Dame Julie Andrews’ Botched Vocal Cord Surgery and Other PoemsIn the title poem of Katherine Meehans debut collection, Dame Julie Andrews Botched Vocal Cord Surgery and Other Poems, the poet presents an examination of losses, failures, and griefs, all of them tempered by an unusual humour. Grounded in the particularities of location, these poems wander between urban and rural spaces, from Los Angeles and Appalachia to the English home counties. Glass eels, Grendels mother and a host of nameless losers are given

a young Egyptian writer and journalist visiting the war-ridden city for the first time

during the opening minutes of the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool

Sacred wells have played an important part in the culture and landscape of Cornwall for several millennia

Faces with Twisted Tongues (1998) and The Cardplayer’s Morning (2008)

Olesia Nikolaeva

When the day had given up the world

a daughter is haunted by her mentally ill mother

The Means Which Enable Me to Work was performed in an Arlington New Plays Festival in 2004

At the end of the collection

wholly comedic and deeply poignant

Ali Bader: Excerpt from the novel The Naked Feast

Nizar Qabbani