Roshni Gallagher's Even the Trees: Books from Scotland poem feature
In her first full-length collection Even the Trees, Roshni Gallagher asks what can be seen, named or remembered. From Scotland to Guyana, the poems explore the porous boundary between the past and the present, and how ecological landscapes and landscapes of the mind and body are permanently altered by migration and memory.
The elegiac series of poems Kala Pani reflects on the history and legacy of Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean. Following the experience of women in the moment of rupture as they cross the ocean, these poems hover at the border of what is known and unknown. Other poems navigate stories from Gallagher’s mixed heritage, from the Windrush generation to the sod houses in Ireland. She explores the tension between historical and personal silence – what can and can’t be spoken about.
Even the Trees was a joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize 2024, and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection 2026, one of the Forward Prizes. It was published by Bloodaxe Books on 17 September 2026. Scroll down to watch a video of Roshni's joint online launch event with Bloodaxe.
Roshni Gallagher is a poet from Leeds of mixed Indo-Guyanese and Irish heritage. She lives in Edinburgh. She has received an Edwin Morgan Poetry Award (2022) and a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award (2022), and was joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize in 2024. Her pamphlet Bird Cherry was published by VERVE Poetry Press in 2023. Her first book-length collection, Even the Trees, was published by Bloodaxe Books in September 2026, and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection 2026 (Forward Prizes). She has an MFA in Creative Writing Poetry from the University of St Andrews.
REVIEW COVERAGE
An excellent brief review is featured in the Autumn 2026 issue of the Poetry Book Society Bulletin.
'Gallagher's debut collection, a joint winner of the James Berry Prize, is an intimate exploration of the poet's mixed Indo-Guyanese, Irish and Scottish heritage. Its poems move with the force of the Black Waters crossed by her ancestors, and the section on Indian indentured labourers travelling to the Caribbean is especially powerful, plucking stories of desperation, shame and survival from archives of the voyages. This is a timely, beautiful debut' – Shash Trevett, Poetry Book Society Bulletin, Autumn 2026, on Even the Trees
In print only. The Bulletin is sent to members of the Poetry Book Society.
SCOTTISH BOOK TRUST BOOK OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER 2026
Scottish Book Trust, Book of the Month, September 2026: Even the Trees
Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee Roshni Gallagher's first full-length collection Even the Trees was featured as Scottish Book Trust’s Book of the Month for September 2026. A short interview with Roshni accompanied the feature.
Five copies of Even the Trees were offered in their prize draw. Entries now closed.
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-of-the-month/book-of-the-month-adults/
JOINT REVIEW IN GUTTER FOR EVEN THE TREES & BELLING THE LEOPARD
Gutter, Issue 34, August 2026
An excellent joint review of the first-full collections by the two Scotland-based winners of the James Berry Poetry Prize 2024, Roshni Gallagher’s Even the Trees and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley’s Belling the Leopard, is featured in Issue 34 of the Scottish literary magazine Gutter ahead of the books’ publication in September. Sean Wai Keung introduced his review by saying:
'These two debut collections, both winners of the James Berry Poetry Prize, present very exciting and distinct voices. They also complement each other in unexpected ways, which is perhaps a testament to the prize itself as well as its namesake poet. James Berry was well known for his diversity of language and style, and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley and Roshni Gallagher pay tribute to this legacy in their own unique ways, with many particularly Scottish twists throughout.' – Sean Wai Keung, Gutter
‘Roshni Gallagher’s Even the Trees is a powerful and evocative collection, particularly in its use of space and form, highlighted through the ‘Kala Pani’ sequence. [...] It’s a beautiful, difficult, complex poem, and works well as the centrepiece of the collection. [...] from the sod houses of Ireland to the Yorkshire dales, the sky in Fife and the sea in Guyana, Gallagher’s use of place and landscape never strays too far from anger at worldly injustice…' – Sean Wai Keung, Gutter
In print only.
Roshni Gallagher and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley are both based in Edinburgh. They had a joint launch event for Even the Trees and Belling the Leopard at The Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh on 24 September, and will be reading together at Push the Boat Out festival in Edinburgh on 15 November 2026. Details on Roshni's events page here.
They launched their collections online with Bloodaxe on 29 September 2026 alongside the third winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize. Scroll down for details.
BOOKS FROM SCOTLAND POEM FEATURE
Books from Scotland, poem feature online 30 July 2026
Three poems from Roshni Gallagher’s debut collection Even the Trees were featured online at Books from Scotland ahead of the book’s publication by Bloodaxe on 17 September 2026.
The poems included are ‘Threshold’, ‘Bird Cherry’ and ‘Cullykhan Bay’. The feature links to a page giving full details about Even the Trees.
https://booksfromscotland.com/2026/07/even-the-trees-by-roshni-gallagher/
This online launch event for the winners of the James Berry Poetry Prize and the Mslexia Women's Pamphlet Competition was livestreamed on 29 September 2026. Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley was joined by the three winners of the James Berry Poetry Prize 2024, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Nadine El-Enany and Roshni Gallagher, plus Joanna Lowry, the winner of the Mslexia Women’s Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2025. All four poets read live from their prize-winning new poetry books, followed by a discussion about their work.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/obrrYihz56k
Roshni Gallagher reads
A multi-artform collaboration between poet Roshni Gallagher, musician Diljeet Bhachu, photographer Kate Soltan and projection artist Robert Motyka brings a unique experience of spoken word accompanied by live flute music to the backdrop of nature imagery. Roshni’s six poems are a tender exploration of how we grieve lost language and histories – and how identity can still be sought after and reclaimed. The piece journeys from a place of disconnection and isolation to one of belonging and community. A soundscape of semi-improvised live flute accompaniment by Diljeet Bhachu complements Roshni’s readings. Filmed as part of the Edinburgh Multicultural Festival, 15 Dec 2020.
Two of the poems are now included in Roshni Gallagher's debut poetry collection Even the Trees: 'The Whitby' (1:44) and 'Bird Cherry' (7.26).
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Praise for Even the Trees
‘What impresses me most about this debut collection is its honouring of our humanity, the naming of ordinary people with extraordinary lives. The Kala Pani sequence epitomises this: poignant, exquisite and haunting. Roshni Gallagher’s poems are so visceral, so perceptive, so adept in their use of echoes and white space, they will, to quote her, make you “vigilant when you walk down a street”.' – Patience Agbabi
‘These poems have a special light to them. They feel vulnerable and hard-won, like the best poems. They seem to want to sit down close with the reader and whisper these sad, honest and wonderful things that they know.’ – Niall Campbell
‘Intelligent, searching, and beautifully written, Roshni Gallagher's Even the Trees is an exceptional debut collection, full of enviable phrasing and insight. It's wonderful to find a new poet whose work you know you will continue to follow.’ – Karen Solie
‘These poems are delicately calibrated: they are able to pick out how the stars are not above us, but all around, how the Perseids fall like a shoal of metallic fish; but also carry the awareness of how there is pain in "seeing and being seen", and that some knowledge "can’t be come back from". Here, currents of racism and colonialism persist alongside and threaten to overwhelm the wonder of the unknown, the experience of the natural world made new. A complex, assured, at times stunning debut collection.’ – Peter Mackay
[30 July 2026]
