Scenes from Life on Earth

Addressing the loss of the poet’s mother – as well as themes of motherhood, birth, death, and the natural world – Scenes from Life on Earth explores how we grieve and remember those we love. Simmonds continues to write through the prism of her faith, offering insights and wisdom on the circuit of life, of life’s endings, and the promise of reconciliation.

Some of her phrases are visceral. Others as delicate as silk. But they stick in our minds. Simmonds finds humour where we least expect it, beauty when we are looking into shadows. She observes life and death for us, as her imagination flies about her world - a world that becomes ours. Life could be so complicated as could death, but Simmonds simplifies it and welcomes us with open arms. Witty and charming. Her good grace, her good humour overcomes sadness. The humour draws us in and wraps its arms about us.

Kathryn Simmonds’ first book of poetry Sunday at the Skin Launderette won the Forward Prize for best first collection in 2008. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Love and Fallout, her first novel, was a finalist in the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize before it was published. In 2013–14 she was the first poet-in-residence at the Charles Causley Trust in Launceston, Cornwall.