Conversational and honest, The First Bit is an emotional reflection on early motherhood. Varying in form throughout, EmmaClaire steps into sleeplessness and frustration, and how matrescence changes her view of everything else in life. This collection is often funny, even in its struggle, and resonates with the relentlessness that comes with having a baby. If you have ever seen EmmaClaire perform, her energy and love are clear on every page, and perhaps the readers will enjoy speaking some of these poems themselves.
Endorsements for The First Bit:
“Fans of Hollie McNish, Maria Ferguson, and Harry Baker will find a new favourite in Brightlyn, and any new parent will hopefully find this pamphlet an empathetic friend.” - Dr. Katie Ailes, Loud Poets
"This collection is sometimes an assault on the senses, overloading them just like the experience of the first throes of new motherhood which most of the work responds to. At other times it's soothing, reassuring that the world is a magical place to be explored for the first time through the eyes of a child. Real, visceral and brimming with life." - Nicola McCartney
“Here is a collection bursting with a mother's passion and overwhelm, joys and terrors, in lives fully lived and coming-to-be in a swirl of loving minutiae.” - Dr. Samuel Tongue
“Simply put, The First Bit is a collection akin to being compressed in a soft burrito of love, with all of its messy honesty.” - Spencer Mason, Chair of City of Poets
“This collection illustrates the pain, love, exhaustion and unrelenting-ness of motherhood, all whilst showing up, making art in captured pockets of time, telling her stories in her singular voice. No one but EmmaClaire Brightlyn can make scrambled eggs so dramatic.” - Catrin Kemp, Founder and Director of The New Mother's Writing Circle
"These vibrant performance poems, best when read aloud, honestly explore the complex territory of early parenthood." - Nuala Watt
"EmmaClaire’s raw, compelling and visceral voice looks at motherhood in a wholly refreshing way, from the all-consuming realities and late-night anxieties of early parenthood to the magic and bittersweet sting of vanishing ‘firsts’. It plays with and dismisses traditional advice, staying firmly rooted in the present, watching a little figure hungrily running into their independence, safe in the knowledge that they will never really stop needing you. These poems will stay with you long after your first encounter; the flash of connection and sense of empowerment truly sings off the page." - Lynsey Rogers, The Scottish Book Trust
"An incisive, moving rollercoaster of poems about the endlessly exacting, endlessly rewarding work of bearing and raising children. From the womb-like intimacy of To Grow to the breathless bittersweetness of Me Are Here, Brightlyn nimbly traces the wild, intersecting branches of motherhood in all their demanding fullness, building towards a satisfying finale that still leaves the reader wanting more. Formally varied, ethically unflinching and emotionally tender, The First Bit is a companion for anyone who’s cared for, is caring for, or one day hopes to care for, another human being. Allow it to tend to your heart as you tend to theirs." - Aditya Narayan
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A PRE-ORDER ITEM WHICH WILL BE SHIPPED LATE NOVEMBER.