What We Are Given is a poetic exploration of the bonds which bind and break us. The things we inherit, who we are and how we become them. An examination of what it means to be human that is in equal parts tender and gritty. Ollie O’Neill’s poems navigate a series of emotions and relationships from romance to grief from family to friends. What We Are Given places everyday experiences under the microscope and allows us to understand how they come to be part of the bigger picture. It is unflinching in its honesty and intimacy — unafraid to embrace the dark whilst still leaving room for lightness.
TESTIMONIALS
Reading Ollie O'Neill's book was an experiment in delight. There were times that I read word-pairings that surprised me so much I clapped my hands together, actually giddy. This book reads like a poetic playground--at one moment I am swinging, other times sliding, sometimes climbing all of its delicious ideas, images and language. O'Neill does things with verbs that feel like a recess bell has just run and my brain gets to go out and play. Get this book. Your brain deserves it. My favourite line -- "Not only am I in love but I'm the best at it." - MEGAN FALLEY, author, AFTER THE WITCH HUNT, REDHEAD & THE SLAUGHTER KING, DRIVE HERE & DEVASTATE ME
Ollie O'Neill's debut poems feel like the voice of a friend confiding in us - we as readers are trusted with the secrets and grievances of the poet. Know that when O'Neill tells us "A secret that doesn't hurt you is barely a secret", we know that we are being let in and trusted with the heart of this poet. O'Neill is that rare poet I have witnessed holding stages for years and has grown to become an accomplished and vital voice in UK Spoken Word. Yet, in 'What We Are Given', we get to see O'Neill hold the page without losing the integrity or intensity that makes her a poetry star. What a gift. - RAYMOND ANTROBUS, author, THE PERSEVERANCE
Ollie O'Neill is one of a new generation of UK poets who are able to balance between the written and the spoken in poetry. O'Neill travels with us along dark tributaries of the heart, a cartographer of love and loss. Hers is an assured narrative voice, questing both the personal and the political. Her work is uncompromising and powerful, fusing sensuous language with arresting imagery; this collection reveals a tenderness and attention to the delicate. She takes trauma and makes a bouquet of it, a whole damn wedding. As a poet O'Neill is a time bomb. She is something about to happen. - JOELLE TAYLOR, author, THE NIGHT ALPHABET, C+NTO & OTHERED POEMS
What We are Given is that rare thing, a poetry book that is both personal and global. O'Neill pulls back the curtain enough to show us her world while deftly revealing our own. This is poetry for late nights and early mornings, poems to return to in bliss and loss, poetry to tell a friend about. Ollie O'Neill has shown here why we'll all be sharing her words for years to come. - AARON KENT, author, ANGELS THE SIZE OF HOUSES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ollie O'Neill is a poet and writer from London, England. Aged 18, she won the National Youth Slam Championship and has since gone on to perform at venues such as The Royal Festival Hall, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Soho Theatre, as well as Cheltenham Literature Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, and Wilderness Festival. In 2019, her debut pamphlet Ways of Coping was published by Out-Spoken Press, exploring the relationship between misogyny and psychiatry.
What We Are Given is a poetic exploration of the bonds which bind and break us. The things we inherit, who we are and how we become them. An examination of what it means to be human that is in equal parts tender and gritty. Ollie O’Neill’s poems navigate a series of emotions and relationships from romance to grief from family to friends. What We Are Given places everyday experiences under the microscope and allows us to understand how they come to be part of the bigger picture. It is unflinching in its honesty and intimacy — unafraid to embrace the dark whilst still leaving room for lightness.
TESTIMONIALS
Reading Ollie O'Neill's book was an experiment in delight. There were times that I read word-pairings that surprised me so much I clapped my hands together, actually giddy. This book reads like a poetic playground--at one moment I am swinging, other times sliding, sometimes climbing all of its delicious ideas, images and language. O'Neill does things with verbs that feel like a recess bell has just run and my brain gets to go out and play. Get this book. Your brain deserves it. My favourite line -- "Not only am I in love but I'm the best at it." - MEGAN FALLEY, author, AFTER THE WITCH HUNT, REDHEAD & THE SLAUGHTER KING, DRIVE HERE & DEVASTATE ME
Ollie O'Neill's debut poems feel like the voice of a friend confiding in us - we as readers are trusted with the secrets and grievances of the poet. Know that when O'Neill tells us "A secret that doesn't hurt you is barely a secret", we know that we are being let in and trusted with the heart of this poet. O'Neill is that rare poet I have witnessed holding stages for years and has grown to become an accomplished and vital voice in UK Spoken Word. Yet, in 'What We Are Given', we get to see O'Neill hold the page without losing the integrity or intensity that makes her a poetry star. What a gift. - RAYMOND ANTROBUS, author, THE PERSEVERANCE
Ollie O'Neill is one of a new generation of UK poets who are able to balance between the written and the spoken in poetry. O'Neill travels with us along dark tributaries of the heart, a cartographer of love and loss. Hers is an assured narrative voice, questing both the personal and the political. Her work is uncompromising and powerful, fusing sensuous language with arresting imagery; this collection reveals a tenderness and attention to the delicate. She takes trauma and makes a bouquet of it, a whole damn wedding. As a poet O'Neill is a time bomb. She is something about to happen. - JOELLE TAYLOR, author, THE NIGHT ALPHABET, C+NTO & OTHERED POEMS
What We are Given is that rare thing, a poetry book that is both personal and global. O'Neill pulls back the curtain enough to show us her world while deftly revealing our own. This is poetry for late nights and early mornings, poems to return to in bliss and loss, poetry to tell a friend about. Ollie O'Neill has shown here why we'll all be sharing her words for years to come. - AARON KENT, author, ANGELS THE SIZE OF HOUSES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ollie O'Neill is a poet and writer from London, England. Aged 18, she won the National Youth Slam Championship and has since gone on to perform at venues such as The Royal Festival Hall, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Soho Theatre, as well as Cheltenham Literature Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, and Wilderness Festival. In 2019, her debut pamphlet Ways of Coping was published by Out-Spoken Press, exploring the relationship between misogyny and psychiatry.
