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Jo Brandon is a writer and librettist currently based in Yorkshire, UK.

Praise for Cures, Jo Brandon’s 2nd full-length collection:

Uncanny, otherly, intriguing poems with some delightfully wry twists of phrase – this new collection by Jo Brandon mixes the macabre and melancholy with hopeful jolts of joy. I particularly loved ‘In search of Heathcliff’ and ‘Walter’s Wife’ – if you like the push and pull of contraries in artful language both contemporary and historical, I think you will find lots to love in this collection too.

Di Slaney

Jo Brandon creates more evocative and delicious worlds in her wonderful second collection. These are poems of the mind and of the body- gloriously fusing wisdom and craft.

In her poem “How To Be a Hermit” she says “Your mind should be/as filled with curios and keepsakes/as a Victorian drawing room” and it feels like this collection is itself that drawing room. Filled with character sketches, ventriloquistic feats and slices of real and surreal life. It is rich and clever and filled me up.

I had to stop halfway reading it to send one poem to somebody because it summed up my year (“We Are Volcanoes”), wanted another to be a historical novel I could read immediately (“Bonesetter”) and fought the urge to make one of many quotable lines my Facebook status or a poster; “You smile while you talk so it can’t be knowledge”.

Women and times and places come to life in these pages of down to earth lyricism, in a way that both shows their wounds and heals them- and us. Cures indeed.

Kate Fox

Praise for Jo’s first full-length collection, The Learned Goose:

“Picture the masked reveller at the start of the ball, not knowing what adventures or catastrophes the long night will bring. This is the world of The Learned Goose, whose poet slips on fancy dress the better to disguise her investigations into matters of the heart, those both personal and historical … a smart and sumptuous first collection.”
– Julia Bird, Poet
“There is something of the fairground sideshow about this delicious cornucopia of twisted tales where the lustful, lovely and grotesque gather together to intrigue and disquiet us with their stories. Here is a collection that leaps across time and space, between the domestic and mythical, with a fearless and lyrical grace.”
– Jacqueline Saphra, Poet
 
“A bewitching collection containing the sensual and the witty, the sacred and profane, and glorious language with profound psychological insight. Jo Brandon is a very finewriter indeed.”
– James Nash, Poet

“There is a gorgeousness to the collection which confidently encompasses mystery and clarity, menace and seduction, roguishness and solemnity. Here is a sisterhood of brightly-illuminated historical and literary women; the body in all its queasy, sexy detail; magic counter-balanced with the pitfalls of enchantment; and in Brandon’s own luscious words, “the pinked, still wobbling jelly of language”. They are poems to feast on.”

– Rachel Piercy, Poet

To purchase The Learned Goose or for more information, please visit:     Valley Press

In response to Jo’s debut publication Phobia:

‘[Brandon] has created a collection of poetry that unfurls the truth behind the female experience whilst playfully dwelling on its reverberation against history… Brandon’s pamphlet interlaces itself with myth, history and contemporary stories to examine the human condition.’

– Nathan Ouriach,  Dead Ink

Brandon explores the life of women with an intensely personal perspective with a delicate combination of hardness and sensitivity that truly brings to light the daily struggles we all experience.

–  Gina Kershaw, For Books’ Sake

‘Brandon’s language is clear and contemporary, and her images vivid and well placed.’

– Judi Sutherland, Sabotage Reviews

‘Brandon’s poems are beautifully intricate, skilful, introspective examinations and portrayals of fear and hope and vulnerability and strength.’

– Gabriella Swerling, Rum & Reviews Magazine

‘I like Jo’s sharp observational eye… whole worlds and lives are conjured in the spare but overflowing stories of poems like “These Bones” and “Kathy, GSOH, likes long walks”.  These poems of vulnerability are brave, bright and true, and mark Brandon as a poet to watch.’

– Kate Fox, Poet

‘Brandon has the gift of making one stop and think… light-hearted and sparse with her language, but also eloquent and serious, with a quiet beauty to her words. A thought-provoking collection.’

– Ciara Hegarty, Author

To purchase Phobia or for more information please visit Valley Press