Lily Blacksell launch events
‘The collection won me over with its unique imagination that takes the everyday and gives it a fresh inside-out. The mundane can be astonishing or even more mundane, if that’s possible, in a poetry that’s hilarious and complex, witty and wise, understated and extravagant. A rare talent brimming with charm and mischief!’ – Daljit Nagra
Lily Blacksell's dynamic debut collection Life Immediately was published by Bloodaxe Books in March 2026. Lily Blacksell’s writing showcases the expansiveness of language, but also its failures. In Life Immediatey communication builds up and breaks down, geese honk, hangovers linger in poems where observation is balanced with insouciance.
‘Riotous, creatively quixotic, both funny and deadly serious, Lily Blacksell's poetry is the result of a hyperintelligent imagination striving to find a voice that is as various and playful as the self. A voice 'presenting the play of my skull, intact', which has the marvellous effect of relighting the known world.' – Richard Scott
Born in London in 1993, Lily Blacksell grew up there and on the Isle of Wight. She studied English with Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham and has an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, where she was a teaching fellow. Lily was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets 2017 whilst living in the US. In 2022, she was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize and the Oxford Poetry Prize. She was longlisted for the 2024 National Poetry Competition. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, BOMB Magazine, Boston Review, Bath Magg, Magma, and elsewhere. She runs a poetry and music night called Canon Fodder which she hosts at The Social in London and at Glastonbury Festival.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Sunday 14 June, 2pm
Dublin launch reading for Life Immediately
Books Upstairs, 17 D’Olier Street, Dublin 2, D02 RX06, Ireland
Join us for an afternoon of poetry from award-winning writers Annelise Berghenti, Lily Blacksell and Rosamund Taylor. Themes will range from womanhood to the natural world; the everyday to the extraordinary, in a mixture of new work and recently published poems from Lily Blacksell’s collection Life Immediately (Bloodaxe, 2026), and Rosamund Taylor’s verse novel Filly (Banshee Press, 2025). Jessica Traynor, fellow Bloodaxe poet and Poetry Editor at Banshee, will introduce the event.
Attendance is free but booking is essential. More details and booking here.
PAST EVENTS
Tuesday 24 March 2026, 7pm - YouTube
Online launch reading by Lily Blacksell, Rita Ann Higgins and John McCullough
Lily Blacksell, Rita Ann Higgins and John McCullough celebrated the publication of their new books by reading live and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/p_0hOeoZUtE
Brilliant readings from all three poets followed by an excellent discussion.
[15 April 2026]
