POET Cara L McKee, who was born and grew up in Ilkley, the daughter of Margaret Bailey and Tony Lewis, who both still live in the town, will see her debut poetry collection launch on Friday, May 22 with Yorkshire based imprint, Maytree Press.

Cara was thrilled to discover that despite the lockdown situation her book was still going to be coming out as planned. She will hold a virtual launch on her Instagram account, @caralmckee on Friday, May 22nd at 5.30pm.

Cara met her editor at Maytree Press, David Coldwell, last year when he chose her poem, My First Kiss, to publish on The Poetry Village website on Yorkshire Day. After that she sent David some more poems to see if he’d be interested in working with her on a chapbook.

“I used My First Kiss as the poem to build the collection around,” said Cara “so the collection follows a kind of coming of age theme, and are mostly set in Ilkley, where I grew up.”