Online Book Launch - Hard Graft with Di Slaney

by Di Slaney

Join us for a Poetry Pharmacy online launch of Hard Graft, the emotive new collection from poet Di Slaney.
During this online launch, Di will read from her new collection and talk about the stories behind the poems. The event is introduced by Deborah Alma, founder of the Poetry Pharmacy and hosted by Katie Dunstan from our Oxford Street store. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions during a live audience Q&A.
Join us for tears and laughter in this memorable evening.

Di Slaney’s collection Hard Graft asks what it means to keep going when the body becomes strange to itself.  Moving between brain tumour, rural life, hospital wards, graveyards, family history, desire, money, memory and care, these poems do not sentimentalise illness, nor do they turn survival into easy triumph. Instead, they stay close to the work of living. Across its four movements, Hard Graft turns from memento mori towards memento vivere: from remembering death to remembering how fiercely, foolishly and tenderly we live. And, perhaps, towards the hardest graft of all: staying alive.

“Riotous, raw, and tender, these musical poems honour lost friends, finding both  humour and aching beauty a lump-in-the-throat of a collection, and with Slaney’s wide ranging fascinations, one I couldn’t put down.” DEBORAH ALMA

Di Slaney lives in an ancient farmhouse on the edge of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, where she runs livestock sanctuary Manor Farm Charitable Trust and independent publisher Candlestick Press. Di was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2019.

Wednesday September 23rd from 6 to 7pm

Your ticket includes:

• Live access to the online event via Google Meet

• A poetry reading by Di Slaney

• Live audience Q&A