C+nto & Othered Poems

WINNER OF THE T S ELIOT PRIZE 2021

The female body is a political space.

C+nto enters the private lives of women from the butch counterculture, telling the inside story of the protests they led in the '90s to reclaim their bodies as their own - their difficult balance between survival and self-expression.

History, magic, rebellion, party and sermon vibrate through Joelle Taylor's cantos to uncover these underground communities forged by women.

Part memoir and part conjecture, Taylor explores sexuality and gender in poetry that is lyrical, expansive, imagistic, epic and intimate.

C+nto is a love poem, a riot, a late night, and an honouring.