Or Land the Sea: a photo-poem (Red Bird Publishing, 2024)

A geological portrait of the coast of Britain in poems and photographs by Julie Cuthbert and Michael McKimm.

With a foreword by Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps, 2012, and Four Points of the Compass, 2024.

Find out more and order here

Because we could not dance at the wedding (Worple Press, 2023)

“There is much to enjoy in the careful attention and gorgeous moments of intimacy recorded with care and authenticity. Michael McKimm is a brilliant writer on relationships, about nature, about the wondrous details of being alive.” – Zoë Brigley

“McKimm rejects restrictions on gay relationships and practices, and instead argues for, and honours, gay love in defiant and compassionate ways.” – Paul Maddern

“What a marvellous ear McKimm has. As his reader I was engaged by openness, alertness and love, qualities which characterise this memorable, sensitive collection.” – Jean Aktin

Available from Worple Press
or can be ordered directly from me (£12 with free postage):

The Tree Line: Poems for Trees, Woods & People (Worple Press, 2017)

“It’s an anthology of diverse, vibrant and considered reflections, ideas and styles that bear witness to the vitality of trees in our daily existence. […] a skilful and engaging mix, well edited by Michael McKimm.

It stems from an urgent necessity to engage with and protect our environment, and this conversation lies at its heart. In the ways of artistry, this necessity is expressed by these poems and those wisdoms they embody, and with which we want to engage via our own, personal landscapes, represented not least by the enduring resilience of the tree, a living thing that can both predate and outlast us all.” The Ecologist

Read a review at London Grip magazine

Read a review at Tears in the Fence magazine

Available from Worple Press

MAP: Poems After William Smith’s Geological Map of 1815 (Worple Press, 2015)

Two hundred years after the publication of the first geological map of an entire country, this groundbreaking anthology collects new work by over thirty poets inspired by William Smith, his revolutionary map, and the foundation of a science.

“an excellent anthology” – Under the Radar magazine

Read a review by History of Geology Group

Read a review at London Grip magazine

Read a review by Jean Atkin

Available from Worple Press

Fossil Sunshine (Worple Press, 2013)

The result of a year long collaboration with earth scientists, in a project funded by Arts Council England, these poems explore the relationships between geology, the oil industry and climate change, and ask what the evidence held in the geological record can teach us about 21st Century global warming.

“The language employed is powerfully tactile.  These are strong and in every sense grounded poems… capable of transformative action and insight into the bedrock of our life experience.” (Penelope Shuttle)

“Read these poems!” – Andrew McCulloch, TLS

Available from Worple Press

Still This Need (Heaventree Press, 2009)

“The collection’s crystalline images and melodic lines alone are worth the purchase… caring, careful, precise… leaves the reader with the feeling they’ve been somewhere beautiful.” (Jennifer Matthews, Verbal)

“Poetry at its very finest… a magnificent debut collection…You really should get in there early and buy this book.” (Matt Nunn, Under the Radar)

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