Books

HISTORY OF PRESENT COMPLAINT

HLR’s debut full-length prosetry collection History of Present Complaint is published by Close To The Bone (Feb 2021). It was commended on the longlist in The Poetry Book Awards 2022, and was featured in many ‘Best Indie Books of 2021‘ lists.

Available in paperback and Kindle editions here.
Read early critical responses to HoPC here.

After a traumatic psychotic episode, a nameless young woman recounts past psychiatric crises in an attempt to make sense of her present and fight for her future.

A genre-defying debut collection of prosetry, History of Present Complaint reveals the devastating reality of living with chronic mental illness. HLR writes of the human experience in her distinctive style: knock-out blows of blistering truths are tempered with shots of sardonic British humour, and the lines between fact and fiction, safety and danger, sanity and insanity are blurred beyond recognition through her bold poetry and sharp prose.

History of Present Complaint is a damning

depiction of under-funded public mental health services and serves a vital role in giving a voice to the voiceless, shining a light on the darkest corners of the human condition and forcing the reader to see what has been there all along.

A brutal and beautiful work exploring mental illness, grief, suffering and mortality, History of Present Complaint will appeal to fans of Plath’s The Bell Jar, Juliet Escoria’s Black Cloud and 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane.

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PORTRAIT OF THE POET AS A HOT MESS

 

HLR’s micro-chapbook
Portrait of the Poet as a Hot Mess
was released digitally by Ghost City Press
on 5th July 2021 as part of their Summer Series.
Download it for free here.

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EX-CETERA

HLR’s new poetry pamphlet, EX-CETERA,
will be published by Nine Pens Press in May 2023.