Now available for pre-order: 'Sunlight Later' is here!

From thoughts in my head to a tiny book. Yikes

I can hardly believe it, but my debut chapbook is finally out in the world! And it’s available for preorder now.

Published by the wonderful team at Cathexis Northwest Press, this collection has been years in the making. It traces my journey through becoming a mother, navigating COVID and lockdown, getting married for the second time, and moving through what has felt like one of the most transitional and transformative chapters of my life.

‘Sunlight Later’ explores love and loneliness, birth and motherhood, memory and the quiet momentum that carries us forward—even when we feel stuck. Weaving together themes of light and shadow, grief and grace, and the search for the sacred, it reveals how redemption can be found both in the natural world and in our belief in second chances. At its heart, the collection asks what it truly means to be human—inviting us to slow down, pay attention, and rediscover why we are here.

Why ‘Sunlight Later’?

The title Sunlight Later comes from one of my favourite poetry lines by Louis MacNeice:

There will be time to audit
The accounts later, there will be sunlight later
And the equation will come out at last.

For me, these words speak to clarity, renewal, and grace beyond all our present human wranglings—the reassurance that the chaos and confusion of life will, eventually, make sense. They also carry the promise of second chances: that even in the hardest, stickiest seasons, there can—and will—be light at the end of the road. After some rocky years of divorce, addiction, moving to Amsterdam, and then meeting my now-husband and father to my kids, I had ‘sunlight later’ (badly!) tattooed on my ankle as a reminder that as long as we are living, we can always begin again.

A note of gratitude

It’s taken me a long time to gather the courage to share my work with the world. I’m especially grateful to the International Writers Collective for all they’ve taught me during my years in Amsterdam, and to the ongoing mentoring of Laura Wetherington. And of course, huge thanks to Cathexis for guiding a first-timer like me so generously through the publishing process.

I hope you enjoy the collection. I’ll be sharing more poems from it here soon :)

Pre-order now! https://www.cathexisnorthwestpress.com/product-page/sunlight-later From October 1st it will be available from the usual retailers - more to come!

Advanced Praise for Sunlight Later

“Jo Matthews is a master of cataloging the everyday with painterly lyricism. Waves of grief, tenderness, exhaustion, and staccatoed anxieties—these states merge into the poems’ rhythmic movements. Matthews makes a music all her own. This collection holds a whole radiant, redemptive world.”

— Laura Wetherington, author of A Map Predetermined and Chance and Little Machines

“In Sunlight Later, Matthews illuminates the aches and wonders of aging, motherhood, and relationships with lyrical precision and disarming honesty. Her imagery is gorgeous—she captures ‘the beauty of the moment, the beauty of the little things,’ while simultaneously acknowledging how hard it is to pay attention amid our endless striving.”

— Sarah Carriger, founder and director of the International Writers’ Collective