Nobody Asked For This was a joke title that became the centre poem for this new collection. Some of the criticism from my first two collections felt as though I was being penalised for the experience that I had had in the world and that it didn't match up with other people's version of what they'd projected on their own and then onto mine. But I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for bipolar, I didn't ask for men who'd treated me terribly, I didn't ask for my body to be scrutinized to a level that made me learn to hate it, I didn't ask for grief, I didn't ask for stalkers and trolls. I didn't create a sad false narrative to seem...relatable. To seem on trend. To tick all the boxes. This is and was my life. Going back over the first collections and including them next to new work has been incredibly healing and validating. I sit now and I'm astonished at how much pain and also how much joy I've experienced in the midst of getting on with life. How I've learned to thrive in surviving. I hope it could be a bit of solace for those who have also felt they didn't ask for the experiences life has given them and how giving them the space they deserve to be seen in is powerful. It's out on Feb 2nd next year. I can't wait. I hope you love it the way I do.