kirsten irving
poet, editor & voiceover

Kirsten Irving is a Lincolnshire-born, London-based poet and voiceover, and one half of the team behind collaborative press Sidekick Books. Her work has been published by Salt and Happenstance, widely anthologised and thrown out of a helicopter. She has won the Live Canon International Poetry Prize, judged competitions, and taught courses on folklore in poetry. Her second full collection, Hot Cockalorum, is out now from Guillemot Press. Kirsten works in a library, writes about toys, and is planning her woodland burial.

Never Never Never Come Back
(Salt, 2012, 2018)

Never Never Never Come Back is a deep dive through cartoons, combat, desperation and debris. Pinball tables become emotional debris fields, while fantastical monsters dance with real-world tyrants. Hurtling and clattering, this eclectic collection is a disaster-seeking missile.

Never Never Never Come Back is an entirely idiosyncratic first collection, marrying portraits of gawky, unruly outcasts with forms that are both wonky and beautifully controlled.” – Matt Haigh

“Lean, needle-sharp, questing, intelligent and tuned to human vulnerability. She can strip sexual longing down to its exposed nerves.” – D.A. Prince, Sphinx

LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK

Other projects by K

Blog
𝔖

Hot Cockalorum
𝔖

Sidekick Books
𝔖

Voiceover
𝔖

Live Performances
𝔖

Culture Recordings
𝔖

Love Carcass
𝔖

Never Never Never Come Back
𝔖

What To Do
𝔖

Headbooks
𝔖

Birdbooks
𝔖

Bibliography
𝔖