Nothing But The Poem - Helen Mort

Helen Mort is the subject of the new Nothing But The Poem podcast. The SPL’s regular podcast host, Sam Tongue, takes a deep dive into two of Helen Mort’s poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.

Helen Mort is an award winning poet from Sheffield who's had 3 collections of poetry published. Her most recent collection, The Illustrated Woman (2022), was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize.

The book's blurb at HelenMort.com reads: 'The Illustrated Woman is a tender and incisive collection about what it means to live in a female body - from the joys and struggles of new motherhood to the trauma of deepfakes.

Andrew McMillan said of the collection: 'These are poems that will leave their indelible mark'

Kate Kellaway, reviewing the book in the Guardian, wrote: The Illustrated Woman explores tattoos through history and, lucid though these poems are, you need to reread them often to acquire the deepest sense of what is being said. Mort presents tattoos variously: as painful and cherished keepsakes, exposure and concealment combined, flirtations with indelibility.

The two poems discussed in this podcast – Ablation and The Tattooed Lady – can be found in No Map Could Show Them (Chatto) and The Illustrated Woman (Penguin).