Wednesday, 10 December 2025

'Polar Corona', my prize-winning poetry pamphlet on Antarctica

 



I am excited to say that I have just received advance copies of Polar Corona, my prize-winning 'crown-of-sonnets' poetry pamphlet, published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press.  

 

For further details: click here

 

From the blurbs:

“In Polar Corona, Caroline Gill offers a vivid and precise depiction of Antarctica’s landscape and wildlife, especially the seasonal rhythms of penguins’ lives, interwoven with a poignant exploration of human fortitude in this most testing of environments. Her marvellous ear for the music of a poem is evident throughout and the intricate pattern of mostly half rhymes cleverly accentuates the pervading sense of risk and unpredictability." 

 – Susan Richardson, Author of Where the Seals Sing (William Collins, 2022) and Words the Turtle Taught Me (Cinnamon Press, 2018), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award 


“Caroline Gill has produced a beautifully crafted cycle of poems, in which the final line of each one is taken up by the next until the final poem brings us back to where we began, in a perfect round. These poems bring the Antarctic to life, a vast world of ice and snow, a world of astonishing loveliness, illuminated by the stars, and at the same time a world in which human beings and creatures such as penguins live out a perilous existence."

– Professor J. R. Watson, University of Durham 

  

“When we introduce people to objects, artworks and archives in our polar collections, they are transported to a time and place far removed from our museum in Cambridge. In Caroline Gill’s evocative Polar Corona, she closes the distance and brings the ‘heroic age’ of polar exploration to life. Her words open a window in our imaginations directly onto Antarctica’s remote sights and sounds.”

– Dr Charlotte Connelly, Former Museum Curator, The Polar Museum, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

 

Saturday, 18 October 2025

'Polar Corona' ... today is 'Cover Reveal Day'

 

My super-slim prize-winning poetry pamphlet, Polar Corona, has nearly reached publication. It's almost 'touch down' time for the penguin. You can read a bit more by clicking here. And meanwhile, I hope you like the cover. 

Saturday, 1 June 2024

Little Black Book: Exhibition Cards for Imaginary Paintings

 

Mini anthology: 'Exhibition Cards for Imaginary Paintings' - see here

 

These stylish Little Black Books arrived in the post today as my contributor copies from the Hedgehog Poetry Press

Participating poets were invited to write an imaginary gallery label for an imaginary artwork. 

Each of the eleven selected entries is accompanied by a few details pertaining to size of work, type of media etc. I don't want to give too much away, but my poem has something to do with a wild creature in the woods - or does it?

Little Black Books are staple-bound and the size of a postcard or pocket-book.

 

Monday, 1 January 2024

'World Poetry Anthology' edited by Hassanal Abdullah

 

 

David Gill and I are delighted to be included in this new anthology of poetry from across the globe, compiled and edited by Hassanal Abdullah to mark 25 years of his international poetry journal, Shabdaguchha.

This volume published by Darklight Publishing (New York and Mexico) features, among many others, poems by Pablo Neruda, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Peter Thabit Jones (poet, writer and editor of The Seventh Quarry Press), Louise Glück and Lidia Chiarelli.  

You can buy the anthology here

David's poem is a nod to Edward Thomas. My poem, 'Preseli Blue', concerns a bluestone from Stonehenge and was triggered by the sight of one of these boulders on display in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, way back in 2001.  

Previous post: click here.

Friday, 22 December 2023

'Winter', a Special Solstice eBook


Shingle Street, looking inland from the Suffolk coast (taken 17 Dec. 2023)

 

May I wish you all 

a happy Christmas 

and a productive New Year.

 

Mark Davidson, editor at The Hedgehog Poetry Press, has brought out the fourth in his seasonal Stickleback eBooks. Winter is published today to coincide with the Solstice. The anthology contains ten poems, including my 'Christmas Questions'. You can download a free copy here

P.S. My previous post concerns two international anthologies, one from Romania and the other from the USA. Do take a look here. My poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight (The Seventh Quarry Press) can be ordered here


Nativity scene from St Peter and St Paul, Peasmarsh

 



Monday, 11 December 2023

A New Volume from Romania

 

 

Those who have popped across to this blog over the years will know that I have had links for many years with Orizont Literar Contemporan, the international literary journal from Romania produced by Daniel Dragomirescu. This new volume, Retrospectiva Revistei, highlights the writing of fifteen writers of 'prose, poetry and essays' who come from very different parts of the world, including Chile, Romania, USA and Portugal. 


 

A few pages have been allocated to each of the selected contributors to the journal. Each set of pages contains an author bio with photograph, a CV and a sample piece of work. 

 

 

I am very grateful to Daniel for including me in such an international list and for profiling my work and my poetry collection in this way. Driftwood by Starlight can be purchased from The Seventh Quarry shop (link here). 

 

POSTSCRIPT

Speaking of international volumes, I am excited to learn that the new World Poetry Anthology (Darklight Publishing), edited by Hassanal Abdullah, has just been published. It contains poems by Pablo Neruda, Peter Thabit Jones, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Lidia Chiarelli and John Kinsella. My Stonehenge poem, 'Preseli Blue', and my husband, David Gill's poem, 'Gloucestershire in The Negev' have also been included. 

Saturday, 13 May 2023

International Dylan Thomas Day, 14 May 2023

 

Laugharne

Wishing all my friends 

a Happy International Dylan Day

2023

 

David and I enjoyed many happy visits to Laugharne and the Carmarthenshire coast from our Swansea home. You can barely make out the Writing Shed, but the Dylan Thomas Boathouse is the last white building beyond the castle on this side of the estuary, where the tidal stream bends to the left. You can see it more clearly in the photograph below.

Lidia Chriarelli* has once again curated an anniversary website to mark the occasion - here. My thanks to Lidia for including my Swansea-based contribution, a picture-poem. You will find it here, if you click the link and then scroll down. 

You might also be interested in Dear Dylan, an anthology of Dylan-inspired poetry and prose from Indigo Dreams Publishing, edited by Anna Saunders and Ronnie Goodyer. This volume (see here) was published on #DylanDay 2021 and contains one of my poems, 'Tentacles and Tar'. 


Laugharne, evening light

* There is an expansive interview with Lidia Chiarelli here in The Poet online; do take a look.