Maryville

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION

A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION



'Taylor's poetry is as dangerous as it is dexterous . . . A wildfire blazing free' BERNARDINE EVARISTO

'Kaleidoscopic in its breath, structure and humanity . . . Both selfless and intimate' ANTHONY JOSEPH

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From the T. S. Eliot and Polari Prize-winning author of C+NTO & Othered Poems comes an innovative collection exploring the scars, hopes and potentialities of dyke counterculture and the queer underground.



With a vividly sketched cast of characters, award-winning poet Joelle Taylor uses the Maryville butch bar as a lens through which to consider the underground histories of queer London. The violence and pain of oppression and the beauty and intimacy of community are rendered in awe-inspiring high definition in a collection as filmic as it is familiar. A hybrid chronicle, magic trick, prayer and insurrection, Maryville conjures ghosts back to their bodies, a community to their feet.



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'Sexy, fearless – and ravishingly beautiful' NEIL BARTLETT

'One of the most powerful voices of our time . . . Joelle Taylor is a genius' CACONRAD