Overview

Following her much-celebrated pamphlet, Flamingo, Kathryn Bevis’s debut, The Butterfly House, tells the story of a life before and after a late-stage cancer diagnosis. These poems examine both life and death, encompassing experiences, terrible and sublime, as in her Forward Prize-shortlisted poem, ‘My body tells me she’s filing for divorce’. The collection, divided into two sections, ‘After’ and ‘Before’, contrasts the ghost-train of diagnosis, its spooks and cobwebs waiting at every turn, with all that came before. Above all, these poems attest to the enduring power of a life lived in gratitude for love. Through remarkable and stunning metaphors, Bevis beautifully holds together the fact of mortality with the joy of being alive.

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9781781727553

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Frank and funny... The theme of this life-enhancing book is not death, but love. * The Sunday Times *

Author Information

Kathryn Bevis is a neurodivergent poet and poetry teacher, founder of The Writing School Online, and was Hampshire Poet, 2020-21. She is the Selected Poet for Magma (the Solitude issue) and her poems have appeared widely in magazines and journals, including: Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland Review, Wasafiri, Mslexia, Bad Lilies, and The London Magazine. In 2022, she jointly won Belfast Book Festival’s Mairtín Crawford Award for Poetry and the Poetry Society Members’ Competition; she also came second in the York Poetry Prize, the Poets & Players Competition, and the Edward Thomas Prize. Kathryn teaches Poetry for Wellbeing courses for vulnerable adults and is working towards her first collection.

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