Julia Forster

Invisible Sisterhood

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£10

This book will be released in 2027.

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This warm and wise collection by Julia Forster explores themes of sisterhood through different prisms – whether that’s the poet summoning an imagined sister while caring for her ageing father, a woman helping a stalked stranger exit a nightclub safely, or a group of women running down a Welsh high street ignoring heckling haulage lorry horns. Elsewhere in Invisible Sisterhood, the ecstatic qualities of dance are explored, and the supernatural grazes the surface of this debut collection. The skeleton of a dog, which is buried beneath a cherry tree, barks in blossom each spring while the poet ends up living in a replica of house she’d foreshadowed by drawing in felt tip, at the age of nine.

The poet explores the impact of being an only child with separated parents and the hypervigilance which is associated with early childhood trauma – especially when there are no siblings to co-regulate with. Set within a specific milltir sgwar of mid Wales where she has been based since 2010, Julia’s work touches on the creative and redemptive act of writing poetry. This is a life-affirming collection to demonstrate that it’s possible to move through grief, trauma and separation to repair, connect, dance and heal. Julia gives us glorious and celebratory glimpses of the sister archetype within each and every one of us.

“Wonderful poems” – Deborah Alma

Julia Forster is a prize-winning poet, novelist and author of non-fiction who is currently doing a PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University to write a memoir. Her poetry has been widely published in magazines and anthologies including New Welsh Review, Poetry Wales, The Cortland Review and Bath Magg and she has spoken at Hay Festival and on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour about her work. After studying at the University of Warwick where she was awarded the Derek Walcott Prize for poetry in 2000, Julia went on to study for an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews. She received a Society of Authors Award to complete Invisible Sisterhood. A regular tutor at writing centres across the UK, Julia also sits on the advisory board of The Poetry Pharmacy and hosts writers on retreat at her rural Writers’ Cabin in Machynlleth, mid Wales.

(Photo credit: Heledd Wyn Hardy)

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