LC Lunchtime Reading Series Number 34

The 34th in our lunchtime reading series. Featured poets include Mary Mulholland, Sarah James, Tessa Foley and Tania Hershman.

Former journalist and psychotherapist, Mary Mulholland currently writes and lives in London. Her poems have been published in a wide range of journals, including AMBIT, Perverse, Arc, Aesthetica and Under the Radar. She has a Poetry MA from Newcastle University/ The Poetry School, founded Red Door Poets, is co-editor of The Alchemy Spoon, and is a founder member of the Crocodile Collective. Her debut pamphlet, 'What the sheep taught me' launches next week with Live Canon.

Tania Hershman's second poetry collection, Still Life With Octopus, will be published by Nine Arches Press in July 2022 and her debut novel, Go On, by Broken Sleep Books in Nov 2022. Her poetry pamphlet, How High Did She Fly, was joint winner of Live Canon's 2019 Poetry Pamphlet Competition and her hybrid particle-physics-inspired book 'and what if we were all allowed to disappear' was published by Guillemot Press in March 2020. Tania is also the author of a poetry collection, a poetry chapbook and three short story collections, and co-author of Writing Short Stories: A Writers' & Artists' Companion (Bloomsbury, 2014). She is co-creator of the @OnThisDayShe Twitter account, co-author of the On This Day She book (John Blake, 2021), and has a PhD in creative writing inspired by particle physics. www.taniahershman.com

Sarah James is a prize-winning poet, fiction writer, journalist and photographer, also published as Sarah Leavesley. Her poetry has featured in the Guardian, Financial Times and Poems of the Decade 2011-2020: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2011-2020, as well as in a café mural, on the BBC, on buses and in the Blackpool Illuminations. She is the author of eight poetry titles, an Arts Council England funded multimedia hypertext poetry narrative > Room, two novellas and a touring poetry-play. Winner of the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine 2020, Sarah’s manuscript Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic won the CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021. In her spare time, Sarah is a keen walker, cyclist and swimmer, especially enjoying nature outdoors. Meanwhile, her spare room is home to V. Press, publishing award-winning poetry and flash fiction. Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, May 2022) is her personal experience of living with type one diabetes from the age six, taking in family, love, motherhood, nature, ageing and establishing self-identity in a constantly updating world.

Tessa Foley is a poet whose work explores feminism, sexuality and the rejection of normalcy. Her debut poetry collection ‘Chalet Between Thick Ears’ was published and launched by Live Canon in November 2018 at the Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden and has inspired a series of Live Canon films. The same year, Tessa also self-published ‘Garden’ illustrated by her sister, Anna Foley, to raise money for the Portsmouth Abuse and Rape Counselling Service where she volunteered for three years. Her second collection, 'What Sort of Bird Are You?' was published by Live Canon in lockdown.