Released October 31st 2021 // 66 pages
In Speculum, Hannah Copley considers the difficult history of the female body. Mirroring the title object used for centuries by gynaecologists, the poems uncover the hidden lives behind scientific progress. From the enslaved women exploited in the name of invention to the anonymous residents of mother and baby homes, Copley navigates personal, historical and forgotten legacies with equal exactitude and tenderness. Speculum is not only important as a feminist text, but its poetry is immaculate; a virtuosic first collection.
Hannah Copley is a writer, editor and academic. She is the author of Speculum (Broken Sleep Books, October 21) and an editor at Stand magazine. Recent work has appeared in POETRY, The London Magazine, Bath Magg, Poetry Birmingham, Into the Void, Under the Radar and others. She won the 2019 Newcastle Poetry Prize and the 2018 York Literature Prize. Hannah is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Westminster.
