Peach Pig Review- The Guardian

There is a deliberately overexposed quality to Cecilia Knapp’s poems: they take place in troubled light. Bright yet bleak, they hold the attention.

Foyles- How I came to write Little Boxes

It was 2011. I was eighteen and had just moved to London alone, to study English, most of my friends having opted for a gap year. I’d left a precarious home life, my single dad, my brother suffering with his addictions, circling the drain.

Women’s Health

Finding my way without a mother: How I navigated life after losing my mum at 7.

This year marks twenty two since I lost my mum to cancer aged seven. I’ve been motherless for the majority of my life. It’s a rooted part of my identity, as concrete and pedestrian as my own name.

The Independent- US inauguration poet Amanda Gorman showed youth laureates like me we have the power to effect change

On Wednesday night I sat in front of the news, watching the inauguration of the 46th president of the USA. Truthfully, I only had half an eye on it. Then 22-year-old Amanda Gorman stepped up to the microphone and read her stunning poem ‘The Hill We Climb. ’ I was captivated.

The Independent- I want more young people to think of poetry as a space to say whatever they want, in their own voices, on their own terms

Allow me to indulge in a cheesy statement; I believe in the power of poetry. I’ve seen first-hand what it can do, for myself and for all the brilliant young people I’ve worked with. Writing poems can have a transformative impact, allowing us to find the language to express ourselves where our everyday language just doesn’t do the trick.

Wasafiri Wonders

To celebrate the launch of Wasafiri 107, we spoke with poet Cecilia Knapp, the 2020-21 Young People’s Laureate for London, about first drafts, playlists, and themes she gravitates towards in her writing – motherlessness, the body, what we inherit from the women in our lives. Her poems have appeared in The White Review, bath magg, Magma and Ambit, and she was shortlisted for the 2020 Women Poets Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Peach Pig, will be published by Corsair in 2022

BRITISH VOGUE

British Vogue, features poets Greta Bellamacina, Cecilia Knapp, James Massiah and Selina Nwulu

The Guardian- She showed me what poetry can do. Young Laureates feel the Amanda Gorman effect

“I came to poetry by accident, through a workshop at Camden’s Roundhouse. I was 18 at the time, had no money, and was living alone in London. Poetry had not been in my life before. I was awful when I started. But I was so thirsty to get better.

Young Poets Network- Writing Tips

I usually rely on the outside world to stimulate my writing. But there’s not much to draw upon at the moment. So how do we stay inspired? How do we invite a positive writing practice into our lives at the moment when it’s so easy to lack motivation and when it’s so easy to be down on ourselves?

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