Helen Dunmore

Novelist and poet

Black and white photo of a woman with light skin tone and short light hair standing in front of a garden wall and metal gate Helen Dunmore, by Mark Gerson, 1997, NPG x87356, © Mark Gerson / National Portrait Gallery, London

Collections include The Sea Skater and Bestiary. Winner Orange Prize for Fiction 1996 for A Spell of Winter.

or do they rest in their dreams
along the surface of the water
like a bevy of dragonflies

From ‘The dream-life of priests’ in Short Days, Long Nights (Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1991)

a dark handful, sweet-edged,
dissolving in one mouthful.

From ‘Wild strawberries’ in Short Days, Long Nights (Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1991)