Published works by Naz Knight and community anthologies by Nine Red Presents CIC — rooted in Luton and Bedfordshire, shaped by Eastern Caribbean heritage, Black British identity, lived experience and the belief that every voice is worthy of being read, written and shared.
Naz Knight’s poetry books sit at the heart of this publishing work, alongside a wider body of publications, multimedia work, spoken word and collaborative writing shaped by place, memory, healing and public imagination. At the centre of these poetry books is the Collateral Beauty Series.
Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears, the first of Naz Knight’s poetry books, sits within this wider ecology as a poetry, prose and art anthology with purpose — a work that repurposes trauma into language that speaks to healing, self-improvement, personal growth and the refusal to be defined by victimhood.
Together, these poetry books and anthologies reflect a literary practice that moves between the personal and the communal, the page and the stage, the intimate and the public.
Naz Knight’s Poetry Books & the Collateral Beauty World
Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears was the first of Naz Knight’s poetry books: an anthology of poetry, prose and art that transforms trauma into testimony, reflection and possibility. Rather than being confined by a victim narrative, the book invites readers into a journey of self-discovery, growth and becoming.
The later Collateral Beauty Series explores Libby’s story: a young Black woman from Luton growing up in a post-war, post-industrial, working-class town while trying to become all she wants to become and find a lasting sense of who she is, where she has come from and where she wants to go. What began as one project, Darkness Makes Sense in the Light, grew into two distinct works — the novel I Am Collateral Beauty and the play I Can See What the Dark Looks Like.
Across poetry, prose, play and fairytale, this authored body of work gathers questions of identity, belonging, beauty, grief, survival and self-making into one evolving literary landscape.
Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears
A purposeful anthology that repurposes trauma into poems, prose and artwork shaped by healing, self-improvement, personal growth and the determination to pursue a better future.
I Am Collateral Beauty
Originally conceived as Darkness Makes Sense in the Light, this project grew into the autobiographical novel I Am Collateral Beauty — shaped by place, inheritance, memory and emotional truth, rooted in Luton and Eastern Caribbean heritage.
Poetry E.motion / Poetry Emotion
A work moving between feeling and form, where language becomes a vessel for reflection, release and connection.
I Can See What the Dark Looks Like
The second work to grow out of Darkness Makes Sense in the Light, this poetry-theatre play is shaped by grief, trauma, resilience and the search for new ways to live after rupture.
Flutterbys Fables
A collection inspired by Caribbean folk stories and Black British girlhood in Luton, where imagination becomes its own kind of inheritance.
“This is my scream of the butterfly, letting the world see the beauty I see in the place I call home. I guess you could call it a love story to Luton.” — Naz Knight
Word mechanics, word magic and literary practice
Naz Knight’s publications sit inside a wider language practice shaped by rhythm, image, memory and care. Here, writing is not only a vehicle for story, but a way of revealing feeling, holding complexity and opening connection.
From Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears onwards, that practice has turned lived experience into language that can accompany others on their own journeys of reflection, healing and self-discovery.
Word mechanics names the craft beneath that work: the deliberate shaping of language so that words do more than describe. They move, resonate, unsettle, repair and illuminate.
Naz Knight as author and interdisciplinary artist
Naz Knight is a poet, writer, interdisciplinary artist and qualified Kemetyu Holistic Health Practitioner whose work moves across poetry, prose, performance, multimedia, healing-centred creative practice and community-rooted cultural work.
Her books form one part of a wider ecology that includes Words Chose Me, Nine Red Presents CIC, Bedfordshire-rooted public programmes and literary work shaped by place, memory, survival, belonging and transformation.
Books in conversation with performance and film
Beyond print, this body of work opens into multimedia, spoken word and public literary practice, where creativity, poetry and wellbeing meet through performances, workshops, discussions and filmed material.
It also includes The Ballad of Bedfordshire, a Bedfordshire Day celebration and collaborative poem created with contributions from the local community, showing how Naz’s written work lives alongside participatory cultural making.
In this wider publishing world, books are in conversation with performance, reading, filmic language and collective voice.
Community anthologies
Alongside Naz Knight’s poetry books, Nine Red Presents CIC is developing community anthologies that widen the publishing space and invite more voices into print.
Butterflies in Shades of Grey
A women’s anthology making space for survival, tenderness, healing, spirituality, love, labour, joy and everyday truth.
The Other 33: Cultural Voices
A collection celebrating cultures, crossings, languages, lineages and multi-identity experience in Bedfordshire and beyond.
Bedfordshire Young Voices
A young voices anthology centring what it feels like to grow up here and now, in language that sounds true to the writer.
Naz Knight’s Poetry Books
Naz Knight’s poetry books span the Collateral Beauty Series, Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears, Poetry E.motion, I Can See What the Dark Looks Like and Flutterbys Fables — published through NINE RED Presents…(CIC) and rooted in Luton and Bedfordshire.
Useful links for readers, press and collaborators
This page sits within a wider publishing and media ecology, bringing together books, literary practice, public poetry and the materials that support interviews, features, festival programming and collaborative work.
Original media kit page
Launch framing, supporting text and background material connected to the Collateral Beauty series and Naz Knight’s wider publishing practice, including Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears.
Word Mechanics & Publications
The wider language and literary-practice page, including word magic, word mechanics and multimedia references.
Words Chose Me
Explore the wider site for Naz Knight’s projects, workshops, poetry, publications and interdisciplinary work.
Nine Red / Art Undefined
The connected organisational site for the broader ecology of community, cultural and healing-centred work.
Enquiries and collaborations
Use the direct contact route for readings, interviews, events, commissions, features and book-related conversations.
Books, language and collective voice
Taken together, these poetry books, publications and anthologies create a literary space where authored work and community voice meet — on the page, in performance and in the living cultural life of Bedfordshire.
From Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears through to newer books, media material and community publishing, this body of work reflects a sustained commitment to language as witness, companion, creative force and collective possibility.