The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Poyums Annaw
Author: Len Pennie
Published: September 2025
Genre: Poetry
Themes: Feminism,

One sentence summary: A collection of poems centring feminine rage and the female experience and most of all, love and hope.

One sentence review: This is a brilliantly passionate collection and perfect follow up after her debut.

Review:

Pennie is back with her second collection and dare I say, might be even better than her first?

Having not studied English language or literature since GCSE, I really easily fall back into the trap of I’m not smart enough for poetry. The thought is toxic and absolutely self provoked but it’s totally unnecessary. I’m saying this in case it’s how you feel too. 

Because poetry is for everyone. You don’t need a masters to read it and think about it, you just need heart. You won’t love every collection just like you won’t love every fiction you read. I implore you pick up a collection if you haven’t since you studied it because I’m sure you’ll be surprised. 

And one author I cannot recommend enough is Len Pennie. 

I read her debut poyums earlier this year and was struck. I loved the collection, I loved the mix of English and Scots, there was so much fire and passion and heart in the poems.

Poyums Annaw continue with that same energy: refusal to give in, disgust at those thinking less of others, fury at the unjust and compassion for that need it most. 

There’s dark and important topics covered that are written about beautifully and carefully. There’s a fight for freedom for all who need it. There’s even some beautiful ones  about finding love too. 

This is poetry to be read aloud and I love it.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here, Payums Annaw is out later this month!

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 10/09/2025