“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. -Toni Morrison ”

“The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself” – Derek Walcott

“I want these poems to help people to practise empathy”

"One of our most promising young talents, Jay Bernard writes powerful and sensuous scenes from the metropolis: a teenager flies like a moth, a woman with scissors sings bees. Disturbing, joyous and always surprising.” – Pascale Petit.

“Olds writes “poetry more faithful to the felt truth of reality than any prose could be.” – Richard Wakefield.

A tune that one has once heard and liked [that] seems to haunt the mind and will not be dismissed until entirely mastered.