Unwritten Woman
by Hannah Lavery
£10.99
- Paperback
- E-Book
Poetry
Reviews
Lavery expertly directs our attention to what we should see but choose not to
The Guardian
This confident, distinctive collection brokers no easy peace with past or present
The Scotsman
a fiercely tender exploration of women in the margins... as if Lavery's talents need any further preaching, Unwritten Woman hails her as a triumph
The Skinny
'a historically, thematically, and stylistically rich new collection
The Bookseller
Unwritten Woman is not only the fierce work of speaking back, Lavery also creates spaces for much gentleness, love, vulnerability and calm
Gutter Magazine, Book of the Month
Delicate and furious, Unwritten Woman is an instant feminist classic, and a collection that should be on every young woman’s bookshelf, and beyond. It announces Lavery as a thinker of width, nuance, and challenge, asking the questions that might help us answer to ourselves. Outstanding
Joelle Taylor
This collection comes at you like a lantern from the shadows. With a creak of the floorboards and wash of delight, Hannah Lavery has brought something gothic and gorgeous to life in these pages'
William Letford
Like the best of hard drinks, it lingers by the chesty bits with serious intent then makes its move on the heart's soft chambers. Never without its theatre, never without its thrum, through the tenderness it thrashes
Micheal Pedersen
These essential poems perfectly capture the “dreadful shipwreck” of not being easily categorised as one thing or another in a world that already resists writing you into its histories. Hannah's words reveal the enormous strength required to heal that fracture
Marjorie Lotfi
Unwritten Woman is an exquisite collection that highlights Hannah Lavery’s masterful skills with narrative and form. Lavery's skilful hand as a playwright adds thrilling dimension to these poems, and she crafts scenes that are imbued with a stunning poetics
Alycia Pirmohamed
Lavery's poems lift the woman from the margins. Often dark, sometimes hilarious, occasionally brutal, Unwritten Woman is a vital look at our culture through the lens of the other
Jim Monaghan
Part a love letter to her lost father; part homage to the silent women in Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, Hannah Lavery’s Unwritten Woman is a great broth of a book. A nod to Ntozake Shange with the haar coming in from the sea, Lavery takes us on a new uncharted journey. Tender and fierce. Her’s is a voice to reckon with!
Jackie Kay
This book is a wonder; like sitting in a roomful of flickering midnight candles gazing into the most vivid of flames; utterly illuminating. Extraordinary!
Hollie McNish
Unwritten Woman is an extraordinary collection; absences revealed through erasure and attention to what is truly there. These poems are worthy of their source material. Read them
Louise Welsh
a stunning retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde through the eyes of the women in the story
Books from Scotland
A glorious rallying cry for us to see and hear the women in the tales we read'
A Kick up the Arts Podcast
About the Book
Hannah Lavery's Unwritten Woman is a bold and lavish call for us to see the woman in the stories we read and tell ourselves.
From her search for the story, in her home city, Edinburgh, through her chilling re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde, elevating the women in that classic tale from being written between the lines, to the woman of colour, shouting from the sidelines of our cultural landscape.
The Author
Hannah Lavery
Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet and playwright. Her pamphlet, Finding Seaglass was published by Stewed Rhubarb and her poem, Scotland You’re No Mine was selected as one Scotland’s Best Poems for 2019. The Drift, her highly acclaimed autobiographical lyric play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Season 2019 and in 2020, she was selected by Owen Sheers’ as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. Her second lyric play Lament for Sheku Bayoh premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2021. She was also appointed Edinburgh Makar in November 2021 for a three year term. She is an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award 2022. Her debut poetry collection, Blood Salt Spring was published in March 2022 (Polygon).
You may also like…
-
Paperback | Pub: 23 May 2019£10.99
Winner of the Highland Book Prize. ‘The old Shetland fishermen still speak with something like reverence of the forgotten art of steering by the moder dy (mother wave), the name given to an underswell which it is said always travels in the...
-
Paperback | Pub: 03 Mar 2022£10.99
From Hannah Lavery, Edinburgh’s Makar. ‘Speaks to and for the conflicted conscience of Scotland … with a power and authenticity like perhaps no other’ – The Scotsman In a moment that is demanding you to constantly choose your...
-
Paperback | Pub: 01 Sep 2022£10.00
In Alycia Pirmohamed’s debut collection, Another Way to Split Water, a woman’s body expands and contracts across the page, fog uncoils at the fringes of a forest, and water in all its forms cascades into metaphors of longing and separation just...
-
Paperback | Pub: 01 Sep 2017£12.99
Oyster is the second collection from prize-winning Edinburgh poet Michael Pedersen. From Grez-sur-Loing and festive nights to sizzling summers stretched out in the Meadows and Portobello, Michael Pedersen’s unique brand of poetry captures a...





