Is That The New Moon?

by Wendy Cope

This anthology of poems are by contemporary women poets including U.A. Fanthorpe, Grace Nichols, Frances Horovitz, Jenny Joseph and Wendy Cope. The poems looks at women's various experiences.

Genres: Poetry

First published February 11, 1993

About the author

Wendy Cope was educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, London and then, after finishing university at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she worked for 15 years as a primary school teacher in London.

In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, 'Contact'. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for 'The Spectator magazine' until 1990.

Her first published work 'Across the City' was in a limited edition, published by the Priapus Press in 1980 and her first commercial book of poetry was 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' in 1986. Since then she has published two further books of poetry and has edited various anthologies of comic verse.

In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.

In 1998 she was the BBC Radio 4 listeners' choice to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate and when Andrew Motion's term of office ended in 2009 she was once again considered as a replacement.

She was awarded the OBE in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List.

Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2011

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, This is the first anthology collection I’ve read and it was a mixed bag. Some of the poems hit very hard with authors like Plath, Atwood, and Angelou, but others were unknown to me and still packed a punch like Rumens and Kantaris.

Some of them were a bit boring, maybe they went over my head but often times the ones I didn’t connect with felt too religious in content. I also understand the anthology is meant for more of a preteen or teenage girl which might affect my view in certain poems. If I had read this collection sooner maybe I would be more inclined towards it.

[Pauline]

Beauty by Grace Nichols

Beauty
is a fat black woman
walking the fields
pressing a breezed
hibiscus
to her cheek
while the sun lights up
her feet

Beauty
is a fat black woman
riding the waves
drifting in happy oblivion
while the sea turns back
to hug her shape.

[Capnniknak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection. An anthology you will want to share with your friends - women and men

[sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice drawings.

[Esha Dutta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favourite collection of poetry ever.