The Plucking Shed - Gill McEvoy

Back in 2006, Gill McEvoy's Uncertain Days was one of HappenStance's earliest, and most successful, chapbooks, selling out in no time at all, and gathering all sorts of critical praise along the way.

She followed that up with an equally popular HappenStance sampler, and earlier this year her first full-length collection, The Plucking Shed, was published by Cinnamon Press.

Quite how she finds time to write such consistently fine poetry I'm not sure, given that she also runs a poetry reading group, a workshop, and the Zest! poetry night in Chester, but write it she does.

If you've already encountered Gill's scrupulously honed, yet always heartfelt poetry, you're probably not going to need any more recommendation, but if you do, I really don't think I can do better than quote Helena Nelson's words about the collection:

"These poems are like jewels. Incalculable pressures underpin their creation. Luminous and compelling (but by no means reassuring) they offer themselves to the light."

It's another collection I'm looking forward to settling down to read (and I'll be reviewing it before long), and it's another reason to look more closely at Cinnamon, one of the most interesting small presses around.