#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

The report featured in the Guardian today on the inclusion of women in hustory lessons is really important - lets make women’s voices heard and their actions remembered. www.history.org.uk/secondary/ca...

Whoo hoo! The first event in the #NotJustPretty Zoom series is happening Oct 4! Details below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Historic ‘causes’ of #Autism

Listen to what @petitecreature1.bsky.social is saying here. Not just the bit about how good @iambapoet.com is for poets looking to bring their words vividly to life, but also to the really important part about auditions being open RIGHT NOW (and for only the next five days). iambapoet.com/audition

Damien & issue co-editor @rhonagreene.bsky.social, are bright lights, who bring beauty to the world w/their talent, their own works, & their generous, genuine support, lifting other artists. It's an honour and a thrill to have a #poem included! #poetry #prose #art #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity

Blown away by the latest wave of @iambapoet.com. Congratulations to all the poets and to @markantonyowen.com! If you like poems that are acoustic, breathed into being by the poet themselves - this is the project for you. Psst: The audition window is open atm, which it won't be again until 2027!

#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

Coming Soon from Lauren Johnson: Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Bea... @historylauren.bsky.social ‪ #Tudors #BookLaunch

Looks like this castle has seen better days - the neighbouring cove is named after another Margaret Of History, who landed here in 1462. Do you recognise the ruins? #MargaretBeaufort #WhereIsMargaret #History #MedievalWomen #WomensHistory #Warsoftheroses #books www.instagram.com/p/DOddiPwCAT...

#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

So this has been in the world 24 hours now, and I'm blown away by the range of voices and the skill on show. I've had some very kind words for my own efforts, which is - of course - lovely, but this really works best seen as a collective, collaborative project - curated with care and skill.

@iambapoet.com I’m very excited to be an iamb poet! And in wonderful company in wave 23. Thank you @markantonyowen.com for bringing me into the family!

Very honored to be an upcoming part of the featured artist line up for a new @thebrokenspine.co.uk series #NotJustPretty led by the wonderful @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social. Stay tuned for more updates and events soon!

This 3-zoom series really is something to celebrate. #WomenBringItHome #WomenSpeakUp #NotJustPretty thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/09/14/n...

This is an amazing project by @thebrokenspine.co.uk @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social and I am excites to be a part of it. Women's voices - loud and proud. Come along in and hear us.

But sometimes in the hallway of the school we’d see the witch’s daughter without her mother, looking like any other kid, looking almost like us in her brilliant disguise … —Joan Murray

Don't miss this, poets – the new wave, AND your chance to appear in a future one. I have two years' worth of spaces to fill. Help a publisher out? 🥹😉

#Poets I am delighted to be running a workshop on redrafting based on my book below for SWWJ. Non members particularly welcome 2-3.30pm Saturday 20th September £10. Do come ✍️DM for details. 🙏 share #poetry #redrafting #craft #workshop #discussion #techniques @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social

Poets, this is your moment. Submit to #SelectedPoetry—free, unthemed, and open to all styles. Contributor directory inclusion for published poets. @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social @vespertine4.bsky.social shorturl.at/W8jbo#SelectedPoetry—free,#SubmissionWindow

Janet Reedman’s histfic is set during WOTR @jpreedman.bsky.social

A lovely book, which I listened to a few weeks ago on Audible. The women in the Wars of the Roses were vital ... and often connected! @anneobrienauthor.bsky.social, myself, @rosannamcglone.bsky.social, Annie Garthwaite and @jarnopp.bsky.social are just a few working in this area. Who else?#Medieval

SUB CALL! We're open for Poetry & Art for Issue 7: The Urge. Sept 1 - 22. This time we wanna explore the feminine urge: to cave-dwell or home-make, towards tenderness or violence, giddiness or belligerence, nurturing or devouring... Details: buff.ly/cQNscai 🖤

We need more subs for The Urge from women! ALL women!

Third in the free writing series from @alanparrywriter.co.uk: 💥 Write memory like it’s still happening 💥 Ditch nostalgia 💥 Let the poem bruise Missed the first two? Shame + men with no redemption arcs. Start now: 👉

BTW. Last night, when Matt asked us all to name one poet we especially commended to the rest of the group, I mentioned Lucy Heuschen @petitecreature1.bsky.social Her excellent collection, Daughter of Fire, which focuses on Margaret of Anjou, is well worth a look

Congratulations all, and especially to Mark for putting in such a huge effort to do this 🙏

Me: The first rule of Marketing is to concentrate on the value to your audience, not on how news makes "you" "feel". Also me: But I feel pretty fucking happy about this! Read (and hear) poems by 15 poets (of which I'm one) in the latest wave of iamb. Goes live in two weeks!

**AUDITIONS OPEN IN 14 DAYS** From Sep 20th-27th, auditions for @iambapoet.com open for the first time since 2022 – and for just ONE week! Be ready when the submission form goes live. Head to the journal's Audition page for full details. Good luck with your audition! 🍀 iambapoet.com/audition

ANNOUNCING: #NotJustPretty A radical open mic & showcase for women + those who've ever identified as women 🗓 Oct 4 | 20:00 GMT | 90 mins 🎟 FREE thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty@karenpgonzalez.bsky.social

The second print run of Daughter of Fire - my debut poetry collection starring Margaret of Anjou - has arrived! Visit www.lucyheuschen.co.uk to grab a signed copy! What a journey she's taken me on 🔥💕❤️

How gorgeous is this cover design? And I know the poems are going to be fab. Off to order it now...

#Poetry Okay! As promised here is the cover of Becoming Altar! There will be pre-orders soon; watch this space!

I see that once again we are debating what ‘accurate’ popular portrayals of the Middle Ages are like. Permit me to share my highly professional and serious medievalist discussion of this topic: www.pointsincase.com/lists/signs-...

Any UK-based PhDs working on medieval women interested in giving a lighting talk to this seminar? It'd be good to get some premodern representation.

#OnThisDay in 1482 Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, died.

#OTD in 1482, Margaret of Anjou died. She was just 52. Her final years in exile, after being in the thick of intrigue and battle her entire adult life, must have been hard. Lonely. But she likely had one last opponent - the menopause - without modern medicine to explain and mitigate it. Hard relate.

So delighted to be part of the next issue with so many talented poets, out on September the first. Subscribe (FREE!) by sending an email to [email protected] saying simply 'Subscribe please' THEY DO NOT SHARE OR SELL EMAILS TO ANYONE, EVER #TheCandyman’sTrumpet #poetry

This sounds amazing. Even if you can't attend (and you SHOULD attend!) Alan has generously shared a number of prompts in the piece that links below. #PoetryWorkshops #AmWriting

Can't wait for this to go live tomorrow, Sat. 23 August! Nigel is a poet and poetry reviewer for whom I have so much admiration, so featuring on his blog is a real treat ✨️

Danusha Laméris is one of my favourite modern poets. Empathy and humanity in every word.

We've had a wonderful time at #Harlaxton Medieval Symposium this week. We caught up with author Kathryn A. Smith. Her lavishly illustrated book "The Painted Histories of the Welles-Ros Bible (Paris, BnF Fr.1)" is absolutely stunning - if we do say so ourselves. buff.ly/H9d2dUf #MedievalSky

I would love someone to write a poetry book about Jayaben Desai and the women of Grunwick. I would read that book in a heartbeat. We need their courage and their voices more than ever.

On my website today rising star @petitecreature1.bsky.social aka Lucy Heuschen drops in to reflect on her collection‘Daughters of Fire’. Don’t miss it.

Today is the day guys - what you got? #WednesdayWIPs

Today’s the day. #WednesdayWIPs is live. Post a line. A scrap. A desk photo. A voice memo. Whatever you’ve got. Writers of poetry, prose and everything in between—you’re up. #PoetsOfBluesky #BlueskyWriters #AmWriting

Hi folks 👋 I’ve started a new passion project on Instagram—reviving old, published poems and giving them new roots! 🌱 If you’re on Insta, I’d love it if you’d follow and help spread the word!

The term 'wits' / 'witsh' first appeared in William Salisbury's Welsh-English dictionary in 1547, borrowed from the English 'witch.' Before then, the Welsh didn't really have a word to describe witches. Accusations in Welsh records are full of 'witses' & 'witshes.'

Salisbury added 'gwraig' (female) to the word 'dewin' in his Welsh-English dictionary to define the 'witsh,' - clearly identifying maleficent witchcraft with women ♀️ #Witchcraft #Witches #Wales #History

1. Margaret of Anjou 2. Isabella of France 3. Catherine of Aragon 4. Catherine Parr 5. Anne Boleyn 6. Henrietta Maria 7. Emma of Normandy 8. Eleanor of Aquitaine 9. Elizabeth of York 10. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen