Elizabeth Ridout has published her poetry and reviews in Agenda, where she was recently Broadsheet Poet, and in various other publications online. She studied English Literature at Oxford University, and she won a Creative Futures Literary Award in 2017. She lives in Tunbridge Wells.
Elizabeth’s poetry collection, Summon, is part of the Spotlight Books series. See the collection in its entirety HERE.
Interviews and Features
Shortlisted for the Poetry Book Awards: Summon by Elizabeth Ridout
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Elizabeth Ridout has been shortlisted for the 2020 Poetry Book Awards for her collection, Summon.
The experience of living with the adventures and griefs of bipolar disorder forms the focus for this remarkable collection of poetry.
Ridout uses the language of the fairy story and visceral images of the female form and femininity to explore how personal trauma and instability makes their mark on the wider world. Different voices and twisted accounts of the body and mind are combined with the mythological and the esoteric to create striking, beautifully unsettling and unusual poems—each a celebration of the extremes of being human.
Spotlight Books is a collaboration between Creative Future, New Writing South and Myriad Editions to discover, guide and support writers who are under-represented due to mental or physical health issues, disability, race, class, gender identity or social circumstance.
Summon is available to buy now for £5 at all good bookshops.
Special Mentions in the 2020 Saboteur Awards
We’re so pleased to announce that several Myriad authors received special mentions for the 2020 Saboteur Awards, including Elaine Chiew for The Heartsick Disapora and our Spotlight Authors Ana Tewson-Bozic, Elizabeth Ridout, Georgina Aboud, Jacqueline Haskell, Tara Gould and Sarah Windebank for the Spotlight Books series. Tara received a second mention for her novella, The Haunting of Strawberry Water.
You can review the entire shortlist here.
VIVA Brighton on the Spotlight series
‘The series is dazzling. Such small books, making such noise… These collections have been sending ripples through the local literary scene.’
VIVA Brighton showcased the Spotlight series in their March 2020 issue. Read the full review by columnist Anna Burtt.
New Writing South interview with Spotlight author Elizabeth Ridout
New Writing South interviewed each Spotlight author about their relationship with the written word. Elizabeth Ridout is the author of Summon.
Is there a writer you particularly admire, and what about it is powerful to you?
I really love artists and writers who go out and disrupt and disturb the status quo. I’ve always really loved the idea that ‘art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable’, and most of the writers I particularly love do this with huge grace. I love Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith so much I have tattoos of them both. Kate Tempest, John Cooper Clarke, William Burroughs, the Beats, Carol Ann Duffy, Stevie Smith, Ginsberg, Ezra Pound, Rimbaud, Audre Lorde, Zadie Smith, Anne Sexton, Rumi, Genet. Shirley Jackson, Frieda Hughes, Leonora Carrington. To be honest, an awful lot of my inspiration comes from rock music and lyricists – I would like to be able to write the way Janis Joplin sings. Kate Bush, Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan. I am a Bowie obsessive – I have a Bowie tattoo as well! The most powerful thing in the world to me is the ability to express yourself without fear of judgement, and all these people have this in common in their writing and their personas.
Read the full interview HERE.
Lizzie Ridout on Brighton Book Club Podcast
Have you listened to Brighton Book Club yet? The podcast delves into all things literary and it’s an absolute treat. Listen in as authors to share their favourite books, discuss their work and explore current goings-on within the publishing industry.
Poet Lizzie Ridout features on the inaugural episode alongside author Emma Jane Unsworth. Lizzie’s debut poetry collection, Summon, is out now.
Listen to Brighton Book Club Episode One HERE.