Launching Fragile Houses

V. Press is delighted to launch Fragile Houses, a debut poetry pamphlet by Nina Lewis.

Home is more than a brick building, family trees or ancestral bones. In Fragile Houses, Nina Lewis explores the people, places and memories carried through life. Vibrant imagery and precise insight reveal strength in the most tender places. The pamphlet includes a photographic sequence from S.A. Leavesley that is directly inspired by the poems’ vivid mix of fragility and sharpness. Fragile Houses is very authentic and very fervent.

“In this engaging debut pamphlet, Nina Lewis deftly examines the human condition through the lens of family relationships. There is more than memoir here; issues of connection and disconnection, presence and absence, are gently explored while always acknowledging ‘These years can’t be backtracked or re-spent’ (from ‘Fusion’).” Angela France

“Nina Lewis’ debut pamphlet from V. Press explores memory and family. These are exact, concisely-conceived poems which find their power in restraint and understatement – ‘In our family, minds go missing’. She writes observantly about memory, and its trickeries, caught ‘somewhere in the space/ between those two lost letters, / as vivid as gold-dust,/ falling to the earth.’ Throughout the pamphlet Lewis maintains a voice which is sometimes sad, but truthful and grown wise, with some really memorable images which successfully convey the strong emotions she deals in – ‘He stayed away. Radio silence. / An opaque circle was drawn around our house/ filled with white noise.’” Jean Atkin

R.R.P. £5.50

Nina will be reading from Fragile Houses at a launch event at Birmingham Waterstones this evening (Oct 3) also featuring Roy McFarlane, Antony Owen and fellow V. Press poet Claire Walker. (Further details for this are in the poster at the end of this blog post. Waterstones 24-26 High Street, Birmingham, B4 7SL.)

To buy a copy of Fragile Houses now, please use the paypal link below, taking care to select the correct postage & packing option). 

Fragile Houses (with P&P for the U.K.) £6.99 GBP Fragile Houses (with P&P for the E.U.) £9.99 GBP Fragile Houses (with P&P for the rest of the world) £11.99 GBP

A sample poem may be found below, along with a sample image from the pamphlet's  photographic sequence by S. A. Leavesley.

Ambiguous Answers

Teaching us ‘antonyms’, she asked:

‘What is the opposite of sweet?’

I remember stretching my arm up so high
I had to balance it against my left hand
to stop the aching.

I stared right at her.

I knew this; I knew it.

I was picked third;

‘Chocolate!’ I announced proudly,

being sure of applause.

She didn’t smile.

Looked at me as if she was trying

to work something out.

Some children sniggered;

she reprimanded them.

This made me think I was right after all.

She asked why I thought it was chocolate

and I explained how, with weekly pocket money,

Dad would take us up to the post office
and we could either afford sweets

or chocolate,

but not both.

I didn’t really know ‘sour’,

but the look she gave

demonstrated it perfectly.

'Fragile: Spilling' by S.A. Leavesley