Peach Pig The debut collection from the Young People’s Laureate for London, Forward Prize-shortlisted author

'The men on the train could kill me.
I'm a pig. I need a pat on the back.
I need a thigh gap. I use emojis
to avoid conflict. Worry I'm a gentrifier.
Send that gif that everyone's seen before.
Someone I know has won an award.
I have a memory of your love
like a lodged fishbone.
Before you died, I cut your hair.'


'Cecilia Knapp is a great writer. I love her' Kae Tempest


'Cecilia Knapp is a rare, rare talent. The sort of writer you get excited to have found and then look forward to devouring more of their work' Kerry Hudson


Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2022

' Cecilia Knapp is a great writer. I love her' KAE TEMPEST

In her devastatingly powerful debut collection, Cecilia Knapp examines the experience of motherlessness and its lasting impact, as well as the lessons passed between generations of women.

These poems explore women's complicated relationship with their bodies, with sex, and with shame as she traverses the violence of romantic love, but also employs humour and mischief, a wry reclaiming of power.

We hear stories of a challenging childhood in a seaside town, a girl growing up, getting out and reckoning with the guilt of being 'one of these people now.'

The collection also offers a look at Knapp's close relationship with her older brother, his struggles with addiction and, eventually, his death. With tenderness, she remembers him and unpacks the unique grief that comes after a suicide.

Peach Pig is a candid and unflinching look at loss, an attempt to find a language for it. It grapples with feelings of anxiety, insecurity and displaced anger; but it is also a collection full of dreams, hope and vibrant persistence, a willingness to question and to carry on.