first phase, after the great fall

    In the first of a new series of close readings, Hilary Menos unpacks the poem ‘Incredible’ by Simon Armitage
    A white butterfly caught in a spiders web, the image is monochrome

    A gorgeous fluorescent yes

    Hilary Menos reviews Ephemeron by Fiona Benson (Cape, 2022)
    Four people dressed in sparkly festival gear, one with a blue suit covered in white clouds.They are screaming with joy and waving neon coloured glow sticks. Party on!

    I could have been betterer. Et-fucking-cetera

    Hilary Menos reviews Miracle Theatre’s Everyman, adapted by Carol Ann Duffy, at the Princess Pavillion, Falmouth
    What does Hilary Menos say?

    What does Hilary Menos say?

    I like poetry that keeps the lid on AND lets the pig out ...
    The three pamphlet covers, Sarah's is white with a green diagonal flash, Judi's has the title in a blue oval on a background pencil drawing of a river and rocks and Hugo's is the shadow of banister railings non a light brown background.

    Three pamphlets: Sarah Mnatzaganian, Judi Sutherland and Hugo Williams

    Matthew Paul reviews Lemonade in the Armenian Quarter by Sarah Mnatzaganian, Maggie Mackay reviews Following Teisa by Judi Sutherland and Hilary Menos reviews Badlands by Hugo Williams
    Colourful almost paisley image with curving floral designs in the foreground on a background of blue white with brown tendril like patterns

    When you are being eaten by vultures they will leave your face alone

    Hilary Menos reviews Jongleur by Rennie Parker (Shoestring, 2021)
    The eyes of the Bard almost like he's looking through a letterbox, on a yellow rectangle on an off white background

    Go long

    Hilary Menos reviews Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard (Penned in the Margins, 2021), winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021
    Three book covers. One with six colourful graphics including a bear and a blow up flamingo, one pink sparkle with a chrome compact mirror and one green with black and dark green text

    Three pamphlets: Richie McCaffery, Phoebe Stuckes and Julia Bird

    Mat Riches reviews Coping Stones by Richie McCaffery, Emma Simon reviews The One Girl Gremlin by Phoebe Stuckes and Hilary Menos reviews is, thinks Pearl by Julia Bird
    The words "You're fucking lost 
and fucking found 
stuck in fucking 
chicken town" in white stencil font on a black background

    Punk Poetry – bitten the dust or alive and well?

    Hilary Menos looks back at the poets who embodied the spirit of punk in the 1970s and 80s and asks where are the punk poets of today?
    Front cover of Lyonesse by Penny Shuttle. A watercolour of the sea and cliffs depicting many creatures underwater and a long serpentine body emerging with a female human head.

    Looking for the ones who will never be found

    Hilary Menos reviews Lyonesse by Penny Shuttle (Bloodaxe, 2021)
    Three pamphlets arranged in a loose fan shape. 'Diary of a Divorce' shows a woman standing in a doorway, 'the hispering' features an abstract figure that looks a bit like an upside down doll and 'Crucifox' has an arresting yellow graphic of a fox head with a direct gaze

    Three pamphlets: S. D. Curtis, Sarah Hymas and Geraldine Clarkson

    Richie McCaffery reviews Diary of a Divorce by S. D. Curtis, Carla Scarano D'Antonio reviews the hispering by Sarah Hymas, and Hilary Menos reviews Crucifox by Geraldine Clarkson
    Three poetry pamphlets - 'Fridge' by Selima Hill (blue with a white outline pic of a fridge and a goose on?, 'Oh Be Quiet' by Natalie Shaw (white with a bit of yellow), and 'do not be lulled by the dainty starlike blossom' by Rachael Matthews - dark green with black outline flowers

    Three pamphlets: Selima Hill, Natalie Shaw and Rachael Matthews

    Hilary Menos reviews Fridge by Selima Hill (The Rialto, 2021), oh be quiet by Natalie Shaw (Against the Grain, 2020), and do not be lulled by the dainty starlike blossom by Rachael Matthews (The Emma Press, 2021)
    Part of the front cover of The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards showing what looks like an abstract yellow boat

    Surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors

    Hilary Menos reviews The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards (Smokestack, 2021)
    green front cover of poetry book How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil

    A literature that is not made of literature

    Hilary Menos reviews How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil, winner of the TS Eliot Prize 2020
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    26/01/2022

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