The Imposter Poets

Once shy poets, burdened with imposter syndrome, Emily Prescott, Beth ‘Dash’ Finney and Ruby Norman Curran formed a collective to bolster confidence and nurture their writing habit.

After reading English at the University of Exeter, Emily worked at the Evening Standard and is now the editor of the Mail on Sunday’s celebrity gossip column. Naturally, this has given her a terrible penchant for name-dropping as well as a hankering for escapism via poetry. Dash is a writer and editor. Her features have appeared in the likes of IN London, Boat International and The Gentleman’s Journal, and she has worked as deputy editor at Oceanographic Magazine. A nature-loving storyteller, Dash used to tell everyone she grew up on a farm even though this was not true. Ruby works in advertising and her poetry has featured in Dear Damsels and she is the winner of The Moth podcast London StorySLAM and the Women On Writing short story contest. She has an unhealthy interest in the occult and has frankly dragged the others into it.

The group use tarot cards to inspire their work which looks at subjects such as the environment, death, the queer experience and mental health. Mental health is a strong focus for the group, and that is one of the things that drew them to tarot, a tool that can be used to access the subconscious, aid mental health, and access magical thinking.

They have used poetry to soothe the horrors of life and express its joys. They want everyone to feel they can access this tool; no one is an imposter. Their first book can be read cover to cover or it can be used as a divination tool. Simply open the book at random to find a poem based on the tarot card that wants to make itself known to you.