Eyewear is very pleased to welcome Meryl Pugh (pictured) this Friday. Pugh was born in 1968, and grew up in Wales, New Zealand, East Anglia and the Forest of Dean. She was educated at Queens' College, University of Cambridge and the Institute of Education, University of London.In 2003, she was selected as a Jerwood/Arvon Young Poet and left teaching soon afterwards, in order to spend more time writing. She was shortlisted for the 2005 New Writing Ventures poetry prize, and awarded a Hawthornden Residential Fellowship that same year.
Pugh has reviewed for Poetry London and Poetry Review, and poems have appeared in various publications, including Entering the Tapestry (edited by Graham Fawcett and Mimi Khalvati, Enitharmon, 2003) and Reactions 5 (edited by Clare Pollard, Pen and Ink Press, 2005). A pamphlet, Relinquish (Arrowhead Press), was published in 2007.
Pugh lives in East London, and works as a library assistant. Last year she was awarded a Distinction in the MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. I for one await her debut full collection with much anticipation.
Story
She opened her mouth: before she could speak
the One Before climbed out,
hauling itself across molars and tongue.
Her eyes watered, her nose oozed
and still the caul dragged over
her bleeding lips, distended jaw.
Flicking its skirt clear of the mess,
The One Before stepped free,
pulsing and stretching, opening its mouth
in a yawn or a roar that didn't end,
that stretched, then rolled back the skin,
turned the whole body inside out.
Stuck to the membrane, a tiny creature –
all pinafore and wisp of white hair –
stirred, looked up, prepared to speak:
poem by Meryl Pugh
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