Laurie Bolger – författare

These poems of memory and girlhood are powerful evocations of the changing body and the male gaze. A raw, absurdist humour provides a sense of defiance throughout, and the tone is in turns sad, angry, rue.– Hannah Lowe

Makeover is a book dripping with nostalgia, cigarette ash and sour cream dip. Lit by too-close TV screens and too-bright calorie counters, Bolger's poems explore growing up, differing bodies and societal expectations.Writing in praise of mums, nans and sisterhood, this is a work bursting with strength, anger, love and, ultimately, hope. In a celebration of girls shaped by swimming baths and Working Men’s Clubs, friendship and family, Makeover contends with what we inherit and what we ought to pass on.

Makeover is a book dripping with nostalgia, cigarette ash and sour cream dip. Lit by too-close TV screens and too-bright calorie counters, Bolger''s poems explore growing up, differing bodies and societal expectations.Writing in praise of mums, nans and sisterhood, this is a work bursting with strength, anger, love and, ultimately, hope. In a celebration of girls shaped by swimming baths and Working Men''s Clubs, friendship and family, Makeover contends with what we inherit and what we ought to pass on.

Lady, the first full collection of poems by Laurie Bolger, arrives ‘all giddy with endorphins’ and explores the many roles girls and women are asked to play and the dressing-up outfits they try on for size – whether housewife or hen, sister or mum, landlady, exercise instructor or best friend forever. Bolger’s poems turn her bold, funny and wise words on boys, body image and the pressure to make yourself fit into a pigeon-hole, when all you really want to do is soar away on your own wings.Here, these gritty and effervescent poems look to the things that sustain us when navigating an imperfect world obsessed with perfection. Whether dancing in the kitchen, crying in the bath or eating crisps, these poems are equal parts delicious, joyous, and bittersweet. A celebration of the resilience of working-class women and the solidarity and love found in friendship and family, Bolger’s poems dare to dream and be wild – and invite us all to join her.

Lady, the first full collection of poems by Laurie Bolger, arrives ''all giddy with endorphins'' and explores the many roles girls and women are asked to play and the dressing-up outfits they try on for size – whether housewife or hen, sister or mum, landlady, exercise instructor or best friend forever. Bolger''s poems turn her bold, funny and wise words on boys, body image and the pressure to make yourself fit into a pigeon-hole, when all you really want to do is soar away on your own wings.Here, these gritty and effervescent poems look to the things that sustain us when navigating an imperfect world obsessed with perfection. Whether dancing in the kitchen, crying in the bath or eating crisps, these poems are equal parts delicious, joyous, and bittersweet. A celebration of the resilience of working-class women and the solidarity and love found in friendship and family, Bolger''s poems dare to dream and be wild – and invite us all to join her.

In 2025, Nine Arches Press launched their nationwide Primers scheme in search of exciting new voices in poetry, with Laurie Bolger as selecting editor. After reading through hundreds of anonymous entries, and narrowing down the choices from longlist to shortlist, three poets emerged as clear choices: Carl Alexandersson, Rachel Jeffcoat, and Olivia Tuck.Primers Volume Eight now showcases their exceptional and groundbreaking new work in poetry. Each poet moves between territories of the self and the worlds we inhabit – from reflections of queer joy in landscape and nature, to the voices of ancestors, of women with ‘long memories and short tempers’, to a neurodivergent perspective of the precious planet we call our home in a time of environmental crisis. Steadily focused, haunting and distinctive, this is an essential collection of new work from three of poetry’s most talented emerging voices.