THE LISTENING ROOM
Enjoy the latest recordings
from Naked Figleaf Press | Figmentum Books
Molly's Aria by Jean G-Owen
In celebration of Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce set his great novel Ulysses, I'm sharing a monologue from my book, Wyuen Pyne: A Reckoning of Women's Voices. While many of the pieces in my book are reckonings from so-called witches, scolds, shrews, saints and other women punished publicly and cruelly for saying No, ‘Molly’s Aria’ is a response from Molly Bloom, wife of Leopold, who spends the entire novel abed while he mooches around that beautiful city. For years Molly Bloom has been renowned as one of literature’s great female voices. Yet whose voice are we really hearing: Molly’s, or Joyce’s idea of Molly. In this recording, I won’t attempt an Irish accent. Molly Bloom was raised in Gibraltar, after all, and perhaps that gives me a little poetic freedom.
(p.s. apologies for the sirens in the background!)
Molly Bloom by Karl Whitmore
Molly sings for the women who were reduced to chorus, footnote or final flourish. She sings for those who’ve spent a lifetime unpicking the fabric of who they were told to be. Here, Molly finally gets to say No. And it rings like a bell through the centuries of Yes.
...from 'Wyuen Pyne' by Jean G-Owen
Order your copy of Wyuen Pyne here.
The Glass Muse by Jean G-Owen
'The Glass Muse' is taken from my collection The Pain of Glass and draws on Virginia Woolf’s concept of women as mirrors, reflecting men’s greatness. The poem examines this dynamic between two women, using glass as a metaphor for the speaker’s identity under the weight of another’s expectations. As the mirror fractures, so does the relationship, leaving behind shards that continue to wound. The poem explores themes of self-erasure, and the cost of emotional reflection.
A Year of Wild Verse by Kathryn Rossati
In A Year of Wild Verse, Kathryn Rossati writes from hedgerow, shoreline, woodland and open sky. Her poems watch closely: hedgehogs in dusk, bats in evening air, trees that take the blade and keep growing. Survival here is quiet, daily, and enduring.
Written during pandemic lockdown to raise funds for the RSPB, the project became a year-long act of attention. In this recording, Rossati shares some of those poems, honouring the fragile persistence of the natural world and what is at stake when we fail to notice.
Order your copy here.
Piranha by Jean G-Owen
In celebration of International Women's Day 2026, I have recorded a short story from my latest book Wyuen Pyne. 'Piranha' is dedicated to my mother, Barbara. To read the commentary accompanying this story, tap on the image.
The illustration to 'Piranha' is by Karl Whitmore.
Finding Home by Amy Bacon
This recording presents select poems from Amy Bacon’s debut collection—a work that begins in the living grain of Bristol, lifts with its hot-air balloons above the city’s sights and sounds, opens outward into art, technology, music and distant landscapes from Japan to the Peloponnese, and returns to the resonant terrain of the female body, tracing throughout—in lyric, prose and haiku—what it means to find home.
To purchase Finding Home, simply tap on the image.
The Reds & The Greys by Edmund Matyjaszek
An eco-fable where animals speak and the island listens
When grey squirrels threaten the island’s long-protected red population, the High Heron of Wootton sends a single red squirrel to a lonely boy’s window, trusting that he will understand. What follows is a fragile alliance between humans and animals, bound by the shared duty of caring for home.
Order your copy here.
Vivisepulchre by Jason Watts
In ‘Vivisepulchre’, a narrator obsessed with the history of premature burial begins to question everything when, beside the cholera graves, a bell starts to ring.
‘The Graveyard Bell’ image by Karl Whitmore.
Thimble by Hillard Morley
Thimble is a flash fiction piece by Hillard Morley that reveals how quickly tenderness can turn to accusation. Brief, precise, and unsettling, it lingers long after the final line. Published in The Figlet, Issue Five and featured on BBC Uploads.
She Came From The Sea by Katie Daysh
She Came From The Sea is a short queer historical fiction story by Katie Daysh about a mysterious sea-spirit, and about society and its expectations. Written for Naked Figleaf Press' The Figlet Five: 'Friend or Foe'.
Image by Karl Whitmore.