Dr Gerri Kimber’s poetry find hits the headlines

A University of Northampton academic’s discovery of unknown poems by Katherine Mansfield has hit the national – and international – headlines.

The Guardian newspaper broke the exclusive story of Dr Gerri Kimber’s unearthing of the cache of “literary gold”, with the world press quick to follow up.

Dr Kimber, a Senior Lecturer in English at the University, and Chair of the Katherine Mansfield Society, discovered nearly 30 unknown poems in the archives of the Newberry Library, Chicago, in May.

She told Guardian writer, Cameron Robertson: “I had three days to spare so I wanted to go through every single thing the Newberry has pertaining to Mansfield. I thought, ‘I don’t recognise this one. Or this one. Or this one …’ I couldn’t believe my eyes!”