Threat

by Julia Webb

The poems in Threat, Julia Webb's second collection, train their eagle-eyes on life at the margins, and on family, love, loss, belonging and not belonging. They are not afraid to visit the uncomfortable places where true humanity resides. Threat is an examination of self from multiple perspectives. Its narratives of both past and present tread a fine line between fantasy and reality – these are the lives we have led, the lives we could have led, or the lives we are leading still. Forensically detailed and disturbing, the dark and sometimes brutal undertow of small-town existence seeps to the surface of these unsettling poems.

Genres: Poetry

102 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 30, 2019

About the author

Julia Webb is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's poetry MA. In 2011 she won The Poetry Society"s Stanza Competition and 2018 she won the Battered Moons poetry competition. She lives in Norwich where she is a poetry editor for Lighthouse and teaches creative writing. Her first collection Bird Sisters was published by Nine Arches Press in 2016. Her second collection Threat was published by Nine Arches in 2019. Her third collection Threat was published in 2022 and her fourth collection Grey Time was published by Nie Arches Press in 2025.

Reviews

[Y0urLostG!Rl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of poems highlighting the nitty gritty life of a woman/girl growing up in England, these poems offer a brutal and realistic perspective which showcases hardships and general difficult themes with lyrical and at times blunt language. Julia Webb has personally captured my heart, and her poetry has allowed me to explore the depths of female experiences shared by many, and through this, I am able to identify myself with it, I can hear the noise of the bars, I can see the bus station toilet, I can feel the power of one’s own body. Her work portrays an anxiety many of us may know.