BOOKS

CACTUS LAND

Atomic Bohemian, July 2023

cactus land is a sharp, wilful collection of confession and poesy that sticks inside you. This collection is as personally devastating as it is defiant to false praise, prophets, profit. If you’ve read Briony Collins before, you’ll comprehend this metaphor of picking at the splinters she sneaks inside your psyche. Collins is the colloquial commander of inquisitive cognisance, dualistic gratitude, and translating muffled pleasure and humane terror into words and stanzas and symbols. Poetry exists to wring out whispers. Collins, like a scorched land of cacti, endures.

ALL THAT GLISTERS

Broken Sleep Books, March 2022

All That Glisters is a short fiction pamphlet from Briony Collins, author of the remarkable Blame it on Me. Here, Collins writes with similar tenderness and understanding in a series of stories which challenge archetypal portrayals of elderly characters by young writers, exploring issues in a more realistic way, balancing difficult themes with humour and humanity. A must-read book from a must-read author.

WHISPER NETWORK

with Caleb Nichols, funded by Bangor University, March 2023

Whisper Network was produced in response to a call for work exploring the way trees communicate with one another, as part of the exhibit At Eich Coed / Tree Sense at Pontio, Bangor University, North Wales. Written collaboratively and at a distance, Briony Collins and Caleb Nichols engage in a transatlantic poetic conversation centred in locatedness: from the Treborth Botanical Garden in Bangor to the Leaning Pine Arboretum in San Luis Obispo, California and landscapes and ecologies beyond.

Unavailable for purchase. Copies can be requested.

BLAME IT ON ME

Broken Sleep Books, August 2021

Briony Collins’ Blame it on Me is an extraordinary collection of poems that focus on the death of her mother, when she was just five years old, and the ensuing family upheaval. Collins’ poetry moves mellifluously, sensitive to the sound of words, infused with a delightful music. Collins believes, to quote her favourite poet Jim Morrison: “You should stand up for your right to feel your pain” – in Blame it on Me, that’s exactly what Collins does.

THE BIRDS, THE RABBITS, THE TREES

Broken Sleep Books, April 2023

In The Birds, The Rabbits, The Trees, Briony Collins deconstructs a year of grief and an abusive relationship through her evocative poetry. Pink daisy chains and letters to mum clash with broken thumbs and Bundy black eyes as Collins expertly weaves between the light and dark of a life of loss. Her cutting yet delicate language leads the reader on a journey through pain to empowerment.