The Illustrated Woman

Mort’s language is visceral, holding space for the complexities of experiencing pain * Guardian, Books of the Year *
Marvellous and tender poems… beautifully achieved… Mort’s poems shine with bright risk throughout – Kate Kellaway * Observer, Poetry Book of the Month *
A wonderful, endlessly re-readable work * Financial Times, Books of the Year *
The Illustrated Woman celebrates the female body… Her deft poetry mesmerises as it troubles – Daljit Nagra * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2022 *
The title sequence is a complex, cohesive and at times dazzling analysis of another kind of writing - that inscribed directly on the poet’s skin * Times Literary Supplement *
The Illustrated Woman bristles with colour and truth. Helen Mort renders the body in desire, shame, love and pain across landscapes to create a dazzling portrait of our own skin as something that belongs only to us – Jessica Andrews, author of SALTWATER
Helen Mort’s expert control of the line offers us footpaths through the landscape of the body, showing us all the ways we might mark, redeem, protect or fear for both our own and the bodies of others. – Andrew McMillan, author of PHYSICAL
Wildly impressive in its ability to balance its subjects with a questing intelligence without losing a human core – Rishi Dastidar
Wide-ranging and insightful... These poems are by turns delicate and diamond-hard, with a real flair for a knockout closing line – Dave Coates * Poetry Book Society Autumn 2022 Bulletin *
A triumphal collection, that closes with a ritual cleansing and celebration of the naked body, as it should be celebrated… They can be challenging, unsettling poems for a man to read, but that’s what makes them such essential reading - these are poems designed to get under your skin, where they belong – John Glenday, author of THE GOLDEN MEAN

Helen Mort has published three collections of poetry- Division Street (2013), winner of the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, No Map Could Show Them (2016) and The Illustrated Woman (2022). Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Forward, T. S. Eliot and Costa Prizes. She has written a novel, Black Car Burning (2019) and a short story collection, Exire (2019). Her creative non-fiction includes A Line Above The Sky (2022), winner of the Boardman Tasker Award, and Ethel (2024). She is a Professor in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and lives in Sheffield.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.