The Telling

The Telling by Julia Webb is a distinctive and acutely-observed collection of poems that unravel the intricacies at the heart of human relationships – an insistent, quietly fierce tour de force from this Forward Prize commended poet. Moving and dark, we uncover the things that go unspoken between people despite their closeness.
In turning her forensic focus on what makes us human, and in particular what it is that glues us together or causes us to come apart, Julia Webb's poetry examines the wreckage of complex lives to understand where the fault lines and fractures lie. What are the stories that construct our families and relationships, and who gets to tell them? Can we trust the stories we inherit, and what happens when we recover the right to tell things for ourselves? These compelling, taut poems crackle with the electricity of the untold – of flawed humans and hurt, of daring and being, of reclaiming and persisting.

Julia Webb is a neurodivergent writer and artist from a working-class background. She has three poetry collections with Nine Arches Press: Bird Sisters (2016), Threat (2019) and The Telling (2022). She has had two poems highly commended in the Forward Prize. Julia has taught creative writing for organisations such as Lapidus, MIND, Norfolk County Council, and The SAW Trust. In 2024 she was commissioned by The National Centre for writing and Living wage Foundation to write a poem for Living Wage Week. She is steering editor for Lighthouse – a journal for new writers. Julia lives in Norwich.