Monday 31 December 2018

Celebrating 2018 & heading into 2019


The new year - if not a turning point as such, a pausing moment for looking back and looking forwards, across publications, award successes and new reviews.

Since V. Press's publication of Jacqui Rowe's Ransom Notes in 2015, V. Press has published 25 titles, across poetry and flash. In 2018 this included: How to Parallel ParkAgainst the Pull of Time, A Z-hearted Guide to Heartache , These nights at homeUnable Mother Like loveThree Men on the Edge and There's Something Macrocosmic About All of This.

This past year saw Romalyn Ante's Rice & Rain win the Saboteur Awards 2018 Best Poetry Pamphlet, with Claire Walker's Somewhere Between Rose and Black shortlisted. Antony Owen's The Nagasaki Elder was shortlisted in the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

But the end of one year is the beginning of another, and we've more than ever lined up for 2019, including Jinny Fisher's The Escapologist (pamphlet), Martin Zarrop's Making Waves (pamphlet) and John Lawrence's The boy who couldn't say his name (collection), which are already available for pre-order!

V. Press is also starting the new year with a new feature - Love Thursdays! Every Thursday from January 3 right up to Valentine's Day, we will be sharing a selection of love poems and flashes by V. Press authors. Yes, there is romance, but also the grittier real-life edge of love too!

And our 2019 fiction publications will include The Neverlands by Damhnait Monaghan and Midnight Laughter by Paul McDonald.

Meanwhile...


REVIEW NEWS

V. Press is very delighted to end 2018 with Romalyn Ante's Rice & Rain praised in the TLS.


"Romalyn Ante's Rice & Rain is also interested in re- or dislocation, full of memories of home (in her case the Philippines) being replayed, a watchful shoring-up of vanished, loved scenes and people. Ante's mixing of  the small and grand scale, and her clarity of vision, are particularly impressive..." Declan Ryan, TLS, full article here

The pamphlet was also one of Liz Berry's choices for a 'perfect poetry Christmas gift' ('treasures') in the winter issue of Poetry News.

For more about Rice & Rain, a sample poem and to order a copy, click here.



It also seems very serendipitous to mark the move from one year to a new one with news of two new reviews of Jenna Plewes' Against the Pull of Time.

“This is a spare, meticulously-crafted and deceptively simple collection which carries a weight far beyond its few pages and which will bear repeated reading by anyone looking to come to terms with the finite nature of our relationship with life and land.” Justine Knowles, The Cannon’s Mouth

“...a gentle, accessible, attractive, but at times astringent pamphlet… Plewes is economical and to the point, marshalling her material effectively…This awareness [of precariousness/walking a tightrope] influences the form of the poems and gives then a contrapuntal quality and an edge which makes her work interesting as well as enjoyable.“ Dilys Wood, Artemis

For more about Against the Pull of Time, a sample poem and to order a copy, click here.



On the fiction front, Three Men on the Edge is also continuing to hit a strong note with readers and critics, including the latest new review. 

"There is heartache and humour in this tale of three men on the edge of lonely despair. Each tells his own story about coping with anger, self-doubt, depression in precise and beautifully crafted segments where the author is not afraid of introducing the heightened surrealism of troubled thoughts and dreams..."

Jennie Farley, full 5-star review here


Our Cultural Intern Kibriya Mehrban's latest selection of 'Top Notes' are for These nights at home by Alex Reed (poems) and Keren Banning (photographs).

"Hudson Taylor – Left Alone

Snow Patrol – If There’s a Rocket Tie Me To it

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Distant Sky

Peter Gabriel – I Grieve

Joe Purdy – Good Days

Putting together a playlist for Alex Reed and Keren Banning’s work These nights at home presented a very particular challenge for me. When reading this, there is a painful clarity that it is grounded in a very real and very specific experience of grief on the poet’s part..."

Kibriya's full playlist recommendations, with her reasons for these choices, can be enjoyed on Chez Nous.

Finally, we're delighted to give readers a sneak preview of V. Press's first 2019 title, Martin Zarrop's Making Waves Albert Einstein: Science & Life. The poetry pamphlet is published in January, and Kibriya has created some beautiful photo-quotes, including...


A VERY VERY HAPPY 2019 TO ALL V. PRESS CUSTOMERS, READERS & AUTHORS!!!

Friday 14 December 2018

Seasonal Greetings & Offers




Refraction
from late Latin refractio(n- ), from refringere ‘break up’

and when we awoke the world was made of glass
so sharp it cut our tongues
and so bright it burned our eyes
until all we could say was weather
and all we could see were the dark shapes
where the light used to be

and this is where we chose to build
our crystal kingdoms of kindness
and open invitations: soup kitchens, school plays,
our frozen-toed choirs, our warming flames
and dining tables stretching from vitric horizons
all bending through densities to reach us

and the hard pane of night went on for months;
we rang bells against it to make it sing
and we could not move for the press of dark
so we made games from huddling and melting
and when it was cold enough to mold-blow our breath
we filled our lungs, held it in

and the pale sun began to rise
and then

Kibriya Mehrban

V. Press is very very delighted to mark the festive season with this beautiful poem from our Cultural Intern Kibriya Merhrban.

This year is the fifth anniversary (yes, in Roman numerals, the vth birthday!) of V. Press's first publication and launch at Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2013!

To celebrate the 'holiday season', end of 2018 and start of 2019, we've two very very special offers - running for a month (until January 14, 2019.

These are:

Vth Birthday:Three poetry/fiction pamphlets for £12 offer (including P&P for UK delivery only) - Choose from art brut, Hometown, Scare Stories, The Chemist's House, Somewhere Between Rose and Black, How to Parallel Park, Against the Pull of Time, A Z-hearted Guide to Heartache. Please specify which three you'd like when placing your order, otherwise we will make our own selection for you. *



Vth Birthday:Two books for £15 offer (including P&P for UK delivery only) - Choose from Bolt Down This Earth, The Nagasaki ElderBlink, Unable Mother, Three Men on the Edge, Like love. Please specify which three you'd like when placing your order, otherwise we will make our own selection for you.*


WISHING ALL OUR READERS AND AUTHORS A VERY VERY FESTIVE SEASONAL PERIOD AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


* Normally, there should be an 'instructions to merchant' section on Paypal where you can list your choices. If you don't get this, please email them over at the time of order to vpresspoetry@hotmail.com.

Thursday 6 December 2018

Poetry as experience - Kibriya's 'Top Notes' & more...

At V. Press, we've always believed that good poetry and fiction are more than just printed words on a page - they're an experience.

When readers buy a V. Press title, they get something more - be it a sharing of beauty, a shoulder to cry on, words that remind them they're not alone, an escape from mundane reality, inspiration, camaraderie, a chance to unwind...the possibilities are endless, and the experience unique to every reader with every title.

The sense that poetry and fiction are a pleasure that fits in alongside life and creates a wider experience as it does so, was one of the inspirations behind our Chez Nous section, suggesting wines, teas and other drinks that might be enjoyed while reading particular titles.

We're delighted that our Cultural Intern Kibriya Mehrban has come up with a new twist to this - Kibriya's 'Top Notes'.

Over the next few months, Kibriya will be creating Chez Nous 'playlists' of the music she'd recommend as capturing the sounds of forthcoming V. Press publications.

Kibriya's 'Top Notes' recommendations start with Brenda Read-Brown's Like Love:

"Frank Turner – Reasons Not to be an Idiot

The Beach Boys – God Only Knows

Adele – When We Were Young

Iron and Wine – Upward Over the Mountain

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Learning to Fly



At first glance, this playlist is a strange mix of sounds. Like Brenda Read-Brown’s collection Like Love, it changes as you go through it and – also like the collection – it can surprise you..."

Kibriya's full 'Top Notes' Chez Nous recommendation for Like Love can be found here.

BUY Like love now using the paypal button.


Like love (including P&P)

Kibriya has also created a second new initiative for V. Press - combining poem quotes with beautiful photographs...



More info about  Jinny Fisher's The Escapologist can be found here and the pamphlet pre-ordered using paypal below.


The Escapologist (including P&P)


And if you're in Worcester this evening...