Rachael Boast's Versus Versus anthology reviewed in The Guardian
'Versus Versus is an essential read. It is loving and deeply moving. [...] Reflecting diverse voices and experiences, this anthology is a gift – one that demands your time.' – Yomi Ṣode, Poetry Book Society Selector, PBS Bulletin, Summer 2025
Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, edited by poet and disability advocate Rachael Boast, was published by Bloodaxe Books in May 2025. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Summer 2025.
The anthology was launched online with Bloodaxe Books on publication day, with further events to take place at festivals around the UK, starting at London's Southbank Centre on 25 October 2205 (2pm). Scroll down to view the video of Bloodaxe's online launch, and to see a film of 23 poets from the anthology reading their poems. Details of in-person/hybrid readings are on our events page here.
The anthology brings together poets from the international arena, from emerging voices to world-renowned authors. Most of the work is by contemporary writers – writing in many different styles and from varying traditions – alongside a sampling of historical poets. Also featured are poems translated from Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, and French Sign Language (linking to a video of a signed performance of Levent Beşkardès’ poem ‘V’).
Particular prominence has been given to poets of the Global Majority, and LGBTQIA2+ poets, who are not only underrepresented within the publishing industry and elsewhere, but whose access to healthcare, provision and support may be inadequate or non-existent for their needs.
Versus Versus presents a wide range of work, from poems which challenge cultural, medical and political agendas and policies, to poems addressing war and the impact of the climate emergency. Alongside these sit poems of love, pain, self-care and companionship, as well as humorous poems and poetry celebrating the natural world.
Versus Versus is supported by the Royal Society of Literature through their 2023 Literature Matters Award.
Rachael Boast is a British writer, editor and disability advocate, navigating Ichthyosis and related conditions. She has published four collections of poetry with Picador, most recently Hotel Raphael (2021). Her anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets was published by Bloodaxe Books in May 2025 and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Summer 2025. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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POETRY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The Poetry Society, 2025 Reading Recommendations, 2 December 2025
The Poetry Society asked contributors to The Poetry Review to share their favourite poetry books of 2025. Rachael Boast’s anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets was chosen by Ali Lewis for The Poetry Society’s 2025 Reading Recommendations.
‘Versus Versus contains astonishing poems by Hoshino Tomihiro (translated by John Newton Webb), Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Les Murray, Ona Gritz and many more.’ – Ali Lewis (Poetry Society 2025 Reading Recommendations)
Currently on social media only.
BBC RADIO 4 PUBLICITY FOR VERSUS VERSUS
The Verb, BBC Radio 4, Sunday 19 October 2025, 5.10pm
Rachael Boast’s anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets was featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Verb on 19 October. Poet Daniel Sluman, who helped on the book on its Advocacy and Advisory Panel, joined down the line from Oxfordshire to discuss the anthology with host Ian McMillan.
‘Beauty is everywhere in Versus Versus… it’s an exciting book that I think energises the world of poetry by bringing more language, more experience and more innovation into it.’ – Ian McMillan
Ian McMillan read some stand-out lines which had captured his imagination from poems by Janet Frame, Aaron Kent and Rachael Johnson, the Diné writer from the Navajo Nation. Ian also highlighted Karl Knights’ poem ‘A Field Guide to Stares’, and read Masaoka Shiki’s haiku ‘1898 Summer’, translated from Japanese by Burton Watson.
Recordings were played of Therese Estacion and Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez reading their poems ‘The ABG (Able-Bodied Gaze)’ and ‘Evening Summer Rain (for Mary Oliver)’. Daniel Sluman read and introduced his poem ‘the beautiful’.
‘Ian McMillan celebrates an iconic poem that inspired a generation of poets and readers - Tony Harrison's 'Them and Uz'. His guests include the new US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, the former Poet Laureate of Belfast Sinéad Morrissey who brings us an autumnal 'Neon Line', zoologist and poet David Morley on his new book Passion, and Daniel Sluman on a landmark anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets’
Available on BBC Sounds. Versus Versus features from 34:53. The programme began with a tribute to Tony Harrison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002l236
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
Write Out Loud, online 17 October 2025
Rachael Boast’s anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets was given an excellent review online in Write Out Loud on 17 October 2025. The reviewer Kathy Owston is a retired Teacher of the Deaf and a volunteer table tennis coach at Brighton Table Tennis Club, where she helps train the national Down Syndrome squad.
‘… a special read, so much explored. Well done Bloodaxe Books and Rachael Boast.’ – Kathy Owston, Write Out Loud
https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=143652
NATIONAL POETRY DAY RECOMMENDATION FOR BOOK GROUPS
Rachael Boast's anthology Versus Versus was one of the books recommended for Book Clubs on National Poetry Day, 2 October 2025.
'An empowering anthology of 100 poems by deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent poets worldwide, exploring love, resilience, justice, and creativity in diverse voices and forms.'
https://forwardartsfoundation.org/national-poetry-day/reading-recommendations/
REVIEW COVERAGE IN THE GUARDIAN
Versus Versus was given an excellent review in The Guardian's August 2025 best recent poetry round-up.
'This anthology is a dizzying, continent-crossing explosion of verse, its topics and styles as individual as the poets; revelling in the diversity of a community that is often boxed in by ableism and prejudice. A potent theme of resisting limits courses through the book. [...] In a period in the UK when disabled people’s rights and living conditions are under threat, this collection feels timely.' – Rebecca Tamás, The Guardian (Poetry books of the month), on Versus Versus
In print in The Guardian's Saturday magazine of 2 August 2025. Also available on The Guardian's website here.
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
Versus Versus was well reviewed in Disability Arts Online on 6 May 2025.
'I think this is one of the main remits here – a dialogue between the speaker and the listener, the reader and the writer, the disabled and the non-disabled.’ – Richard Downes, Disability Arts Online
https://disabilityarts.online/magazine/reviews/versus-versus-anthology-of-100-disabled-poets-that-demands-to-be-heard/
A wonderful in-depth review of Versus Versus went online on Canadian writer Amanda Earl's Substack on 4 July 2025.
‘I have just finished reading Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets edited by Rachael Boast and I am overwhelmed with its strength, variety and compelling poetry. […] I am glad that Bloodaxe published this massive and significant work. […] For D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets, I hope you see yourself in some of these works and feel acknowledged, and find resonance in the joys, triumphs and difficulties represented here. I hope that all readers see individual stories, celebrations and heartache rather than generalizations about disability.' – Amanda Earl, Amanda Thru the Looking Glass
Read in full here.
A feature highlighting the poets from the African continent whose work is included in Versus Versus ran online in Brittle Paper of 2 June 2025.
Versus Versus will be distributed in the US and Africa by Consortium Book Sales from 22 July 2025.
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'Versus Versus is a powerful anthology that brings together one hundred deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets in a testament to resilience, community, and the power of lived experience. From the opening pages, the book pulses with urgency and solidarity. [...] Versus Versus is an essential read. It is loving and deeply moving. If you enjoy poetic forms then be prepared to swoon at the
mix of sonnets, haikus, rengas, sign language, prose poems and much more. Reflecting diverse voices and experiences, this anthology is a gift – one that demands your time.' – Yomi Ṣode, Poetry Book Society Selector, PBS Bulletin, Summer 2025
In print only. The PBS Bulletin is sent to members of the Poetry Book Society.
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ONLINE LAUNCH FOR VERSUS VERSUS
Thursday 22 May 2025
With Rachael Boast, Karthika Naïr, Chisom Okafor and Daniel Sluman, and filmed contributions from 12 other poets from the anthology
The online launch for Rachael Boast's international anthology Versus Versus: 100 poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets took place on publication day, 22 May 2025. Rachael was joined by the three poets who helped on the book as its Advocacy and Advisory Panel, Karthika Naïr (India/France), Chisom Okafor (Nigeria) and Daniel Sluman (UK), who discussed the anthology with Rachael and also read their poems from the anthology (Karthika read a poem by the late GN Saibaba instead of her own poem).
The event also included film clips of twelve other poets or their translators* reading their poems from Versus Versus: Han Mac Tu * (Vietnam), Kathryn Gray (Wales), Andy Jackson (Australia), Kate Davis (England), Riyad al-Saleh al Hussein * (Syria), Khairani Barokka (Indonesia/UK), Naomi Ortiz (Mexico), Levent Beskardes (Turkey/LSF), Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK), Jamie Hale (UK), Lateef McLeod (USA) and Nuala Watt (Scotland), with a bonus film from Karl Knights (UK), who read his poem 'A Field Guide to Stares'.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on YouTube below or here: https://youtube.com/live/07usVjBxJo8.
POETS FROM VERSUS VERSUS
Poets from Versus Versus
23 of the poets included in Versus Versus share their poems from the anthology in this compilation of readings from around the world. Poets featured in the video (in order of appearance): Jen Campbell, Ekiwah Adler-Belendez, Karthika Nair, Marilyn Hacker, Kathryn Gray, David Wheatley, Levent Beskardes, Andy Jackson, Lateef McLeod, Cat Chong, Khairani Barokka, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, Chisom Okafor, Jack Mapanje, Karl Knights, Jane Burn, Naomi Ortiz, Han Mac Tu, Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Kate Davis, Daniel Sluman, Jamie Hale & Nuala Watt.
Closed captions are available for this video by clicking the subtitles button at the bottom of the video player.
[01 August 2025]
