Poetry book by Jo Colley
Jo Colley, a content developer at Tribal CTAD, has completed her latest poetry collection, entitled Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms.
The collection, published by Salt Press, explores obsessions and the obsessed: “Miss Havisham, Sharon Tate, the Hitchcock Blonde, the Woman who Became a Sofa: all lovely phantoms with stories to tell.”
Performance writer and poet, Francesca Beard, says that each poem in Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms is like “a cinematic journey, storylines, characters, plot, style, atmosphere – music and lighting, but also temperature and smell … “.
Jo started writing short stories in the 1980s. She says that “somewhere between the lines of prose I began to write poetry and started getting published in local magazines”. Her first poetry collection, As If, was published in 2001.
As a content developer and editor at Tribal CTAD, Jo has added her creative touch and her experience, gained from teaching in FE for many years, to a variety of projects, including Target Skills, English in Action, English for Work and m-learning.
Read more about Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms
Further information
1. Full synopsis of Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms:
Miss Havisham, Sharon Tate, the Hitchcock Blonde, the Woman who Became a Sofa: all lovely phantoms with stories to tell. This is poetry that explores obsessions (the Manson Family and the death of Sharon Tate, lovers and daughters, family secrets) and the obsessed (Hitchcock and his leading ladies, Miss Havisham, rural weirdos and local heroes). Here are “still lives” that seem fixed by choice or circumstance, but draw you in to the mystery and ingenuity of the limitless moment. The enviable lives of the rich and famous, movie stars and Beverly Hills residents, are shown to be just as fixed and circumscribed, but a lot less secure. Transformation or escape is possible, sometimes with the help of a little magic, a criminal act, or the blind leap of faith characteristic of those in love. Not all transformations are to our taste: be careful what you wish for, lovely phantoms.
2. Previous publications by Jo Colley:
As If : Jo Colley’s first collection, published in 2002 by Vane Women
Punchdrunk: Published by Ek Zuban 2005: These poems explore the legacy of growing up with an alcoholic father. You can download an audio version – sound effects, music and me reading the poems here and play it on your media player.