East Bristol Books is thrilled to host American poet Gabrielle Bates on tour presenting her debut poetry collection *Judas Goat*, published in the UK by the 87press. With support from author Emma Gomis.

Gabrielle Bates’ electrifying debut questions what it means to love another person and how to exorcise childhood fears. This collection wrestles with betrayal, forced obedience, violence and young womanhood.

"...through all the layers of large and little violences emerges a speaker who believes in love, a voice that yearns for the mysterious otherwhere: ‘I am too dying/ of what I don’t know.’ I was stunned by this magnificent debut—here is the voice of a poet I will be reading again and again." — Aria Aber, author of *Good Girl*

Gabrielle Bates’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and Ploughshares. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she currently lives in Seattle, Washington, where she cohosts the podcast The Poet Salon, works for Open Books: A Poem Emporium, and teaches occasionally through the University of Washington. www.gabriellebat.es

Emma Gomis is a Catalan American essayist, poet, academic, and translator. She has been published in Asymptote, The Brooklyn Rail, Entropy, Vice Magazine, Mother Jones, and La Opinión. She is the cofounder of Manifold Press, which publishes texts in experimental criticism. She holds a B.A. in Musicology and Hispanic Studies, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Poetics from Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, where she was also the Anne Waldman Fellowship recipient. She published *Recupera*, a book of interwoven essays and autofiction, with the 87press in 2025

Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio) — Read more — Read less