Cut on the Bias

‘Julie Boden is unable to help herself. Ask her a prosaic question and she will give you a poetic answer back…. Poetry drips off her tongue like honey from a comb.  She is filled to bursting with musical, mystical words…. She sees poetry as reaching out and connecting… Not surprisingly, for such a person orientated person, one of the distinctive features of her poetry is the vivid characterization…. Birmingham is very proud of Julie.’ (extracts from Jo Ind’s feature article, ‘Reaching out with Music and a Poetry Sandwich’,   Birmingham Post, 2002)


Thought I’d throw in some poetry by the former Birmingham Poet Laureate. Cut on the Bias is Julie Boden’s second Collection published in Summer 2002. This is a short collection of contemporary work with many references to Birmingham landmarks. Boden’s style is distinct and extremely accessible. A particular favourite of mine is Cafe Rouge which tells of an illicit meeting between a married man and his lover in a restaurant, followed by a moment of passion beneath Alpha Tower. (Danny Bernardi, Birmingham: It’s not shit) (2008)

Beyond the Bullring

‘Poets turned out in their droves to celebrate the launch of Julie Boden’s first anthology this week… her avowedly modern poems reflect her free-thinking flexibility, often eschewing conventional metres in favour of a flow of ideas, sometimes in floods and sometimes in gentle trickles…  some are scathing and direct, some are satirical and some are chokingly sad and more abstract.  All are connected in some way to Birmingham and the Midlands.  (Steve Bradley   Sutton Coldfield News  2001)

Workshops

Julie was poet in residence at Sutton Coldfield Girls’ School where she organised a week of mixed arts events, performances, exhibitions, the production of the poetry anthology, ‘Reflections,’ and she also invited Carl Chinn (Radio WM)  to broadcast his show live from the school. ‘The whole week was fabulous!  I can’t get over how well it worked out’ (Julie Steadman Gifted &Talented co-ordinator. Reported in the Sutton Coldfield News)