River Wolton reads her poem ’19th January’ from her 2022 collection Year.
In River Wolton’s Year, the intention to write a daily poem on the theme of kindness throughout 2020 becomes a year-long meditation, honest and unflinching, as the pandemic arrives.
We are marking four years since River wrote this remarkable book by releasing selected poems on East of the North on their corresponding day over the course of 2024. These recordings are taken from River’s online launch of Year, which can be viewed in full on our YouTube channel.
About River Wolton
River Wolton grew up in London and lived in Sheffield for twenty years before moving to north Derbyshire. She is a former Derbyshire Poet Laureate, former Writer-in-Residence with Writing East Midlands and a Hawthornden Fellow. She’s worked extensively in community arts, including book, performance and film projects with multi-racial women’s groups, refugee groups and young writers. She is a co-author of the Route anthology of stories about mothers and daughters, Some Girls’ Mothers. Her pamphlet The Purpose of Your Visit was highly commended in the 2008 Book & Pamphlet Competiton. She has three full length collections: Leap published by Smith|Doorstop in 2010, Indoor Skydiving (2013) and Year (2022), illustrated by Emma Burleigh.
