I am delighted with these two early reviews of Constructing a Witch. With thanks to Elizabeth Rimmer and Hilary Hares.

The High Window/ Constructing a Witch by Helen Ivory

This is very exciting news and I have afforded myself an exclamation mark for this very special occasion! There goes another one. I’ll stop there and calm down with a cup of tea.

Here is the link for the book on the Bloodaxe site, just in case you need it . . .https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/constructing-a-witch-1355

Absolutely amazed to have been selected for this year’s Cholmondeley Awards. I had to keep this a secret for two months, which was a little challenging to say the very least. We only found out at the Awards ceremony at Southwark Cathedral, who the other winners were. It turned out to be Fiona Benson, Gerry Cambridge, Julia Copus, Leontia Flynn, Roger Robinson – all of whom I admire and respect. This is me with the excellent Kate Mosse. I still can’t quite believe it . . .

‘Helen Ivory, a highly individualistic poet and visual artist, conjures a world that is both magical and sharply real. As in freshly conceived fairy tales, everything is transmutable. She expresses the intrinsic strangenesses of life, and makes a brilliant contribution to female empowerment through poems that are disturbing, agile, and visually telling.’ – Moniza Alvi, Cholmondeley Award co-judge

Thank you so much to all of the judges: Hannah Lowe, Malika Booker, Lachlan Mackinnon and of course, Moniza Alvi.

I am (clearly!) surprised and delighted to have finally spotted my poem which has been riding the rails of the London Underground for the past six months. I live in Norwich and visit London rarely. Lots of people have sent me photographs of their sightings, and now finally with my own eyeballs! The link to the poem without my photobombing phyzog, is here: https://poemsontheunderground.org/the-square-of-the-clockmaker

I am very exited to reveal the cover image of my forthcoming (sixth!) collection from the wonderful Bloodaxe Books. The book will appear in October 2024, in time for Samhain. I’ve been working on this since 2019 and was lucky enough to receive ACE funding for research and writing time. I have in no way finished with this vast subject – it’s in my blood!

Regarding the image itself: I made the sculpture, which is a doll draped in plaster of Paris based on a poppet I saw in a museum at Salem. My husband Martin Figura took the photograph of the trees and the crows at Buckenham Carrs (where thousands roost in winter). Martin photographed my sculpture and then did some wizardry with photoshop. There is no colour filter applied to the image – the camera recorded the colours of dusk, exactly like that. I love how Bloodaxe have echoed the reflection in the type.

Here is the blurb which will go on the back of the book:

Despite the Devil being conceived to direct human baseness away from our goodly selves, there has always been sin in the world.  The Bible has it that woman is the weaker vessel, therefore her inferior ways could easily let the Devil into the house, and into her oh so corruptible body – and thus the story begins.  

Helen Ivory’s new collection Constructing a Witch fixes on the monstering and the scapegoating of women and on the fear of ageing femininity. The witch appears as the barren, child-eating hag; she is a lustful seductress luring men to a path of corruption; she is a powerful or cantankerous woman whose cursing must be silenced by force.

These bewitching poems explore the witch archetype and the witch as human woman.  They examine the nature of superstition and the necessity of magic and counter-magic to gain a fingerhold of agency, when life is chaotic and fragile.  In the poems of Constructing a Witch Helen Ivory investigates witch tourism, the witch as outsider, cultural representations of the witch, female power and disempowerment, the menopause, and how the female body has been used and misunderstood for centuries.

I am delighted to announce this! How lovely to have something to announce.

The book comprises a selection of poems from all of my Bloodaxe collections, my Tarot from ‘Fool’s World’ (Gatehouse Press), the entirety of Maps of the Abandoned City (SurVision) and some collages/ assemblages.

It will be available in the UK in May via Amazon, and I will be launching it in the US. I’ll add it to the book page when it becomes available. Pre-orders here: https://madhat-press.com/products/wunderkammer-by-helen-ivory