ISBN: 978-1-916760-14-1

Price: £11.99

Publication date: 10th April 2025

Format: Paperback

Territories: World

Extent: 72pp

DCF: Poetry Collections

Cover artwork: ‘Sent Off’, 2019 (photo) © Juno Calypso

Lady, the first full collection of poems by Laurie Bolger, arrives with an effervescent rush of endorphins and explores the many roles girls and women are asked to play and the dressing-up outfits they try on for size – whether housewife or hen, sister or mum, landlady, exercise instructor or best friend forever. Bolger’s poems turn her bold, funny and wise words on boys, body image and the pressure to make yourself fit into a pigeon-hole when all you really want to do is soar away on your own wings.

Here, these gritty and luminous poems look to the things that sustain us when navigating an imperfect world obsessed with perfection. Whether dancing in the kitchen, crying in the bath or eating crisps, these poems are equal parts delicious, joyous, and bittersweet. A celebration of the resilience of working-class women and the solidarity and love found in friendship and family, Bolger’s poems dare to dream and be wild – and invite us all to join her.

Praise for Lady:

“Dazzling, moving, witty and insightful poems which look at the world with an oft-surreal eye, and show the lives, the truths, the people, who might ordinarily be overlooked” - Andrew McMillan

“Intimate, warm, and with teeth clenching wit, Bolger turns the domestic into an epic. Her leaps of surreality are breathtaking, unexpected and painful. Moving, tender and always curious Lady is a book that will hold your hand in the supermarket." - Joelle Taylor

“Laurie Bolger’s writing is a best friend, a memory, a picnic, a hug and a punch. ‘I want to live without weighing thing’ is maybe my favourite line of poetry this year, and definitely my new life motto.” – Hollie McNish

About the author:

Laurie Bolger is a London based writer and the founder of The Creative Writing Breakfast Club. Laurie’s work has been widely anthologised and featured at Glastonbury, on Sky Arts and BBC Global News. Laurie’s first publication Box Rooms celebrated community and her W10 roots. Laurie was the winner of The Moth Poetry Prize in 2023 and was shortlisted for The Sylvia Plath, Bridport and Forward Poetry Prizes. Her pamphlets include Makeover by The Emma Press and Spin by The Poetry Business.