Pearl and Bone

Pearl and Bone explores the complexities of the first year in the life of a pandemic mother, with the stories of other mothers interwoven amongst the author’ s intimate moments, from pregnancy to childbirth and beyond. These poems showcase the lost voices of women through history – in the throes of labour, Mary paces the stable; in a dim Soho studio, Christine Keeler poses for the infamous Lewis Morley photographs; while above us, the moon laments the number of feet that have stormed her surface. Beautiful, emotional and richly imagistic, Mari Ellis Dunning presents mothers in many forms: those experienced, chosen, unwitting, and presumed, asking us to consider the true nuances of motherhood – delicate as pearl, durable as bone.

Mari Ellis Dunning’ s poems and short fiction can be found in recent and upcoming editions of Banshee Lit Mag, New Welsh Reader and The Lampeter Review, amongst others. She has also been the winner of The Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award, and placed second in both the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition and the Sylvia Plath Poetry Prize. The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass was written in collaboration with Natalie Ann Holborrow and published in 2020.