& The Midnight Heart Blog
Zoë Brigley Thompson is the author of two books of poetry: Conquest (Bloodaxe, 2012); and The Secret (Bloodaxe, 2007). She is also the editor of the academic volume Feminism, Literature, and Rape Narratives (with Sorcha Gunne), and the poetry anthology Bluebeard's Wives (with Julie Boden). She also writes nonfiction, and is currently co-editing a guide to contemporary poetry in the UK and Ireland.
“Uncompromisingly inventive” --- Bernard O’ Donoghue for Poetry London. “Her writing calls to mind the Canadian poet Anne Carson, in its juxtaposition of knowledge and the passions” --- W.N. Herbert and Lavinia Greenlaw for the Poetry Book Society. “Lapidary, erudite, ambitious, and stunningly original”--- Pascale Petit.
Back in 2004, I started a blog called The Midnight Heart via Warwick Blogs, which the Times Higher Education Supplement listed as one to watch. This new site is a continuation of what I started there.
I have a new article out today in Wales Arts Review, which tries to capture the strange time before elections in America, when the midterm hype coincides with Halloween. Halloween was not really celebrated in the US until the 1920s, brought over by white immigrants, but it has become a national craze, and far more [...]
I had an essay out last month on The Manifest Station titled 'Fuck Self-help.' It's about all the women I know who have come to me for advice on whether their relationship is abusive, and it also tells something about my own experience of intimate partner violence. What the past has taught me is that [...]
“If we could perceive death as a part of pregnancy, we might just take women more seriously.” These words are taken from a recent article on ‘Mothers as Makers of Death,’ published by Claudia Dey in the Paris Review, in which she affirms a darker alternative to the Hallmark version of motherhood. Mary Shelley also [...]
I was recently really pleased to receive an Affordable Learning Exchange grant to revamp my course 'Sexuality and Violence.' Here's how it looks for next semester. ----- Sexuality Studies 5620: Sexuality and Violence Tuesday / Thursday 2.20pm – 3.40pm Ohio State University Spring 2019 ZoëBrigley Thompson thompson.3022@osu.edu Figure 1: Change Mural by Krystal Roig-Palmer, [...]
I have been thinking and writing about the Welsh legend of Branwen recently, in this micro-chapbook out with the Poetry Annals, Blind Horse Elegy (cover image by Victoria Brookland), and in the title poem itself which was a runner up in the Hopper Poetry Prize. When I think of the story of Branwen, I think of [...]
The first time I had a miscarriage, it was "missed." Sometimes they call it a silent miscarriage, because there are no symptoms. The only time you find out is when you lie back to have the ultrasound, but instead of a baby, nothing is there. Though my body and mind missed the miscarriage when it [...]
I have always loved this quotation from Sylvia Plath’s Johnny Panic and The Bible of Dreams: “So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them." I love this box image. I’m sure that the image was very personal [...]
On the summer solstice two years ago, there was a big, beautiful supermoon. It was 2016 – pre-election, pre-Trump. That night, I woke up for no obvious reason, and downstairs I noticed a strange light coming through the glass doors. The moon was up, honey colored, clouds passing in long fingers across its face. I [...]
I always know when I have been stretching myself too thin with work and writing because I become Jane Craig in broadcast news. You know the scene: she finishes her phone conversation, sits quietly on the bed, and then cries long, loudly, noisily before going on with her day as usual. Who doesn't wish for [...]
I was thinking recently about parenting and writing again. This week has been a dizzy whirl of kids' activities at the end of semester. Yesterday, I went into Kindergarten, and did some activities with the kids for the end of year party. We were studying Hawaii, its culture, myths, and incredible geology. The children were [...]
