£6.00
Gain Access is a poetry pamphlet about resilience and humanity. It’s about the effects of fifteen years of cuts to vital services, and the ways a community in the north of England comes together to support each other.
These poems are full of humour, keen observation and insight about society and our roles within it. I’ve always loved poems about work, but I’ve never read anything quite like this. Written from the viewpoint of a social housing officer, we get an insight into the emotional toll it takes, fighting to help people within an under-resourced system that is often casually cruel and fails those it should be protecting. – Kim Moore
Published October 2025
We love Harker's careful phrasing, and his use of the particular, the historical, and the faintly absurd.
Hilary Menos & Helena Nelson, The Friday PoemAn admirable talent.
Sabotage ReviewsThe poems are beautifully written, with a terrific eye for detail and a perfect balance of emotions. They do justice to the people they describe, and the thankless owner of the job that observes them. It’s based in Leeds but it could be any town or city in the land.
Tim FellowsIan Harker is a poet from Leeds. A director of Leeds Lit Fest and Communications Officer at The Leeds Library, his pamphlet A – Z of Superstitions was published by Yaffle Press in 2023, along with a debut pamphlet and collection from Templar Poetry. He was shortlisted for the Tempest Prize judged by Andrew McMillan and Patience Agbabi, and was a 2024 Ilkley Lit Fest New Northern Poet.
| Weight | 0.087 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 21 × 0.5 × 14.8 cm |
| Publication Year | October 2025 |
| ISBN | 978-1-914914-19-5, 978-1-914914-63-8 |
| Pages | 36 |
| Format | eBook (ePub), Pamphlet |
