Entrants to local, national and international poetry competitions may be familiar with the name, Kate Young. She has an impressive record of reaching the final stages. Most recently she was placed second in the Canterbury Poet of the Year Competition, and in 2021 she was placed third in the Vernal Equinox Competition and won the Tiny Things competition from Stirling Makar. A Spark in the Darkness (Hedgehog Poetry, 2022)is, however, the first time a collection of her work has been published, and what an impressive pamphlet it is!

As the title suggests these are poems of hope and optimism. At this bleak time of conflict and economic hardship, Young reminds us of the importance of hope and of its power to transform. Firefly in the Doorway ends with the following lines: ‘’your aura/ confident as a spark in the darkness// despair unwrapped from the jumbled hitch/ and fold of this…