Dazzle Ship

by Isabel Galleymore

Exploring interactions of the natural world in the light of human relationships, Isabel Galleymore's first collection of poems move between the loving, the symbiotic and the parasitic. Metaphor commands these connections, bringing the seemingly inanimate and peripheral to centre stage. Whether focusing upon a seed, sweet pea, sea anemone or barnacle, these intimate encounters address the pleasures and perils of finding likeness between the domestic and the wild. Dazzle Ship introduces a vital new voice in contemporary poetry and confirms that the everyday is indeed strange.

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Isabel Galleymore (born 1988) is an acclaimed British poet, critic, and academic whose work explores ecopoetics and environmental themes. Her debut collection, Significant Other (Carcanet, 2019), won the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize, and the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize. Her second collection, Baby Schema (Carcanet, 2024), was longlisted for the Laurel Prize for Poetry and selected as a Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation and a Times Best Poetry Collection of 2024. Galleymore’s poetry, noted for its sharp imagery and innovative engagement with nature, has appeared in prestigious outlets such as Poetry, The London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books, and has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

A Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham, Galleymore holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Reading, an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews, and a PhD from the University of Exeter, where her research focused on metaphor in nature writing pedagogy. Her academic work, including the monograph Teaching Environmental Writing: Ecocritical Pedagogy and Poetics (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), examines ecocriticism, metaphor, and interdisciplinary environmental literature. She has also co-edited The Clearing, an online magazine for nature and place-based writing, and edited The Bee Is Not Afraid Of Me: A Book of Insect Poems (The Emma Press, 2021) for children.

Galleymore’s contributions to poetry and environmental scholarship have earned her numerous accolades, including the Eric Gregory Award (2017), a Hawthornden Fellowship (2012), and the Walter Jackson Bate Fellowship at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute (2022–23), where she explored cuteness in environmental culture. In 2023, she received an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship for her project on ecopoetic practice. Her pamphlets, Dazzle Ship (Worple, 2014) and Cyanic Pollens (Guillemot, 2020), reflect her immersive experiences, including a residency in the Peruvian Amazon. Galleymore continues to shape contemporary ecopoetics through her innovative poetry and critical work.