It’s always a pleasure to report on the Society’s poets reaching a wider audience through the publication of their work. This summer sees two more of our members publishing their first collections: Susan J Bryant and Ian Ledward.

Susan has not one but two collections: Elephants Unleashedand Fern Feathered Edges. The former is a collection of satirical poetry that addresses the modern-day elephants in the room – all those taboo subjects that have been ignored and cancelled are brought to the fore in formal poetry that’s flirtatious, feisty, fun, and foreboding. The latter consists of poems for those who like to search beyond… those who read between the lines to discover the hidden beauty that the mystical and magical side of life has to offer. Copies of these two collections can be obtained from www.amazon.co.uk .

A Feather Left is Ian Ledward’s first solo collection and it deals with the themes of time and change in a variety of forms, ranging from sonnets and sestinas to haiku and free verse. The poems, with subjects as diverse as love, war, Alzheimer’s, and the process of aging, are written with both honesty and humour. Copies of A Feather Lost can be purchased from gifford.farm@gmail.com

Susan was the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition and was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared on Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope and Expansive Poetry Online. She also has poetry published in TRINACRIA, Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems anthology and Extreme Sonnets II, The Lyric, and in Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets in the UK)..

Ian is an artist and writer living in Scotland who spent his student years in Leeds studying for a degree in art and working as a performance poet in London and North of England. In 2022 he was awarded a distinction from the Open University in Creative Writing. He is an active member of the Open University Poets’ Society, Fife Writes and the U3A. His work has been published in national and international magazines and anthologies including The Heimat Review, Bindweed Magazine, The Sonder Literary Journal, Dreich Magazine, the Alchemy Spoon, Poetry Scotland, Briefly Thinks and two Giffordtown Writers Anthologies. Ian now incorporates some of his poems within his artwork which can be seen at www.onemidshore.com  

CONGRATULATIONS to them both!