These Mothers of Gods

Rachel Bower's accomplished debut collection seeks to recover the lived experiences of women who have often appeared only fleetingly in official histories. The poems push towards a more expansive concept of motherhood, including our collective responsibilities for lives, environments and natural worlds. With heartfelt lyricism, Bower weaves stories of labour and love. In moments of fear and determination for survival, this collection is a hymn to the people and places which shape us. 'In Rachel Bower's powerful new collection, you will find mothers displaced, mothers deceived, mothers labouring to stay sane and alive. But woven amongst any vulnerability is a fierce celebration of the mother-body, opened up to prove the unique and complex  stories each one holds. I am grateful to Bower for finding these women - historical, biblical, autobiographical - and offering me such inventive, arresting poems, brim-full with blistering truths.' - Rebecca Goss, Poet 'Powerful, compelling and exquisitely crafted, These Mothers of Gods is a tour-de-force of female-focussed storytelling.' - Teika Marija Smits, Writer and Editor 'Rachel Bower's poems show us mothering as we've never seen it before, through time, history, and mythology. The collection centres the voice of the other, while conveying poignant experiences of joy, elation, triumph and hardness. These image-rich verses are poems of intense curiosity and beauty.' - Jason Allen-Paisant

Rachel Bower is an award-winning writer based in Sheffield. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Leeds and runs writing workshops and events across Yorkshire and Derbyshire, including 'Wild Writes.' She is the author of Moon Milk (Valley Press) and Epistolarity and World Literature (Palgrave Macmillan). Her poetry has been published widely in journals and magazines, including Magma, The London Magazine, Frontier, New Welsh Reader and Stand. Rachel edited the Verse Matters anthology with Helen Mort and is currently editing a parenting anthology with Simon Armitage. She has a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge, and has taught at the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds, and facilitated creative workshops for a wide range of organisations including schools, the British Library, Poet in the City, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Libraries and Barnsley Museums. She is currently teaching Creative Writing at the University of Leeds. https://rachelbower.net/