Maryville : LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION
A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION

''Taylor''s poetry is as dangerous as it is dexterous . . . A wildfire blazing free'' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
''Kaleidoscopic in its breath, structure and humanity . . . Both selfless and intimate'' ANTHONY JOSEPH
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From the T. S. Eliot and Polari Prize-winning author of C+NTO & Othered Poems comes an innovative collection exploring the scars, hopes and potentialities of dyke counterculture and the queer underground.

With a vividly sketched cast of characters, award-winning poet Joelle Taylor uses the Maryville butch bar as a lens through which to consider the underground histories of queer London. The violence and pain of oppression and the beauty and intimacy of community are rendered in awe-inspiring high definition in a collection as filmic as it is familiar. A hybrid chronicle, magic trick, prayer and insurrection, Maryville conjures ghosts back to their bodies, a community to their feet.

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''Sexy, fearless – and ravishingly beautiful'' NEIL BARTLETT
''One of the most powerful voices of our time . . . Joelle Taylor is a genius'' CACONRAD