The Poetry Book Society Spring Choice 2024ATelegraphBook of the Year 2024Winner of the Farmgate Caf National Poetry Award 2025It is hard to hurt and then explain the hurt away / so as not to hurt anyone. But have you seen / my life? (Child of Lir)The lives depicted by Victoria Kennefick alter, shatter and recombine in stunning monologues, innovative hybrid forms and piercing lyrics: her second bookEgg/Shellis a diptych, a double album, which explores early motherhood and miscarriage, and the impact of a spouse’s gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage. Acclaimed as one of the boldest poetic voices to emerge in recent years, Kennefick, in the follow-up to her best-sellingEat or We Both Starve, breaks new ground with generosity, emotional complexity, formal ingenuity and wit.