Selima Hill's A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus reviewed in The Irish Times
'This book marks Hill as a poet of boundless reinvention.' – Mícheál McCann, The Irish Times, on A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus
Selima Hill’s twenty-second book of poetry A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus presents ten sequences of short poems, prose poems and short pieces on relationships and doings between people, animals and the world at large. It is published in October 2025 and will be launched online at Bloodaxe's joint reading and discussion event on 21 October - scroll down for details.
Selima Hill was awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2022, recommended for her body of work, with special recognition for her retrospective Gloria: Selected Poems, published by Bloodaxe Books in 2008, which draws on ten collections including Bunny (2001), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award. She has published eleven further collections with Bloodaxe, most recently Men Who Feed Pigeons (2021), which was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2022, Women in Comfortable Shoes, (2023), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus (October 2025), her twenty-second book of poetry.
Selima was presented with The King's Gold Medal for Poetry by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on 26 November 2025. This was a joint audience with fellow Bloodaxe poet George Szirtes, who was presented with the Gold Medal for the year 2024.
'Selima Hill is an inimitable talent. The mind is fragile and unreliable in her poetry, but is also tenacious and surprising, capable of the most extraordinary responses, always fighting back with language as its survival kit. Life in general might be said to be her subject, the complications, contradictions and consequences of simply existing. Nevertheless, Hill’s writing is eminently readable and approachable, even fun at times, the voice of a person and a poet who will not be quieted and will not conform to expectations, especially poetic ones.' – Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, on behalf of The King's Gold Medal for Poetry Committee 2022
REVIEW COVERAGE
Poetry Book Society Bulletin, Winter 2025
Selima Hill’s twenty-second book of poetry, A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, was given wonderful short review by young reviewer Anzal Omar in the PBS Winter 2025 Bulletin.
'Selima Hill's A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus is wickedly funny and strange in the best way. This collection is as sharp as it is understated, transforming everyday life into a cartography of intimacy and fracture. Domestic detail collides with surreal images that feel truer than realism. Her poems expose family rifts, faith and gendered power dynamics with biting wit in deceptively simple snapshots. The book is bold, relatable and unforgettable: a sly masterpiece of the ordinary made uncanny.' – Anzal Omar, Poetry Book Society Bulletin
In print only. The quarterly Bulletin is sent to members of the Poetry Book Society.
POEM OF THE WEEK FEATURE IN THE SCOTSMAN MAGAZINE
The Scotsman Magazine, Poem of the Week, Saturday 15 November 2025
Selima Hill’s poem ‘Sunshine’ from her twenty-second book of poetry, A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, was featured as Poem of the Week in The Scotsman Magazine on 15 November 2025. The poem was accompanied by an introductory comment.
‘A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus is divided into ten sections. Each section, or sequence, reads like a short story, a long short story, often in very short poems of just two or three lines. The book is witty, acerbic, sad, tender, philosophical, beautifully observed, and is another groundbreaking work by an important poet at the top of her game, always pushing the envelope of possibility.’ – The Scotsman Magazine (Poem of the Week)
In print only.
REVIEW IN THE IRISH TIMES
The Irish Times, Saturday 18 October 2025
An excellent review of Selima Hill’s twenty-second book of poetry, A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, ran in The Irish Times of 18 October 2025.
‘… by turns surreal, witty and touching is Selima Hill's tomely A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, which, at 270 pages, has the feel of a Collected, but in Hill's trademark refusal of convention, it is a book full of kaleidoscopic miniatures. Three poems often share one page where voices of animals, objects and shared lives intertwine: there is enormous fun in Hill's writing […] in their brevity these poems possess an oddly snowballing effect, where narratives fuse with one another. […] This book marks Hill as a poet of boundless reinvention.' – Mícheál McCann, The Irish Times
In print. Available online by subscription here.
ONLINE POEM FEATURE IN BASKET
Basket, Issue 5, online 22 September 2025
Seven short poems from Selima Hill’s collection A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus were featured in Issue 5 of Basket, an online magazine for contemporary poetry. The feature went online on 22 September ahead of the book’s publication in October 2025. The poems are taken from across the book.
NEW POEM FEATURE IN TATE ETC. MAGAZINE
Tate Etc. magazine, Issue 67, Autumn 2025
Four new poems by Selima Hill written in response to Jacob Epstein’s sculpture ‘Stone Doves’ are featured as a full page in the Autumn2025 issue of Tate Etc. magazine. The feature was illustrated with a photograph of the sculpture, which is included in a display of Jacob Epstein sculptures in the Duveen Galleries until 25 January 2026.
Selima Hill was commissioned to write these poems for Tate Etc magazine. Her forthcoming collection A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus was mentioned in the credits.
In print only.
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US PUBLICITY FOR SELIMA HILL
Poetry Magazine, Poetry Foundation USA, July/August 2024 issue & online 16 July 2024
An in-depth essay by poet Kim Moore on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy and Selima Hill was featured in the July/August 2024 edition of Poetry.
Selima Hill’s 21st book of poetry Women in Comfortable Shoes was published by Bloodaxe in June 2023. A selection from her 2002 collection Portrait of My Lover as a Horse, referred to in Kim’s essay, is available in her 2008 Bloodaxe retrospective Gloria: Selected Poems.
‘Hill’s writing has always been characterized by her original approach to the image. Her images are always three dimensional, like sculptures. We don’t just see them, we feel them, too [...] Hill’s most recent book, Women in Comfortable Shoes, comprises eleven sequences—atypical of the shape of much of her work, which is often made up of many short poems grouped together to form a kind of fragmented narrative [...] These fictionalized narrative frameworks seem to allow Hill the distance to avoid exposure of the self, while also giving her the freedom to explore aspects of the female experience.’ – Kim Moore, Poetry Magazine
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/162839/i-give-you-an-onion-the-poetry-of-duffy-and-hill
Poetry Magazine, Poetry Foundation USA, July/August 2024 issue & online 16 July 2024
An in-depth essay by poet Kim Moore on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy and Selima Hill was featured in the July/August 2024 edition of Poetry.
Selima Hill’s 21st book of poetry Women in Comfortable Shoes was published by Bloodaxe in June 2023. A selection from her 2002 collection Portrait of My Lover as a Horse, referred to in Kim’s essay, is available in her 2008 Bloodaxe retrospective Gloria: Selected Poems.
‘Hill’s writing has always been characterized by her original approach to the image. Her images are always three dimensional, like sculptures. We don’t just see them, we feel them, too [...] Hill’s most recent book, Women in Comfortable Shoes, comprises eleven sequences—atypical of the shape of much of her work, which is often made up of many short poems grouped together to form a kind of fragmented narrative [...] These fictionalized narrative frameworks seem to allow Hill the distance to avoid exposure of the self, while also giving her the freedom to explore aspects of the female experience.’ – Kim Moore, Poetry Magazine
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/162839/i-give-you-an-onion-the-poetry-of-duffy-and-hill
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JOINT ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT, TUESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2025
Bloodaxe's joint launch event for new October titles by Menna Elfyn, Selima Hill and Kit Wright was held on Tuesday 21 October 2025.
Menna Elfyn and Kit Wright read live and discussed their new collections with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Selima Hill contributed audio recordings of her reading from her book.
Available to watch via YouTube.
[20 October 2025]
