Julie-ann Rowell was born in Devon. She graduated from Reading University with a degree in Sociology in 1983 before moving to London, then Newbury, and working as a technical writer and editor. In 2000 she returned to Devon, and currently works as a writer, teacher and editor. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and for three years was editorial assistant on the Irish Studies Review journal based at Bath. She currently teaches poetry at the Bristol of University. Julie-ann’s pamphlet collection, Convergence, published in 2003 by Brodie Press was awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her first full collection, Letters North was published by Brodie Press in August 2008. Julie-ann has over fifty poems published in magazines and anthologies, including Chapman Magazine, The Reader, Mslexia magazine, South, Interpreter’s House, The Frogmore Papers, Poetry Scotland, Seam, Staple, Anon, Other Poetry, Poetry Cornwall, and Cascando. Awards for poetry include first prize in the New Writer Poetry short collection, 1998, second prize in the New Writer Poetry competition 2003, runner-up in BT section of the National Poetry competition 2000. She won first prize in the Frogmore Press Poetry Competition 2005 and was runner-up at the 2005 Bridport Poetry Competition.

Quelle: poetry p f

Long-distance Call

I half-expect a foreign voice
as you describe the New York heat,

how it blasts, cancerous,
the air thick as plum wine

causing a man to drift,
turning thoughts to wiles.

I only want trivial talk tonight
or I’ll get no sleep

you pass the transatlantic time
in tales of food —

your soft-shell crab supper
in the restaurant by the Brooklyn Bridge

a giant fairground ride;
the extravagance of the docks’ tall ships,

but you didn’t say you wished me there
to watch the margarital moon

rise above sea water
the colour of a Cormorant’s wings.

You are sipping a vodka martini,
I can taste the salt on the rim,

you’ve ordered key-lime pie,
we could always share a spoon,

and trade a joke or two. I will listen
for how long and how hard you laugh.


Julie-ann Rowell
in collection, Letters North, Brodie Press, 2008 (Aug)
ISBN 978-0-9542649-5-6;
Runner-up, BT 'Stay in Touch', National Poetry Competition, 2000.