Swell

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Eloquent and uncompromising, Swell explores the triumphs and hardships of the journey to new motherhood – through pregnancy, miscarriage, birth and beyond

In the consultation room I stared
at the purple flowers in their purple
vase and imagined my insides:
an ocean, a cave, a storm.

Maria Ferguson’s second poetry collection is a raw and powerful documentation of one woman’s experience of becoming a mother. Against a backdrop of the sounds and sensations of daily life, she longs for her own mother's embrace, observes as her body changes and charts a course through loss and wilting house plants toward recovery, empowerment and renewal.

Tender, direct and winningly witty, Swell distils the poet's complex feelings surrounding family and domesticity, exploring the contending weight and levity felt as she contemplates a thrillingly unfamiliar new chapter. Ferguson is a poet as alert to the absurd as to the shattering, and these are large-hearted poems, full of life and thought. Together, they invite the reader to join them in a search for self-acceptance, for freedom from shame, and for a path to stability in increasingly uncertain times.

© Maria Ferguson 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Wry wit and honesty combine to make Swell a compelling narrative of marriage, pregnancy and motherhood. The world of mother and baby groups and “hashtag self-care” enables a rich vein of comic material, but it is emotional exposure and fragility... that makes Swell such a rewarding collection
Guardian
Triumphant, refreshing...The collection navigates between tender and unsparing poetry, balancing an intimate and collective act
The Poetry Review
Deeply relatable... Ferguson draws us in through her down-to-earth cosiness and humour... there is great joy in reading the speaker's journey toward self-love, the body-as-home... on being beautiful and imperfect
Mslexia
I urge you to read this beautiful collection... The writing is eloquent and astute across many thoughts... Ferguson's poems offer a radical and contemporary portrayal of an experience as old as time
Juno Magazine
Ferguson examines the physical and emotional transformations that come with pregnancy and postpartum. She weaves scientific explanation with lived experience, capturing the profound shifts in body, identity and relationships
Tatler Asia
Moving... if you're after some vivid language, personal honesty and humour, you will enjoy this book
Morning Star
A beautiful, powerful, profound collection of poems. There is an honesty that is both heart-breaking and more hopeful than anything else I've read on this subject. She makes me weep and wonder in equal measure
Hollie McNish
Tender, lyrical, a family mise-en-scene, exploring the tiny narratives that write us. These poems are an umbilical, a feeding. Beautiful
Joelle Taylor, author of C+nto
A feat. Both creatively and emotionally
Caroline Bird
Maria Ferguson articulates the previously unsayable in these radical, tender poems. Swell gives voice to the full complexity of motherhood - the love next to the guilt, the ambivalence next to joy, even the desire to sometimes run away
Kim Moore, author of All The Men I Never Married

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