“This is a poet…who really knows what she is doing.”
— The Poetry Review
“Each poem is a step into a new universe, and the journey is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.”
— The Poetry Book Society
“This is an exciting debut. (How to resist a collection that includes wrestling, Amy Winehouse, and jellyfish?) These are tender and astute poems that grapple with love, grief, ghosts, and motherhood...”
— Rachel Long
“…a deft, wise & exciting new voice in British poetry.”
— Rebecca Tamás
“Janine’s poetry is full of beauty and ache and humour.”
— Charlotte Shevchenko Knight
Sometimes Real Love Comes Quick & Easy
A Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice
In this audacious pamphlet, Janine Bradbury casts her piercing gaze towards questions of form and feeling. Moments of transition – adolescence, motherhood, loss – become intertwined with contemporary culture and the complexities of heritage. Professional wrestling, pop lyrics, fast food, and family ties become talismanic. Stylistically vibrant, playfully ambivalent, these are poems that both recognise and resist the trappings of sentimentality.
Individual poems
“SOROR AVE VIVAS IN DEO” featured in Women in York, a film produced by the Yorkshire and North East Film Archive and York St John University.
“Jellyfish”, “Stranger Days’”, and “Meridian” in Blood & Cord: Writers on Early Parenthood edited by Abi Curtis (Emma Press, 2023).
“it’s 1994 & this brown girl thinks she smells like teen spirit” and “American Smooth” in Magma 85: Poems for Schools edited by Ashley Hickson Lovence, Gill Ward, and Laurie Smith (2023)
“Pulled” published via the Aurora Prize for Writing (2022)
“On the Occasion of My Son Gumming His First Drumstick” in Oxford Poetry 093 (Winter 21/22)
“SOROR AVE VIVAS IN DEO” & “The Rum Tasting of the Century” in Black Lines: The Journal of Black British Writing, Issue 1 (2021)
Selected poetry readings/events/papers
Reading at Rise, York w/ Maya Caspari and Becca Drake - June 2025)
Reading at Next Chapter Books, Leeds (May 2025)
“Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Writing Through Nirvana’s Nevermind” Other Worlds: Contemporary Ekphrastic Poetry conference reading w/ Emily Berry, Anthony V. Capildeo, Alycia Pirmohamed, Padraig Regan, and Kandace Siobhan Walker (The Open University, May 2024)
Rise Up! w/ Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight and Alex Mepham (2023)
York Literature Festival Poetry reading w/ Shash Trevett and Leo Boix (2023)
Poetry in Aldeburgh | Poetry London Celebrates 100 Issues w/ editor André Naffis-Sahely, Rachel Long, Vidyan Ravinthiran, Momtaza Mehri and Jemilea Wisdom-Baako (2021)