Memory/Poetry: Yrsa Daley-Ward

How do we come to know who we are? In her new memoir, The Terrible, the poet turns storyteller, presenting a wry and raw story of the surreal magic and extreme discomfort of family, adolescence and sexuality.
Yrsa Daley-Ward presents new lyrical memoir – part prose, part verse – about coming-of-age, uncovering the cruelty and the beauty of the wider world, and redemption through self-discovery and the bonds of family.

'You may not run away from the thing that you are because it comes and comes and comes as sure as you breathe.'

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a writer of Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. Raised in Chorley in the north of England by her mother and grandparents, she is a celebrated poet and storyteller. Her first collection of poetry, bone, was published in 2017 to wide acclaim.