The Illustrated Woman

by Helen Mort

The brilliant new collection from T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Award shortlisted poet Helen Mort

Let me kneel
before the sky and let me be humble, untidy,
let me be decorated.

Here are women's bodies. Hungry adolescent bodies, fluctuating pregnant bodies, ailing aging bodies. Here are bodies as products to be digitized and consumed. Here is the body in nature, changing and growing stronger. Here are tattooed women through history, ink unfurling across their skin.

The Illustrated Woman is a tender and incisive collection about what it means to live in a female body - from the joys and struggles of new motherhood to the trauma of deepfakes. Amidst the landscapes of the Peak District and the glaciers of Greenland, Helen Mort's remarkable poems transfix the reader in a celebration of beauty and resilience.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

84 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2022

About the author

Helen Mort is a poet and author from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Her collection Division Street was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize in 2014. She was described by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as "among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of young British poets". She is a Cultural Fellow at the University of Leeds, and one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Adapted from: http://www.poetaflamenco.com/

Reviews

[Pascale Petit · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Illustrated Woman is a fabulously rich read, every poem works and is like a detail in a rich tapestry, and some of those details are tattooed on women, which gives the book immeasurable depths and resonances, in the exploration of its themes. It’s wide ranging too, from motherhood, to the trauma of deep-fake abuse, to the awe of the natural world and geology, and interconnections between all three and more. Highly recommended.

[safacake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really liked this collection. I think Helen Mort is a very talented poet, and I found that even the poems which weren’t written in a way I’d usually like or on subjects I’m particularly interested in (nature and animals in nature descriptions, particularly birds idk why but I couldn’t care less about birds lol), I still found myself liking those poems because I could appreciate the skill it took to write them, which is a credit to her ability as a writer.

I loved so many of the poems in this collection. My favourites (which are a lot) were the ones about tattoos, women’s bodies, and what it’s like to be a woman in a world that allows men to get away with things like deep fake pornography etc. I’m excited to read other work by her 💗

[scarlettraces]

I was doing ok with this one, although it felt a bit by-the-book, and confessional poetry about pregnancy and motherhood is not my jam. But then I got to Augmentation and had a literal wtf moment. Oookay so tattoos and I am not your eye candy and all that good stuff and then implants? That was it for me. (They are also not great for seeing behind when you're trying to spot that itty bitty cancer.)

... I may have this wrong and I didn't read most of the third section which I gather is confronting. I just lost the will to continue.

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time digesting this slim collection of poetry, full of longing and wonder and gorgeous depictions of pain. Mort is a master in writing the final line of each poem like a punch to the gut, even for those poems which didn't absorb me.

Favourites included meditations on the cyclical inheritance of pain (I might believe our bodies are circular/ we are born bright and we burn/ down to the precious metal of our bones/ ashes to ashes/ flawed gold to gold.), the story of Olive Oatman, American explorer and bearer of Mojave tattoos (found she had drawn her own lines/ marks on her chin and arms/ to show who she was/ in the afterlife ), and her journeys to furthest reaches of Greenland, in the snow and ice (you were kept awake by the bellowing of the calving face, the booms of ice, sometimes rifle-sharp, sometimes resonant canon fire...You were on your period and the pain made you want to crawl away like a wounded cat, find invisible corners to curl up in. Expedition stories never mention bleeding.)

I will certainly keep Mort's name in mind next time I browse the library or bookshop shelves. Hers is a voice I want to keep.

[Shuchi]

Some of these were not for me, but some I really loved like Push the button, hear the sound (so somatic), This is wild, and Loch Allua. Some lines I loved:

I am a specialist in the scalpel of love, the spotlight of her affection.

There are things you think and cannot say. Say, for instance, that the woman's body in the altered photo reminds you of a dead horse.

The notes on the poems were impressive, as was her response to the manipulated images of her -- so brave, I am rooting for her. Would love to read nonfiction by her.

[Ruth Covington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with some of these poems but others hit me right in the heart. The exploration of the different stages of women's lives and all the meaning they grapple with within their bodies is fascinating to me.

[Kristiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous ♥️ will definitely be reading more of Helen Mort’s work in the future.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, some terrific work here.

[Lilith Bastet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry.

[Chloe Lyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only lost a star because I feel I wanted more stories!!! Left too short lived

[Emily Donoher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful exploration of women’s bodies, pregnancy, motherhood and sexism, crafted meticulously!!! I was very inspired by this read

[Abagail Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting themes, not quite like anything else I’ve ever read

[Philip Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Deepfake was brilliant. Many of the others were fine, but I think they didn't transcend their subject matter in the same way for me.

[Marc Nash · Rating 2 out of 5]

Video review https://youtu.be/PXEzqvXfj34

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a challenging read for me: firstly because it would... should... be for anyone because of some of its subjects of pornography, the use of deepfakes and the thoughts of men, expressed verbatim (there was one poem I came to whilst on a train and for a while I felt I could not read it in a public place, ironically giving me some of the exposed sensations she describes so well). Secondly, and well flagged by the title, there is much about tattooing and I am someone who tolerates no permanent non-medical alteration to my body, not even ear piercing. And yet, I was drawn in.

That said, the poems which engaged me most were those which referred to her pregnancy, herself as a mother and her child even though they were arguably no less challenging.

[Adele Asoski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The night is full of holes and we grate our bodies against them."

I absolutely loved 'Skin', but 'Skinless' wasn't really for me. Ultimately I think this was a deeply person, highly ambitious collection that just fell short of what I wished it could've been.