Launch Event for 'The Thought Sits With Me' by Ruth Beddow Nine Pens Press

Join us on July 17th at 18:30pm via Zoom for the launch of 'The Thought Sits With Me' by Ruth Beddow, with readings from special guest poets Christina Thatcher, Billie Manning and Holly Clacey.

'The Thought Sits With Me' is Ruth Beddow’s debut pamphlet. Exploring what it means to dwell, daydream and obsess, the collection charts the various rupture points and upheavals of youth.

Opening in the crib of a suburban box room, the reader is ushered through a sprawling environment of primary school changing rooms, doctor’s surgeries, student halls and the home of a dead neighbour. Between these shifting walls, the mundane and the unimaginable become precariously intertwined, as physical terrain moulds to that of a changing body and restless mind.

Half-bleak, half-hopeful, this is a coming-of-age pamphlet which navigates the blurred lines of an ambiguous world. the thought sits with me is a candid contemplation dedicated to anyone who has ever felt weighed down by their thoughts, or decided to leave them behind.

Ruth Beddow is a London-based, Midlands-born poet who also works in local government policy. She was shortlisted for the New Poet’s, Plough, Prole and Teignmouth Prizes in 2021. Her work has been published by Wild Court, The Poetry Village, Prole, Write Out Loud and Ink, Sweat & Tears, among others. 'The Thought Sits With Me' (Nine Pens, 2022) is her first pamphlet.

Special Guest Poets

Billie Manning is a primary school teacher and writer from Hackney. You can find some of her recent work in Bad Betty's Survival Anthology, Bath Magg and Magma. She also teaches poetry courses, at City Lit and elsewhere.

Christina Thatcher is a Creative Writing Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She keeps busy off campus as Poetry Editor for The Cardiff Review, a tutor for The Poetry School, a member of the Literature Wales Management Board and as a freelance workshop facilitator across the UK. Her poetry and short stories have featured in over 50 publications including Ambit, Magma, North American Review, Poetry Wales, The London Magazine and more. She has published two poetry collections with Parthian Books: More than you were (2017) and How to Carry Fire (2020).

Holly Clacey is a London based poet whose work explores loss, sound and silence. She is currently studying at The Poetry School. When she isn't writing she is a lecturer in law, having formerly practiced as a public lawyer. She is also a keen pianist and trumpeter, holding a degree in music from Cardiff University.