New and Recent Poetry from the North: Summer 2026

I’m looking forward to reading Kim Moore’s new collection, The House of Broken Things (Corsair), which explores motherhood and the complexities of past trauma. Kim Moore is an immensely skilled and dazzling poet, with a unique poetic voice, who deserves to be considered one of our finest contemporary writers. Her poems are brave, memorable and exciting.

The Green Parcel (Bloodaxe) is the second full collection from the gifted poet John Challis. The collection includes poems written by John during his time as writer-in-residence at Seaton Delaval Hall. This substantial collection represents a shift in the poet’s focus, as well as a broadening of his lens and concerns, while also being deeply personal. There are some close, elegant poems about fatherhood, such as ‘Kindling’, as well as poems that capture intimate moments, such as the gorgeous and questioning ‘North Shields Nocturn’.

Antony Dunn’s follow-up collection to the characted-filled and narrative-driven Take this One to Bed, is the brilliantly titled Inbetween Days, published by Valley Press. His careful, intimate and observational poems are so often immediately striking, moving and thoughtful. Antony Dunn’s poems settle in the mind after reading and he’s a poet whose work I’ll come back to re-read and enjoy again.

The Worrying Rose (Picador) is the fourth collection by Katharine Towers, a remarkable poet whose work is steeped in deep intelligence, stunning use of language and a distilled humour. This is another book I’m very much looking forward to reading this summer.

If you’re a poet based in the north or a publisher with a new collection or pamphlet by a northern poet and would like to be considered for future versions of this round-up, please get in touch with [email protected].

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