Publications
PoetryPublications
All The Men I Never Married
Winner of the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection
All the Men I Never Married’ is absolutely gripping; I’ve been reading and rereading it obsessively. Moore’s dazzling catalogue of poems swivels the spotlight onto her male subjects with a lyricism and genius “as high and bright as a lantern”. Sometimes nostalgic, sometimes wounded, and sometimes furious, these are searing, musical reckonings with the indifferent lovers, the misogynists, the gorgeous wonders, the heartbreakers, the stalkers, the drinkers, the inspirational teachers, and the abusers we still fear, as Moore confronts both the major harms and the frustrating coercions of being female in a male-dominant world. We are tired of being threatened and hurt, tired of being talked at, tired of being told what we ought to mean; these sublime poems say it all, and it feels like rain after drought, a beautiful release. This book is a revolutionary and subversive requisition of the female gaze, and it will be canonical.
Fiona Benson
That being our bodies in public is a dangerous thing
That being in public is a dangerous thing
That our bodies are dangerous thingsMoore’s poetic testimonials expose the underbelly of society’s misogynist micro-infractions. These deceptively plaintive lyrics are fraught hymns that testify, catalogue, and interrogate the policing of women’s bodies in contemporary society. Her poetic witnessing excavates these ordinary infractions committed daily alongside the ensuring silences that haunt women’s desires and exploit their vulnerabilities. Her provocative poems are urgent and necessary and vital.
Mailka Booker
From the first time I heard Kim Moore read some of these poems, I knew the collection which followed must be a classic. I love the times in these poems – such as the moment in the first poem when a list of former loves gives way to the extraordinary lyric line ‘all we are to each other is ghosts’ – when, without turning away for a second from any of life’s realities, experience is rendered completely beautiful. These deeply empathetic and unforgettable poems go everywhere, see everything and one feels, again and again in this collection, that a poet of the greatest gifts is addressing the most important of subjects, for all of us. We meet these transcendent, vital poems with gratitude and celebration.
Jonathan Edwards
You can purchase a signed copy of All The Men I Never Married for £10 + £2.00 postage
*UK ONLY*
The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015)
Winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Purchase The Art of Falling from Seren >
“These poems accrue force and vigour as they speak to each other across the pages, delivering a thrilling encounter with language at its most irresistible and essential”
Tom Gatti, Gillian Clarke and Katharine Towers,
Judges of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
You can purchase a signed copy of The Art of Falling via PayPal for £10 + £2.00 postage
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If We Could Speak Like Wolves (Smith/Doorstop, 2011)
Winner of the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition
Shortlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year Award
Purchase If We Could Speak Like Wolves from The Poetry Business >
“These are terrifically assured poems – sensual, perceptive, entertaining – which bridge the gap between feeling and utterance with a genuine lyric gift”
Carol Ann Duffy
You can purchase a signed copy of If We Could Speak Like Wolves for £5 + £1.50 postage.
*UK ONLY*
Creative Non-fiction
Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism
Purchase Are you Judging me yet? Poetry and everyday Sexism from Seren >
This collection of lyric essays by Forward prize-winning poet Kim Moore looks at the relationship between poetry and everyday sexism. Moore examines the dynamics of performing poetry as a female poet – drawing on her PhD research and experiences of writing and performing the poems in her second collection All The Men I Never Married which won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2022.
Essays tackle subjects that range from heckling at poetry readings, problems with the male gaze and explorations of what the female gaze might look like in poetry and discussions about complicity, guilt and objectification, the slipperiness of the word sexism and whether poetry can be part of transformational change.
Moore says, “I believe the time is right for a book like this to make an impact. As a female poet, I know there is a need for such a book to examine the intersection between writing, performing, feminism and sexism. I’ve had many conversations with other female poets who have confirmed my thinking – that female poets are navigating these things regularly, and yet nobody is really writing or talking about them.”
At the end of each chapter, readers are encouraged to choose which section they read next, and to make their own connections between the essays. They will also find links between the topics and poems in All The Men I Never Married.
What the Trumpet Taught Me
Signed copies available now!
Award winning poet Kim Moore studied music and for several years was a trumpet teacher. From first lessons through to music college, from teaching the trumpet in schools and running a brass band, right through to playing in working men's clubs in a ten-piece soul band, these are vivid and immediate snapshots. They're also mediative and often funny, always open to experience and clear-eyed about the vagaries of class-prejudice and the intricacies of gender in a predominantly male world. The trumpet is the central character that we always return back to as we are asked to consider its pivotol role in both an individual and social history.
The world is a better place for writing like Kim's. And here, in her new book, we see the world through the prism of the trumpet. An absolute delight.
Cerys Matthews
Anthologies
Publications as editor
The Result Is What You See Today (Smith/Doorstop)
Edited by Paul Deaton, Kim Moore and Ben Wilkinson
Purchase The Result Is What You See Today from The Poetry Business
“A tour-de-force celebration of tracks and trails ... Enduring endless laps and lashing rain, it provides an uplifting insight into the power of endurance and the prize of euphoria”
Poetry Book Society
This Place I Know (Handstand Press)
Edited by Kerry Darbishire, Liz Nuttall and Kim Moore
Purchase This Place I Know from Handstand Press >
