Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2026.
Welcome to Cafes! Somewhere to eat and forget about work, where we can meet friends and not think about love, where we can meet lovers and be too nervous to eat. In Holly Pester's unique lyric, the cafe becomes a structure of fantasy and language exploring life at the pressurized edges. It becomes a form - a canto or a verse - unearthing what this space promises us in terms of freedom and thought, and what it holds back. In each iteration, the cafe remakes itself through the people who pass through it. A worker tries to run a cafe franchise. A lover sits in the corner, waiting. A woman mourns a friendship while contemplating age and childlessness. An artist tries to launch an art cafe and hosts an open mic. Both a stylish political intervention and an elegy for communal space, Holly Pester's newest collection reaffirms her as one of the most exciting poets of our time.
Paperback / softback | 112 pages | Published July 2026
