Quietly persuasive and formally adept, the poems in Kathryn Simmonds´ first collection engage with both the quotidian and the transcendental. Often in urban or suburban settings, her protagonists struggle with mundane tasks such as cooking or commuting or office work - all of the obstacles of modernity - and then, by some shift of attention, or by some keen narrowing of focus, they chance upon the surreal or the spiritual. This is a poetry of subtle contexts and allusions, as much as concerned with the vulnerability of the body as for the fate of the soul and the idea of ´keeping faith´ in God and life.
What the critics say…
"An expansive imagination, a wide formal range, wit and humanity - ´Sunday at the Skin Laundrette´ is a remarkable debut." - Michael Symmons Roberts
"Quirky, witty, moving Kathryn Simmonds´ gift is to find joy and beauty in unexpected places. She invests the everyday world with an extraordinary luminosity." - Jackie Kay