To live is to lose, to grieve is to be human. Part elegy, part lament, part love song; Webb's fourth collection Grey Time is a powerful examination of what it is to love and lose, of our relationship with both grief and the dead. Exploring the many facets and nuances of grief and loss, Webb explores what happens before and after the sudden death of a loved one (Lover, brother mother, friend) and how our relationship with the dead changes over time as new secrets are revealed and old hurts healed over.

However, loss here is not confined to death - we each experience myriad losses over the course of a lifetime, and this refreshing and moving set of poems is both exploration and witness - what is said/not said, how people behave under duress. Webb turns her forensic eye on the complexity of those unresolved relationships as well as her own recently discovered neurodivergence, and how violence can creep into our lives. Webb is not afraid to take bold leaps of the imagination and straightforward narratives jostle up against more surreal pieces - a dead mother turns owl; a mother teaches her son how to fly.

Poetry of love, loss, and "universal relevance" in the fourth collection by Forwrd Prize commended poet

About the Author
Julia Webb is a neurodiverse writer and artist from a working class background. She has three poetry collections with Nine Arches Press: Bird Sisters (2016), Threat (2019) and The Telling (2022). She has a first class honours degree in creative writing and a poetry MA from The University of East Anglia. She has had two poems highly commended in the Forward Prize (2016, 2022). Julia has taught creative writing for organisations such as Lapidus, MIND and Norfolk County Council. She runs real world and email poetry courses, and mentors for The Writing Coach. She is steering editor for Lighthouse - a journal for new writers. She lives in Norwich.

Reviews

'An outstanding collection with grief at its core - a great sweeping arc of grief, which stretches across a lifetime, taking in losses from multiple bereavements to the experience of mothering and being mothered. The experience of loss is explored with unusual fluidity, depth and dexterity: its hard truths and complexities are present throughout, but so are its moments of astounding beauty. In portraying the particularity of her grief with such insight and skill, Julia Webb has created a collection of universal relevance. A gift of a book.'

-- Clare Shaw

'I hadn't finished even a first reading of Julia Webb's Grey Time when I realised these deft, moving poems would linger with me for years to come. The central sequence is haunting and unforgettable.'

-- Carrie Etter



Book Information
ISBN 9781916760202
Author Julia Webb
Format Paperback
Imprint Nine Arches Press
Publisher Nine Arches Press