When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard
Megan Beech2013

Burning Eye seeks to break down some of the barriers that are put up between young poets and publishers to make it more accessible for poets to put work out early in their career. This chapbook from Megan Beech is the third example of Burning Eye working with a young poet in this way. Although still in her second year at University Megan has already caught attention with her infectious reeling wordplay, but, as is already evident in When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard, she is quickly moving on into more complex writing. Megan is not afraid of speaking her mind and grappling with political themes with a confidence missing in many older poets. When I Grow Up To Be Mary Beard captures the sound of a resurgent feminism that demands to be heard and marks Megan out as a name to watch.

Megan Beech was the winner of the SLAMbassadors national youth slam 2011, and the Poetry Rivals UK under 18 slam 2011. She has performed at venues including the Southbank Centre, Glastonbury, Latitude and Larmer Tree Festivals as well as for institutions including The British Museum, Keats House, UCL and the University of Cambridge. She has recorded her poetry with actress Fiona Shaw CBE for the cultural Olympiad project,’Peace Camp’ and is currently an undergraduate in English at King’s College London.