Festive Greetings & Happy New Year!

Christmas Offer, 2016 Titles & Submissions

Christmas is  coming, so V. Press is getting in the spirit with a special Xmas Poetry Bundle offer, plus news of our 2016 plans.

Xmas Poetry Bundle

In the run-up to Christmas, we are offering a package of all three V. Press 2015 poetry pamphlets for £14.00 (including P&P in the U.K. only).

The paypal button for this poetry bundle is below and information about the individual pamphlets can be found in the following links: Ransom Notes by Jacqui Rowe, art brut by David O'Hanlon and The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile by Claire Walker.

V. Press Xmas 2015 Poetry Bundle
(£14, including P&P in U.K. only)

(The offer still stands after December 18, 2015 but with no guarantee of arrival in time for Christmas 2015.)

The New Year & New Titles

Our publications lined up for the first half of 2016 are: Book of Bones, a full-length poetry collection by Kathy Gee; Hometown, a flash fiction pamphlet by Carrie Etter and The Old Man in the House of Bone, an illustrated poetry pamphlet written by David Calcutt, with illustrations from Peter Tinkler. 

Strong submissions during this year's submission window has made our final selections particularly hard. We are now working with a number of poets on various projects and manuscripts…so hopefully more announcements soon about publications for later in 2016 and into 2017.

For those interested in submitting to V. Press

The past two years, we have run a month-long submission window in August. Next year we anticipate a few changes. These include widening submissions to flash fiction pamphlets, as well as poetry. We may have a slightly longer window period, a different timing for our submission period, and possibly two submission windows instead of just one. If you are considering submitting your manuscript to us, please keep an eye on the website from February 2016 onwards.

National Poetry Day Pamphlet Offer

Today is the UK's annual National Poetry Day. This year's theme is light, so we've lightened our already light prices to create a special poetry day offer.

For 24 hours only, U.K. readers can buy a package of all three V. Press 2015 poetry pamphlets for £12.50 (including P&P in the U.K.) - a saving of more than £5 on our full price!

The paypal button for this special offer was below (removed after the 24 hours), followed by a sample poem from each pamphlet.

Happy National Poetry Day!

From CLAIRE WALKER'S THE GIRL WHO GREW INTO A CROCODILE

The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

When she was young, they'd swim. Take off

sandals and frilled ankle socks and jump

into the river. She loved to feel the water pull

ribboned hair to float behind her.

The games started with smiles: splashing; testing

who could hold a breath longest. They never matched her.

She was born to lie in wait, to feel the kiss

of the current in her ears until her head turned light.

But children wish to win. The others turned

as green as the rushes lining their pool. They plotted, held her

down too long. The water swilled round her lungs and she coughed

her heartsong out with it.

That night, she lay awake under a sky that was turning

tides with its dust covered ball. She pulled the cold rock

down, seethed until scales replaced skin, found the biting point

of a new jaw and wished for the crunch of bone. 

Next time, she waited in the shallows, camouflaged

in the rushes, cold blood immersed. Eyes broke

the surface, webbed feet treading water. The sun hit

her back and she felt her armour shine.

Then she made her move. Opened up

her huge grin. Felt never-ending enamel sink through flesh

as easily as arms stroke water. She snapped her jaws shut.

Swallowed the damage whole. 

Claire Walker

From The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

From DAVID O'HANLON'S ART BRUT

art brut

So, after my swirling black abyss, a work

still in progress, we turned to Sophie’s landscape:

a jazz-hands sun, the wide Vs, almost Ms

of birds, a green ribbon, edge to edge,

and, poking their heads up out from the grass

five earthworms, five pink splodges

more finger than worm, with blobbed eyes

and there’s-no-bad-in-life smiles.

Are they supposed to represent real people

or a specific event, maybe?

It’s a fascinating choice of subject matter.

Worms usually have quite negative associations,

particularly death, but yours are content,

blissful. Do you think maybe there’s

something in that, a desire to make

positives from even the worst situations?

She didn’t take it with her.

Like others left behind, it ended up

on the wall where, my sentimentality

assures me, it remains, unfaded.

David O'Hanlon

From art brut

From JACQUI ROWE'S RANSOM NOTES

PHLOGISTON

but light was not his field

dirtier in busy doors and tightly

woven doorways shades

of its refraction dimmed

and skimmed dishevelled ladies

his brain kept flaming

spills alive in bell jars birds

fell dead out of the sky his phantasy

revelled at length in patterns

of great earthquakes the certain

stars showed smiles

of loosened hair that wicked

away all terrible appearances

and unforeseen in time he went

for phlogiston and weeping said within

himself the first breath of a word

Jacqui Rowe
From Ransom Notes

Launching The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

V. Press is very proud to announce the publication of The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile by Claire Walker.

Daughter, wife and mother; femme fatale, object of study and maker of myths…The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile explores what being a real woman has been, is, and could be in today’s society of celebrity, stereotypes and media spin. Beneath the poems’ sometimes quiet surfaces, a strong voice, pared word choices, precise images and thought-provoking metaphor make this a powerful pamphlet. The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile is very vivid and very resonant.

"Claire Walker's debut pamphlet The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile is a riveting meditation on motherhood and transformation that crackles with drama. There are moments of lyrical delicacy and oceanic longings, and Walker's perceptual acuity pitches the reader into a world where nothing is taken at face value – a girl might be a crocodile, a mermaid could become captor, and seeds are studied for their mnemonic potential. This is a work to be savoured." Carolyn Jess Cooke

"A confident and impressive debut by Claire Walker. The alluring qualities in this collection are the sense of mystique in many of her poems which at first glance appear elucidating. The stylistic fusion of narrative and illustrative poetry see-saws from the adult experience of life to a fabling account of the innocence and fragility of childhood and adolescence. Claire Walker is a writer who clearly cares about her craft and some of the dreamlike qualities of this collection are reminiscent of Joy Davidman’s work." Antony Owen

"These are poems of growth, fertility and flow – rivers, plants, women. Claire Walker skilfully combines nature, myth and the everyday, and when reading her work, it’s difficult to imagine a world where things are ever any other way. The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile is a stunning, quietly powerful debut pamphlet, full of wistful smiles and blissful tears." Kate Garrett 

RRP £4.99

Buy a copy of The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile now:

The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

Pamphlet with P&P for U.K. £5.99 GBP Pamphlet with P&P in the E.U. £8.99 GBP Pamphlet with P&P for rest of the world £10.99 GBP

The pamphlet's official celebratory launch is on October 10 in Worcestershire. The event is open to the public and full details can be found on Claire's blog here.

A sample poem from the pamphlet can be read below.

The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile

When she was young, they'd swim. Take off

sandals and frilled ankle socks and jump

into the river. She loved to feel the water pull

ribboned hair to float behind her.

The games started with smiles: splashing; testing

who could hold a breath longest. They never matched her.

She was born to lie in wait, to feel the kiss

of the current in her ears until her head turned light.

But children wish to win. The others turned

as green as the rushes lining their pool. They plotted, held her

down too long. The water swilled round her lungs and she coughed

her heartsong out with it.

That night, she lay awake under a sky that was turning

tides with its dust covered ball. She pulled the cold rock

down, seethed until scales replaced skin, found the biting point

of a new jaw and wished for the crunch of bone. 

Next time, she waited in the shallows, camouflaged

in the rushes, cold blood immersed. Eyes broke

the surface, webbed feet treading water. The sun hit

her back and she felt her armour shine.

Then she made her move. Opened up

her huge grin. Felt never-ending enamel sink through flesh

as easily as arms stroke water. She snapped her jaws shut.

Swallowed the damage whole. 

Free Verse: London's Poetry Book Fair 2015

V. Press had a fabulous time at this year's Poetry Book Fair, where we were delighted to share a stand with Mother's Milk Books, next also to Fairacre Press and The Journal.

As last year, it was a busy day and one full of poetry buzz. It was wonderful to see so many people interested in and enjoying poetry, with a warm audience too for Jacqui Rowe's V. Press reading from Ransom Notes and Sarah James's Mother's Milk Books reading from Hearth.

September and the start of autumn - season of mists, but also a season splashed with colour.

V. Press will be heading up to London for Free Verse Poetry Book Fair in Conway Hall on Saturday (Sept 26).

The event is a highlight of the poetry press year for us and we are delighted to be sharing a stand there with Mother's Milk Books.

V. Press poet Jacqui Rowe will be reading from her very serendipitous and very idiosyncratic pamphlet Ransom Notes at 2.30pm. We will also be taking along copies of David O'Hanlon's very real and very gripping art brut, now on its second print run, and advance copies of Claire Walker's very vivid and very resonant The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile. One of the poems from Claire's pamphlet is also included in the Free Verse anthology that is given out to visitors on the day. (If you are at the Poetry Book Fair, please do come by our stand and say hello.)

Looking slightly further ahead, we had a strong batch of submissions in the last open window, which meant a hard job narrowing the shortlist down to just five poets. We are now looking forward to reading full submissions from these poets before making the hard choice of which two to take on to publication. (With other manuscripts already in the pipeline for 2016, it should be a busy and exciting year for V. Press!)

Meanwhile, October sees the official launch of Claire Walker's pamphlet The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile. For those in or near Worcestershire, the event is open to the public and full details of the launch on October 10 can be found on Claire's blog here.

Chez Nous Recommendations for ART BRUT

art brut by David O’Hanlon is the kind of poetry collection you want to savour with a smoky single malt or a peaty real-ale.

As you muse on the poems and their literary connotations, I would recommend a Laphroaig 10 Islay Single Malt whiskey: its mix of iodine rich medicinal notes, upsurge of pepper and chilli spices, with just a dose of saltiness, is a perfect match for O’Hanlon’s sharply focussed trek through his teenage experiences.

"I open a drawer, the one where things
Rarely come out.  With the old love letters,
The plectrum thrown into a crowd
By James Hetfield, and my leaver’s book.."
(from 'Report')

Add a measure of water to open up the flavours, the hint of vanilla ice cream that evokes the child-like perception of the dark unknown and the taste of plasters and medicine that evoke institutional life.  

"It was rumoured, and wry smiles confirmed,
That somewhere within that labyrinth
Of wards, units and clinics in a dark corner
Like a repressed desire, was..."
(from 'Contained')

Or try these poems with a ‘Peat Smoked Ale from Loch Lomond brewery’: its tarry black texture and hints on the palate of honey, pine and caramel biscuit will mellow the senses as you imbibe the profound truths and insights of these poems, discovering wit, light and warmth in the midst of darkness.

"...understand the worth
of what you write.  Speak it.  Go on.
Like ink into a fish tank, pour it into the air:"
 (from 'The Summerhouse')


Jane Campion Hoye
www.inspire2speak.com

For sample poems or to buy a copy of art brut, please click here.


Jane Campion Hoye is a poetic writer, storyteller and performer, who has gathered knowledge of a diversity of wines from around the world…whether filming in a German vineyard or sampling the liquid silk of a smooth cabernet on Stellenbosch’s wine route in Cape Town.  And not only wine. Her poem 'Waterfall Glory', recently selected for international publication Inspired By My Museum, was first penned on a visit to the Guinness Museum in Dublin.

Submissions open for August 2015

V. Press submissions open for August! 

Yes, it's that time of year again. Most people are off to the sun, beach, relaxation, while we open our doors to submissions....

What are we looking for? Well, maybe poetry that opens, or closes, doors inside, that shines a light where most people walk past or that illuminates the familiar in a different way. Or however else a poet chooses to interpret 'very, very' in a meaningful/crafted/awe-inspiring way.

Full guidelines can be found here or under the submissions tab in the menu above. Please do follow these, or poems are likely to be returned unread, or may not even be acknowledged at all.

We are looking for pamphlets/collections for publication possibly later this year, but most likely at some point in 2016.

N.B. While we are also delighted to be publishing a pamphlet of  flash fiction by Carrie Etter next May, our open submissions window this year is for POETRY ONLY. However, we do hope to extend the remit to include flash fiction in our 2016 submissions reading period.

Latest Chez Nous Recommendation

The latest news from our Chez Nous section is a series of delicious recommendations to enjoy with Jacqui Rowe's Ransom Notes.

Obviously, we think our V. Press pamphlets are great, otherwise we wouldn't publish them. The idea behind Chez Nous then is to offer something very different to a traditional review and a reminder that poetry isn't just words on a page but an experience. To this end, our readers/poetry-sommeliers recommend what they have found to be the perfect accompaniments to bring out the full flavours of each V. Press pamphlet. Today, Angela Topping's recommendations for enjoying with Ransom Notes.

RANSOM NOTES BY JACQUI ROWE

"This fascinating narrative built up from fragments of unlikely found texts and poem drafts by Rowe, would be a great accompaniment to a blue soft cheese like Cambozola, the name of which is a cunning combination of Gorgonzola and Camembert. It resembles a blue Brie, and Rowe’s poems offer the same surprising pockets of salty unexpectedness, such as in these lines from ‘GHAZAL’:

            sanctified by silverpoint mistaken

            pinioned by the evening star anyway

            I put you in a century

The deliberate lack of punctuation allows the readers to spread the creaminess on their crackers in any size portion they like, and nibble or gobble as the poem requires. ‘HENNA’ is definitely a nibbling poem for me, so every morsel can be savoured. From the start, it needs to be taken slowly:

            I go on like a henna labyrinth

            contact print of onion skins

mildewed rose crushed into the weave

Now isn’t that just lush? A supper for a poet, to be washed down with a crisp, dry Chablis on a summer evening, sitting outdoors as dusk falls. I love the faded colours of the henna and the rose. The poems might appear as random as a cottage garden but the careful crafting and shaping makes it a well tended one. Each poem has a single word title and takes the reader into a meditation which is often dreamlike, for example in ‘GLACIER’:

            inside this glacier of art

            the wolverine dived back

            into the sea and felt his limbs

            retract into a dolphin

When you have scoffed your Cambozola and drunk a few glasses of the Chablis while relishing these poems, you too may feel like the wolverine."

Angela Topping 

For sample poems or to buy Ransom Notes, please click here.


Angela Topping was born in the year post-war food rationing ended. Perhaps this is the reason for her lifelong love affair with food and all good things. Another of those good things is poetry, of which she has written seven collections and four pamphlets. Over the years, her prowess in wine appreciation has graduated from Blue Nun and Mateus Rose into a liking for the finer fragranced and fuller bodied. And since she has become more full bodied and likes perfume, this is very appropriate. For years, wine was a balm after a hard day in the classroom and now she is freelance again, it is an inspiration and a treat.

Launching art brut by David O'Hanlon

V. Press is delighted to announce the launch of art brut by David O'Hanlon. The official blurb for this wonderful pamphlet can be found below. As an editor reading through manuscript poems submitted during last year's open submissions window, this pamphlet stood out from the start. Why? Well, there's the gripping and moving characters and background narrative. Also the way O'Hanlon plays with syntax, pushing sentences to do as much as they can go without snapping...But that's just a fraction of my thoughts. Here's what the cover has to say: Set against a background of literary and artistic allusions, art brut is a precise and moving sequence on childhood and teenage institutionalisation. Tackling the nature of trying to reshape memories and carve out something positive, this pamphlet is a concentrated crafting of raw experiences into a poetry that is alive with characters and thought-provoking truths. Stripping back the sometimes over-romanticised notions of institution life, David O’Hanlon creates his own sharp and haunting art that is very real and very gripping. "The poems in David O’Hanlon’s first collection are ‘epiphanies of sun’ which shine a light on the poet’s experiences of psychiatric illness; to read them is to experience serial insights into a much overlooked and frequently taboo aspect of the human condition. Through poetry which is both lucid and engaging, O’Hanlon manages to transform his intensely personal experiences into something more universal: poems which can resonate with everyone (and not just those who have regular appointments with a psychiatrist). Bright lights cast dark shadows, and there are references to padded cells, catatonic states, self-harm, suicide attempts, OCD, et al, yet the deftness with which they are revealed, and the resilience, honesty and humour of this highly promising young poet’s writing, will leave you feeling uplifted. David O’Hanlon shows us that while the past can have a powerful hold over us, beauty, truth and poetry can emerge from the depths of anguish and despair. An astonishing debut." Fergus McGonigal  "If David O'Hanlon had written this sentence, you'd have shed a tear by now." Jenni Pascoe, JibbaJabba A sample poem from the pamphlet may be read below. art brut So, after my swirling black abyss, a work still in progress, we turned to Sophie’s landscape: a jazz-hands sun, the wide Vs, almost Ms of birds, a green ribbon, edge to edge, and, poking their heads up out from the grass five earthworms, five pink splodges more finger than worm, with blobbed eyes and there’s-no-bad-in-life smiles. Are they supposed to represent real people or a specific event, maybe? It’s a fascinating choice of subject matter. Worms usually have quite negative associations, particularly death, but yours are content, blissful. Do you think maybe there’s something in that, a desire to make positives from even the worst situations? She didn’t take it with her. Like others left behind, it ended up on the wall where, my sentimentality assures me, it remains, unfaded. art brut with P & P

art brut with P&P in the U.K. £5.99 GBP art brut with P&P in the E.U. £8.99 GBP art brut with P&P for Rest of the World £9.99 GBP

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at V. Press, a lot of other plans are in motion for new titles, launches, readings, and, hopefully, re-opening our open submissions window in August. As they say, watch this space, because it won't stay unfilled for long!

Launching Ransom Notes by Jacqui Rowe

V. Press is very proud to launch Ransom Notes by Jacqui Rowe, her fourth published pamphlet.

This is a sequence of little poetry fictions that are simultaneously very serendipitous and very idiosyncratic. Each poem is an abstraction from the lives of characters conceived by chance and who emerge through the writing  without ever fully explaining themselves.

Originating from a process of cutting up and randomness, fragments of writing, sketches, poem drafts and found texts were initially combined to form documents resembling a kidnapper’s ransom notes. These were then crafted and shaped. It may be that the same people recur throughout the poems, heard variously in different voices from diverse points of view, or that they are several characters, interacting in and populating the same world.

“Ransom Notes is a beguiling construct of abducted and redeemed words, still trailing the resonances of unknown former contexts. From them, Jacqui Rowe has teased and finessed new narratives, characterized by dissonant echoes, tonal shifts, sudden depths and elliptical insights.” Alasdair Paterson

“Beautifully crafted poems which reveal themselves slowly with each read. This is a pioneering work by a poet on top of her game.” Antony Owen

One of the things that so strongly appealed to me as an editor when reading Jacqui’s manuscript was the vividness and startling freshness of the images. Also, the space the texts leave for the reader to interpret and participate, and the fact that every re-reading gives me something new – an aspect that can be hard to find and very welcome after reading a large pile of poetry manuscripts. I’d even go further and say that for me this pamphlet was not only highly re-readable but gets stronger and more addictive the more I read it.

It was great then to see these and other aspects of Ransom Notes picked out in the pamphlet’s first, and detailed, review, by Alice Tarbuck on Sabotage Reviews. She comments on how “Rowe enjoys playing with meaning, but is also aware of the potency of the non-meaningful in found poetry” and concludes: “the tantalizing lack of punctuation makes this poetry text flexible, as if what is found there might alter according to the reader’s whim. A fascinating pamphlet.” The full review may be found here.

The pamphlet can be purchased from our bookshop, with a direct link here. 

I’m also very excited to say that we have another two debut solo poet pamphlets in the pipeline for this summer and autumn. More details about these to come soon, but suffice it to say that they are very, very much as exciting as Ransom Notes, but very, very different in style and subject matter – so watch this proverbial space!

Introducing Chez Nous

V, Press is very very excited to announce its new 'Chez Nous' recommendation scheme and introduce our poetry 'sommeliers'.

We have gathered together a small team of poetry tasters who will recommend their favourite tipples to enjoy with each V. Press publication.

They are:

Jane Campion Hoye is a poetic writer, storyteller and performer, who has gathered knowledge of a diversity of wines from around the world…whether filming in a German vineyard or sampling the liquid silk of a smooth cabernet on Stellenbosch’s wine route in Cape Town.  And not only wine. Her poem 'Waterfall Glory', recently selected for international publication Inspired By My Museum, was first penned on a visit to the Guinness Museum in Dublin. For more about Jane’s work see: www.inspire2speak.com.

Julie Boden was co-proprietor of a Country House Hotel for more than 20 years, so has had to taste an extensive range of wines – hard work... but someone had to do it! This year, she celebrates her tenth year as Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall, and continues to enjoy working on exciting new collaborations with a selection of amazing musicians. Following her BAFTA nomination in 2012, she has enjoyed writing new pieces for theatre and film and, when not writing or performing her work, she loves to relax and to raise a glass or two with her lovely family and friends.

Angela Topping was born in the year post-war food rationing ended. Perhaps this is the reason for her lifelong love affair with food and all good things. Another of those good things is poetry, of which she has written seven collections and three pamphlets. Over the years, her prowess in wine appreciation has graduated from Blue Nun and Mateus Rose into a liking for the finer fragranced and fuller bodied. And since she has become more full bodied and likes perfume, this is very appropriate. For years, wine was a balm after a hard day in the classroom and now she is freelance again, it is an inspiration and a treat.

The Anon Poet: Our anonymous wine connoisseur is in fact a number of different people, who may be a non-poet. Our three V. Press wine-lovers have generously agreed to make regular Chez Nous recommendations. The Anon Poet allows for poetry-lovers who wish to take part but remain anonymous, or to only recommend very occasionally.

N.B. Anyone tempted by the Anon Poet role should email vpresspoetryAThotmailDOTcom. While those doing this will need to be anonymous on the V. Press website, we would be perfectly happy if they wished to blog about their involvement elsewhere.

poetry that is very very