Gordon Hewitt interviewed me – very perceptively – for the May 2026 Poetry and Spoken Word issue and I appreciate this great opportunity to reflect on my writing practice.
4 interviews with CAP Arts ‘The Monthly’
Category Archives: Exposure
Imaging Writers in Public in Wales
I’m very pleased to be featured among the portraits of writers taken by photographer, John Briggs for his exhibition Write in the Eye at Cwtsh Gallery, Newport.
‘ Write In The Eye’ brings together some 100 portraits in colour and black and white of Wales-based writers since 2002. Selected from thousands of images and taken at all manner of literary events in Wales over the past 25 years – festivals, book launches, award ceremonies, readings at open mics, literary walks, authors at home – the series illustrates just how rich and varied the Welsh literary scene is today, was and will continue to be.
John Briggs is a wonderful photographer.
You’ll recognise these folks.
John Briggs told me this about the exhibition:
“I’d like to think this is a significant documentation of literary life in Wales. |It’s organised chronologically going back to 2002, and John Berryman before that, who I photographed in 1967 in Minneapolis.
I’ve photographed so may writers because the opportunities were made available to me by two people in particular- Peter Finch and Alan Roderick. To start with, photographing people in general is my favorite subject. I’m also a lover of the written word – studied French Lit and Classics at university, so the chance to hear and photograph authors reading and performing their work has always appealed to me.
From one photoshoot to the next, experience tells me that I never quite know what to expect, to be on my guard constantly in trying to capture a telling image. Taken as a whole, my collection impresses upon me the fact the literary world in Wales is not just full of surprises, but also far more extensive and varied, fuller of talented, passionate writers than I could have ever imagined. I hope the exhibition will be useful in promoting that fact. “
Exposure reviewed in Fortnight
Maureen Boyle is a poet and former committee member of the John Hewitt Society.
Her review is published in Fortnight magazine issue 502 July 2026
The Language of Belonging
I was delighted to appear on a panel at the Jaipur Literature Festival – Island of Ireland JLF we discussed how writing can draw on experiences of duality and change, and how literature, in its many forms, becomes a home for identity, inheritance, and connection. Writer and editor, Elaine Canning was due to chair but was, unfortunately, unwell so crime novelist, Paul Waters – Author – Author, Podcaster, Broadcaster, Trainer (left below) stepped in. Maire Zepf, the first Children’s Writing Fellow (2017 – 2019) for Northern Ireland is centre.
Between the panellists many languages were represented. Cauvery Madhavan the Indian novelist living in Ireland spoke about capturing Irish voices in her work.
It was good to see my short story collection, ‘A City Burning’ (Seen Books) for sale among great company.
Exposure at Waterstone’s Coleraine 16 May
2pm Saturday 16th May I did a reading from my new poetry collection
Poetry Reading with Angela Graham | Events at Waterstones Bookshops
It was a pleasure to interact with such a receptive audience. I was asked what in my own life had led to my interest in conflict. A fair question! I tried to answer honestly. There was an exchange about minorities, what it’s like to be in one, or not. Frank and direct. And several people shared their own artistic practice.
Is love ever present at the root of violent action? Another issue that came up. Can someone behave violently motivated by love of something? What is love in such circumstances? Big questions.
Neill Walker, manager at the Coleraine branch, was a great host.
Exposure launches at Corrymeela
I was delighted to launch ‘Exposure’ at Corrymeela, the centre for peace and reconciliation which is only a short walk from my Ballycastle home. And particularly pleased that the event was held in An Croí, the wonderful building whose name is Irish for ‘The Heart’ and which expresses the welcoming and inclusive approach of the centre. It was designed by Norman Hawthorne in 1979. The photograph of it at the head of this article is from a post by his son Corin Hawthorne.
Documentary poetry
Angela Graham considers the influence of her career as a documentary-maker on her poetry collection Exposure: war, media, democracy from Culture and Democracy Press.
This appeared in nation.cymru (without Enemy in the Woods images) on 22.3.26
My new collection of poetry, Exposure: war, media, democracy began from my response to a photograph of a dead Russian soldier on the outskirts of Kharkiv. It was taken on the invasion’s third day, but he had died on its first afternoon.
As I saw more and more photographic coverage of this one death, there before me was evidence of how the choices made by the photographers were emphasising particular aspects of the scene. Changes in the weather were powerful influences – snow loomed, arrived, dominated, melted; as were changes in access – front line crisis, aftermath, stasis. Each variable was likely to touch one rather than another emotional chord in the viewer. Every image was ‘true’ but many images considered in relation to one another revealed the complexity in the circumstances, making them more challenging to decipher – the truth deepened; or the truth undermined?
Continue reading Documentary poetryEXPOSURE
My latest book is EXPOSURE: war, media, democracy 74 poems, from culture & democracy press, due in February 2026. It brings together my journalistic and literary experience.
These poems are prompted by photo-journalism, documentary film, radio, tv and social media reports of war – the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel/Gaza war as well as conflict at home.
‘radically human’ Exposure reviewed in Nation Cymru
Poetry review: Exposure by Angela Graham 01 Feb 2026 Culture and Democracy Press
CJ Wagstaff
Angela Graham demonstrates that the language of documentary is her bread and butter in this sensitive and assured riff on photopoetry from Culture and Democracy Press. Across the collection, Graham positions poetry as a form of creative record-keeping as she seeks to sit unflinchingly with global conflict.
The first section, titled ‘Soldiers and Civilians’, features poems responding to contemporary war photography ranging from genocide in Gaza to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here, Graham stretches her ekphrastic muscles, producing poems which are rich with restraint and physical presence. Rather than grand moral statements, she opts for powerfully understated description, as she responds, for example, to a photograph of a deceased soldier:
‘patches of camouflage
emerging like moss
in a parody of Spring’ (‘Weather’)
Graham’s specificity is what makes this work exciting. She zooms in on each scene to isolate its finer details: the steel finish of an armoured vehicle, or the sun setting behind wholesale sheds in Ukraine. Meaning is not imposed but emerges instead through the poet’s careful attention to her subjects.
Notably, the source photographs themselves are absent from the collection, leaving the reader to rely entirely on Graham’s interpretations. Some of these are undeniably graphic. Visceral moments such as a soldier ‘rotting inside his uniform’ (‘Photograph of a Dead Russian Soldier’) confront the reader with violence that is difficult to sit with. This will not be to everyone’s taste, but it stands staunchly as a testament to the role of poetry as witness. These are poems that insist on the responsibility of the artist not to turn away, even when the act of attention feels uncomfortable.
Interspersed throughout the collection are also poems that turn their gaze inward, becoming self-reflexive meditations on the photographic process. Juxtaposed with the ekphrastic work, these pieces are as unsettling as they are compelling, interrogating the relationships between subject, lens, and viewer. In ‘An Act of Mercy?’, Graham observes how ‘a perfect fan of emptied winter branches / by the top left corner / gives a sense of distance and proportion’. What might read as apathy here is a gambit in a collection that otherwise sings with compassion.
As a combined work, this feels, above all, radically human. Graham’s moral clarity is patently rooted in lived experience, having grown up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This is a history which has clearly shaped her ethical framework. She reflects:
‘Born into Ulster
my whole life I’ve had to think about revenge:
what was taken; what should be taken back.’
This background informs a keen sense of justice, evident in her deeply empathetic portraits.
This empathy is particularly vivid in a sequence of six persona poems spanning pages 26 to 34, in a section titled ‘I Imagine Being’. These, for me, are where Graham’s writing is strongest, most imaginative, most complete.
In the first poem of this sequence, she inhabits the perspective of unit commander Vovan as he returns to his mother after active duty, marking what is arguably the most powerful moment in the collection. Graham contrives an intimate proximity to these narrators, imagining gestures of care and domesticity in an otherwise hostile world – ‘Mama cried out, My golden boy! My little fish!’ – effective reminders of the real lives and stories continuing on despite it all.
This is a meticulously structured collection, with poems divided into clear categories and sub-categories. Its second half, ‘Citizens and Politicians’, shifts toward a more abstract, idea-driven mode. Here, Graham’s personal politics are more overt as she addresses world leaders and offers observations on the global sociopolitical climate. But while this section contains moments of sharp insight, it is admittedly less consistent than the earlier work.
Graham is at her strongest when dealing with the concrete, drawing significance from lived or closely imagined experience rather than reaching outward. This is demonstrated in ‘Trump, Vance, 28 February 2025’ with a well-meaning reference to lynching that feels slightly jarring in the broader context of the collection. The best moments remain grounded in tactile detail: the advance and retreat of snow in Ukraine; a climbing frame-turned-memorial piled with teddy bears and flowers. Images that leave space for the reader to locate their own response to the work.
Overall, this is an ambitious collection marked by moments of profound clarity and beauty. Graham’s commitment to noticing, alongside her disciplined formal approach, results in a collection that is rigorous, innovative and thoughtful. While ever-so-slightly uneven in places, EXPOSURE offers a sustained and serious engagement with the practice of looking, culminating in a worthwhile and timely read in 2026.
Angela Graham’s EXPOSURE is published by Culture and Democracy Press price £14