Lisa Kelly's second collection responds to the repression of British Sign Language (BSL) as its occasion and inspiration. Kelly develops the subject through extended sequences which attend to mushrooms and fungi, lifeforms that develop in secret, unnoticed, unappreciated, yet whose existence enriches everyday life. What can such hidden others teach us – if we attune all our senses?
Lisa Kelly is half Danish and has single-sided deafness. Her debut A Map Towards Fluency (2019) was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize in 2021. She is co-Chair of Magma Poetry and a regular host of poetry evenings in London. She has been studying British Sign Language (BSL) for several years and has a Signature Level 6 qualification. Her poems have been selected for anthologies, including Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches Press) and the Forward Book of Poetry. In 2021, she co-edited What Meets the Eye, an anthology of poetry and short fiction by UK Deaf, deaf and Hard of Hearing writers for Arachne Press. She teaches poetry and performance, and is a freelance technology journalist.
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