New and Recent Poetry from the North: Winter 2025

Snagged on red thread is the new pamphlet by Jazmine Linklater, a Northern Writers’ Award winner in 2024. These intriguing and observant poems are threaded with a sense of urgency and snagged by a fierce intelligence. Beautifully produced by Monitor Books, Jazmine’s pamphlet is an artwork to be cherished.

Andrew Sclater’s close, precise and intriguingly off-kilter poems are frequently moving and captivating in their clarity. Quite Joyful (Mariscat) is a wonderfully rich, original book by a poet who won a Northern Writers’ Award in 2011. Reading Andrew’s work feels like an encounter with an old friend.

Diane Cockburn is a North East-based poet whose consistently excellent poetry takes the reader into deeply compelling territory. Her substantial new collection, Radiant Crow (Mudfog), is full of delight and adventure. Poems like ‘Whitepark Bay’ and ‘Allwedd’ entangle memories in a way that is both familiar and strange.

Another recent title from Mudfog is Vigils, the debut pamphlet by John Moran, based in Weardale. These striking poems use multiple voices to bring to life the poet’s experiences working as a nurse during hospital night shifts. These are often powerful and considered poems with a haunting quality.

Looking ahead to early next year, I’m excited to read The Natural Way by the brilliant Roma Havers, who won a Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry in 2024. Their debut is published by Carcanet in February.

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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