Kim Moore: ‘The House Of Broken Things’ Poetry Reading
7.30pm, Tuesday 14th July 2026 at Cakes and Ale cafe, Carlisle
Price range: £7.00 through £15.00
Bookends is delighted to welcome back Cumbrian poet Kim Moore to Cakes & Ale Cafe to read from her latest collection, The House Of Broken Things.
The House of Broken Things is an astonishing portrait of a mother. Her body as tender, contested territory. Her instincts fierce. Her mind alive with memories of her own childhood, marvelled by love for her young daughter, sharpened with foreboding for her safety in a broken world that has so often made to break her, too. There are truths our daughters must know, and there are burdens we must never pass on. To make them strong, must we also teach them to be afraid?
Calling the spirits of Anne Sexton, Emily Brontë, Adrienne Rich and others, she conjures an intimate atmosphere of haunted domesticity, the poems questioning and incantatory as a lullaby whispered to a cradled baby. Throughout, fears, griefs and anxieties are paired with moments of great tenderness, wit and revelation: brokenness can feel like a trap, but these poems always offer a way out.
Kim Moore is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and Deputy Programme Leader of the MA and MFA in Creative Writing. Her first collection The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and her collection All the Men I Never Married (Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her latest collection is The House of Broken Things (Corsair, 2026). She also writes non-fiction, publishing What the Trumpet Taught Me (Smith/Doorstop, 2022) and Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism (Seren, 2023).
“Kim Moore is the most compelling poet under review because she is least afraid of the dark sounds speaking through her. She welcomes and invokes duende: the unworldly and worldly occupy the same verbal space. Her poetry is always out of the ordinary yet unshowy despite (or because of) her expert and subtle handling of line and form. The result: a balanced arrangement of wild gift and mindful shaping. Moore is also the poet most likely to communicate to people who do not read poetry – yet her work is in no way simple or charming. Much promise yielded, much beckoning for the future.” David Morley
Please note: This is an e-ticketed event.
Your confirmation email acts as your ticket and we will also have the full list of all ticketholders on the night.
Copies of ‘The House of Broken Things’ will be available to collect at the event.
