Gill Barr’s debut collection A Wide River Divides Us (published by Cinnamon Press this August) opens with acute recollections of a troubled childhood in 1970s Derry/Londonderry, evoking the child’s experience as violence escalates in the streets around her.
In a compelling fifty-year leap the poet leaves behind the city of her youth, sweeping into an expansive future, where she reckons with the past and with her self. The arc of this poetry collection is tremendous, ambitious, wide – what strikes most is its sheer vitality and variety. An accomplished and distinctive collection.
Gill holds an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University, Belfast and received an award for her poetry from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2024. Her poems have appeared in a wide range of publications and she was our East Coker Competition Judge in 2021.