Blackbird Singing at Dusk

Blackbird Singing at Dusk by Wendy Pratt is a bold exploration of place within nature through themes of rural working-class identity and the female body, alongside explorations of loss and the repetitive nature of time.

Praise for Blackbird Singing at Dusk:

'Here is marvellous poetry that explores deep history and loss; here is the echoing power of boulders and fields shaped into shining stanzas on page after page. And here is the tight redemptive language of anger and memory.' - Ian McMillan

‘Wendy Pratt's Blackbird Singing at Dusk is a beautiful, cerebral book. Here are dream-scenarios, misty communication with those lost, hints and whispers of otherworldly things. Time wide-ranges through these intelligent, brilliantly structured poems – an expanse of ages transports us from glacier to vanished lake to train tracks. Here are the tellings and restorations of stories of blood and bone, of “the isotopes that sit in the teeth”, of past, present and future selves, of Pratt’s explorations of what makes her her, what makes us us. Here is pain framed in so many amazing ways. This book will absorb your heart, mind and soul. Each poem will enter you like a dart.’ - Jane Burn

Wendy Pratt is a poet, author and creative writing facilitator living on the North Yorkshire coast. She is the author of The Ghost Lake, a narrative non fiction exploration of landscape and belonging, published by The Borough Press. She is also the author of five collections of poetry. Her 2021 collection, When I Think of My Body as a Horse won the Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet competition. Her latest collection, Blackbird Singing at Dusk, will be published by Nine Arches in 2024. Wendy is also the founder and editor in chief of Spelt, a print magazine that seeks to celebrate and validate the rural experience through creative non fiction and poetry. Wendy is represented by Caro Clarke at Portobello Literary.