Zoë Green

Wanton

Brighton-based poet Em Gray has been highly commended by the Forward Prize, shortlisted for the Creative Future Writers’ Award and won second prize in the Mslexia Poetry Competition. She has been interviewed for Modron’s ‘More Than Human’ series, and was Mslexia’s Poet Laureate in their summer issue, 2026. More of her poems can be found in Propel, PERVERSE, Black Iris, iamb and elsewhere.

Em wrote this about her poems:

 I wrote ‘Small houses’ after learning of a friend’s collection of small houses, and thinking of how each house might represent a need, a love, a prayer. I find the psychology of collections fascinating, this procuring and curating of objects that hold special meaning and bring comfort – the possibly endless act of collecting, that perpetual longing. I have a recurring dream in which I am searching for a home. The houses described in this poem are about more than bricks, or are not about bricks at all.

‘Tiny’ was inspired by a photo posted in a dolls house enthusiasts’ group. I found the notion of practising in a cardboard box moving and intriguing – this possible ambivalence between settled/unsettled, permanent/temporary. The maker’s profile picture was like one of those family portraits that comes with photo frames. It got me thinking about the wants of women hidden behind picture-perfect smiles – of women who, perhaps, rehearsed for a tradwife role through their domestic-themed toys of girlhood.