Raving Beauties

Raving Beauties women’s theatre company was born out of a deep sense of frustration with domesticity, naivete and a burning need for a creative outlet. It led to an enormous personal, political and professional learning curve. Hallelujah for 50ft Women is their third anthology of women’s poetry. Their first book, In the Pink (The Women’s Press), sold thousands and was reprinted six times.

Our relationship to our bodies is affected by many things including culture, religion, family, sex, hunger, pleasure and pain. This new anthology is inspired by a passionate desire to celebrate our bodies in a fully realised way, leaving Barbie’s grotesque silent pliability in her box for good. Instead of pouting, our mouths have the power of language, our romantic fluttering hearts give and receive compassion, skin ages with grace when we see beauty in everything, a pierced belly button connects us to our ancestors and a belly needs to be strong before it's flat.

This book has been selected from over a thousand submissions. New poets published here for the first time are proud to share this anthology with established writers such as Selima Hill, Kim Addonizio, Jackie Kay and Helen Dunmore. By revealing the complex depths of our relationships with our bodies Hallelujah for 50ft Women makes a much needed contribution to a compassionate understanding of our evolving selves.

'…jaw droppingly profound….' – Mary Jacob, New Welsh Review

‘Hallelujah for 50ft Women goes straight in as one of my favourite poetry anthologies….' – Jade Craddock, Nudge

'…evidence that women’s bodies are clever and powerful, and that a woman in control of her own voice – a woman who is a poet – is 50ft tall, she’s wearing a red dress, and she’s coming for you.' – Jordan Savage, The Lake

'In their performances and anthologies Raving Beauties have done a great service to women writers.' – Guardian

'…brilliant, actually.' – Observer

Raving Beauties: Hallelujah for 50ft Women live at Ledbury

Raving Beauties took their Hallelujah for 50ft Women show to Ledbury Poetry Festival in July 2015. This video by Pamela Robertson-Pearce shows excerpts from that reading, with poems by Vicki Feaver, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Warsan Shire, Menna Elfyn, Bogusia Wardein, Susana Thénon and Chase Twichell.

Hallelujah for 50ft Women: Raving Beauties on the rampage in Bexhill-on-Sea

Trailer for Hallelujah for 50ft Women made by Dee, Fan and Sue at the book’s launch in Bexhill-on-Sea.