Ourselves
Joint Winner Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2020 and shortlisted for the 2021 Pigott Poetry Prize
“The nurse-poet has a particular point of view: investigating everyday sadness with a nursing eye and observing our brokenness with the heart of a poet. This collection of poems startles, challenges, consoles. Part recognition of human fragility, part celebration of our bloody-minded persistence, Beda Higgins can skewer your heart even as she holds it safe. Wonderful.” - Kath Mannix
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“A stunning collection. I loved the poems about nursing. It is the year to explore links between poetry and medicine and Higgins does it so well. There are poems here about nurse-training, about cancer and caring for the dying but also wonderful poems about anorexia, motherhood, even domestic violence. Beautiful. Highly recommended.” - Carole Bromley
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Beda Higgins’ debut collection is pulsing with life. These accomplished poems of hospital wards, loss and the compensations of love are told with clear-sightedness and compassion. Partly inspired by a career in nursing, ‘Ourselves’ brings us the everyday in all its enormity, mundanity and beauty in poems that will resonate widely.” - Anna Woodford
Little Crackers
Long-listed Frank O’Connor Award and Edgehill Prize 2015
“A standout entry” - Dr Rodge Glass
“A terrifically dark and frightening collection, Little Crackers jolts with electricity and Malice” - Mslexia
“These stories challenge the very idea that such a state as Normal exists” - James Robertson
“Full of surprising twists and outcomes – taking the reader on a journey through other people’s unique stories.” - Matthew Bradbury Queen’s Nursing Institute
Chameleon
a Read Regional Recommendation 2011 Long-listed Edgehill Prize 2012
“A divine compilation. They will have you chuckling or wide-eyed in shock, and mix the traditional fairy tale with fantastic contemporary punches. Her writing is never less than beautiful to read.” - Crack Magazine
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“A lovely collection of beautifully written, sad and funny stories” - Carys Bray