“It is the nature of woodland to be in on a secret”
Rootstalk is written in five voices, some drawn from myth, others from historical accounts, all re-imagined. The lives of these characters are shaped by the Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum), one of the rarest wild orchids, which spends most of its life underground and flowers once every decade or so. In Rootstalk, the Ghost Orchid becomes the point of fascination and search, of longing, loss and reconciliation.
Ella Duffy is a London-based poet. Her work has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in Ambit, The Guardian Review and The Rialto, among others. She was shortlisted for the 2020 Pat Kavanagh Prize and won the Live Canon International Poetry Competition in 2019. Her debut pamphlet, ‘New Hunger’, was published by Smith|Doorstop in May 2020.