Perth poet and spoken word performer Emily Bridget Taylor is set to release her debut book, Remedy, on Saturday, June 22. Described as ‘Jane Eyre meets The Tortured Poets Department’, Remedy blends yesteryear gothic romance with modern-day sharpness to memorialise a tale of heartbreak and resurrection. BRAYDEN EDWARDS caught up with Emily Bridget Taylor to find out the story behind Remedy and what we can look forward to at the upcoming book launch at State Library of WA on Saturday, July 13.
Congratulations on the release of your new poetry book, Remedy. How long has this been in the works, and how does it feel to be releasing it?
Remedy is a body of work that has occupied my mind since the pandemic. The gothic, double vision, ghosts, and lost love have compelled me for the last few years, and capturing such references and stories on the printed page in this debut feels very special.
Do you recall when you first discovered your love for poetry, and what drew you to it in the first place?
Poetry begins as a thought that enters the mind, and language has always delighted me. Formalising this innate way of experiencing the world within what we understand as the medium of poetry was an expression I began to love in high school. It felt like something I had to do, drawn by a feeling of being enamoured that deepened in adulthood to a place of devotion.
And how has that changed over time, and in particular, in relation to this release? Were there any particular poets that you drew inspiration from in writing ‘Remedy’?
‘Where does devotion take you?’ is a question that this collection asks, but it’s also a question that guided my completion of Remedy and a deepening of my creative process from interest to professional practice. Coming to the page as an act of worship is what this transition has felt like. My muses are the dead Romantic poets like John Keats and confessional poets like Sylvia Plath. Modern poets such as Tess Guinery, Lang Leav, and Rupi Kaur inspire me with an approach that feels fresh, resonant, and delightfully irreverent.
And is there a thread or theme that carries through the book? What would you say Remedy is about? And how is it brought to life across the four parts of the book?
Remedy is a diaristic story of love gone wrong. Told across four scintillating chapters, a perilous romance unfolds. Part 1– ‘The Falling’– is an unbound foray into the wildness of young love. Across Parts 2 and 3, ‘The Severing’ and ‘The Healing’, the summer of this great love surrenders to the darkness and bewilderment of the deepest winter—what happens when the person you love becomes unrecognisable? What happens when the hero shapeshifts into the villain? The final chapter, ‘The Resurrecting’, is about reclaiming strength after loss and falling back into the arms that always held you—the divine, your kin, and the earth itself. Remedy is for those who refuse to be extinguished.
You have built quite a following on social media through your poetry readings. How do you feel the digital age is shaping poetry, and how poets can reach their audiences?
Ultimately, it has eliminated the gatekeepers. Historically, writers had to wait for a publishing house to choose their work. Now, we publish ourselves and reach thousands of people worldwide without having to wait for permission. There has never been a better time to be a writer because of the democratisation of the publication process that the digital age has ushered in.
You’ll be launching the book at the State Library on Saturday, July 13. What can we look forward to if we come down to celebrate this release with you?
A matinée of gothic storytelling that lifts poetry off the page. Remedy has never been just a book—it’s a poetic world. This event will be like stepping into your favourite period drama. Think dark romance, storming rain, and an endless wailing heath as our emotional backdrop. It’ll feel like Jane Eyre resurrected in an afternoon that celebrates poetry for the modern era.
And what are your plans now that the book has been released? Do you have any other projects or performances in the pipeline that we can look forward to?
I’ll be bringing the drama of Remedy to Wild Village Festival in November in the form of a spoken word show. I’ll also be developing a zine that presents as an ‘entree’ to the sequel of Remedy. I like to release zines before the book-length version of my poetry collections as an ‘EP’ of sorts for my readers to enjoy. An audiobook of Remedy would be amazing to accomplish before the year is out!
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