Salena Godden – Pessimism Is For Lightweights

Salena Godden is a high-profile poet based in London. She is also an activist, broadcaster, essayist and memoirist whose work has been widely anthologised. She has had several volumes of poetry published including Under The Pier (Nasty Little Press) Fishing in the Aftermath: Poems 1994-2014 (Burning Eye Books) Pessimism is for Lightweights (Rough Trade Books) and a literary childhood memoir, Springfield Road (Unbound).Her poem Pessimism is for Lightweights is a public art piece, it was donated to The Peoples History Museum, Manchester, where it is now on permanent display. She has recorded several albums, most recently her spoken-word album LIVEwire (Nymphs and Thugs) was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2017.

Canongate pre-empted world rights to her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death. A documentary following the work-in-progress over 12 months was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Mrs Death Misses Death has been described by the publisher as an “electrifying genre- and form-defying firestarter.” It will be published in February 2021.

Pessimism is for Lightweights: 13 Pieces of Courage and Resistance – A collection of 13 pieces of courage and resistance, this is work inspired by protests and rallies. Poems written for the women’s march, for women’s empowerment and amplification, poems that salute people fighting for justice, poems on sexism and racism, class discrimination, period poverty and homelessness, immigration and identity. This work reminds us that Courage is a Muscle, it also contains a letter from the spirit of Hope herself, because as the title suggests, Pessimism is for Lightweights.

Published by Rough Trade Books.