Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim

Ness Owen lives on Ynys Mon (Anglesey) in Wales where she writes poetry between lecturing and farming. She has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Planet Magazine, Mslexia, The Cardiff Review, The Interpreter's House, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Atlanta Review, and Poetry Wales. Her first collection Mamiaith (Mother Tongue) was published in 2019. Her poems have been translated into five different languages. She has recently taken part in U O' | SUO, a poetry exchange project between Wales and Vietnam, supported by the British Council and co-edited the A470, a bilingual poetry anthology about the infamous road running from the north to the south of Wales.

‘Sometimes in a writer’s life an image arrives, unasked, and inhabits us, breeding connections through every compartment of our minds. This new collection by Ness Owen feels like one of those, with childhood memory, family, the politics of language, sense of place and an urgent environmental concern beyond human boundaries interwoven and embodied by the sight of that most liminal thing, a stranded jellyfish. It seems the slightest of lives, adrift, less flesh than water. And yet, like these poems, it can sting.’ – Philip GrossWritten as a midlife mother, teacher, feminist, socialist and protestor, this accessible book of lyric poetry has wide appeal and covers a range of contemporary themes including the environment, changing political tides, language and womanhood.