"These are poems which land the reader in the middle of a fantastical ocean and float them to shore on the precision and inventiveness of their imagery; these are poems that create their own mythspaces on the unstable edges of disability and chronic illness, poems which conjure new ways of articulating things about the experience of living in a body which might usually feel beyond language."—Andrew McMillan, leading UK poet, author of pandemonium (2021)
‘The poems are bold and assured. A delicate balance of wonder, playfulness and horrific revelation.’ – Michel Faber, internationally renowned novelist, author of The Crimson Petal and the White
‘I was so affected by these intimate, wildly imaginative and elegant poems exploring disability and illness across personal, contemporary and historical landscapes. The longer sequence ‘The Hospital is Not a Place’ is especially impressive, while many of these poems draw you in so close it feels genuinely immersive.’ – Will Mackie, New Writing North (New & Recent Poetry from the North)
‘Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit powerfully reviews poet Jen’s Campbell’s life and experience of medicine. It shares a poetic vision that reclaims language to redress her experience of objectification at the hands of medical professionals ... There is a juxtaposition of imagery and of voice within and between poems, that arrive at a wonderful sense of wholeness. The poems continue to please as you digest and dwell on them.’ – Toni Hurford, Disability Arts Online
‘Reading this poetry collection is like a walk into Campbell’s past of hospital operations, rejoining her in the present filled with fertility clinic waiting rooms and years spent shielding herself during the ongoing COVID pandemic … But, like all great poetry, Campbell’s collection contains universal themes about what it means to exist in the one body we are each given, of what it means to be human.’ – Kendra Winchester, booktuber and reviewer, (Read This Book)
‘Campbell, an English poet, was born with a dysplasia syndrome of the fingers nine months after the Chernobyl disaster rained radioactive isotopes across Europe. The poems in this poignant collection approach the effects of the syndrome with frankness, irony, anger, and good humor, showing an equable alertness to the metaphorical bounty in her experience.’ – David Woo, Literary Hub, on Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit
‘I found it exceptionally moving … a well-written, powerful collection – one I’d highly, highly recommend … One of my favourite collections of the year.’ – Katie Lumsden, Books and Things, on Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit
‘Her almost magical, whimsical metaphors and writing style make ... difficult topics a lot more accessible to read about. To say I personally related to this collection, would be the understatement of the century. It’s certainly in my top 3 poetry collections of all time, and the highest that poetry has ever made it on my Yearly Favourites-list.’ - The Fiction Fox (Year in Review: Favourite Books of 2023), on Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit
‘Filled with haunting imageries, irony and pared down language, Jen Campbell’s collection Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit examines the difficult questions about the nature and origin of disability […] Imaginative and full of honesty and urgency, Campbell delves into one’s hidden fears living with the unreconciled truth of disabilities through figurative language.’ – Jennifer Wong, Under the Radar
‘Yet for [all] the collection’s engagement with fantasy and the other, the poems remain controlled – the voice is confident and compelling with strict forms. Lines are tight and words held. The ideas within the poems change and morph, cross borders, but the poems themselves form boxes, like an exhibition space. In doing this, Campbell manages to shift and move between the world of fairy tale and the real world, approaching the subject of medical practice and disability from multiple directions.’ – SK Grout, The Alchemy Spoon
