V. Press is very very delighted to launch Ynygordna by Kelly Williams, winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2019.
“Ynygordna is not a twee poetry collection for your kitschy coffee table display – this is a no-holds-barred fistfight with blood, guts and strap-ons. Williams is a true warrior poet and these poems will wound you. You’ve been warned.” Jonathan Kinsman
“Bristling with vivid imagery, vibrant language and powerful emotions, these poems are not afraid to challenge conventional boundaries in poetry as in life. Ynygordna is a fresh and striking selection of poems, encompassing a bold and brave exploration of gender, sexuality and love within and against societal expectations.” Sarah Leavesley, V. Press Prize for Poetry Judge
Ynygordna is very ardent and very versatile.
Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2019
A sample poem can be found below.
ISBN: 978-1-9161096-2-9
36 pages
R.R.P. £6.50
BUY Ynygordna NOW using the paypal link with posting options below.
futch
Scream what needs to be said: the labels
found on ver body are engrained in our minds,
not ver skin.
Take pride in fingers that move two at once
and sex that sings in newborn cells
in the amygdala of closet mannequins.
There is urgency in a body that does not
align with walls it sleeps within,
animated suddenly in a light not blurred
by straight-lined articles.
Ve meets me in a place
where thumbprints are moulded in mercury;
the blood of clouds runs with ver, neither
disappearing into sky nor wandering
upon pavements.
Ve is between the lines of my favourite poem,
the blank page in the introduction fated
to be folded and scribbled.
Splintering euphoria
in strips of jock-strap clips:
trimmed fingernails trace letters of wildfire
in scripts made louder than the sirens
of a bordering wall.
The Saboteur Awards V. Press is very very delighted to see not just one V. Press author shortlisted in this year's Saboteur Awards but two! Damhnait Monaghan and Diane Simmons are both shortlisted in the Best Novella category - Diane for An Inheritanceand Damhnait for The Neverlands.
If you nominated them in the first round, please do go across and vote for them again now in the second round. (Unfortunately, you can't pick both for the award, so you will have to try and choose between them!) Even if you didn't nominate in the first round, please do get your vote and voice in for them now. The voting form can be found here - for this category and all the others in what is an annual publishing/poetry/festival highlight with the wide range of categories covered and the great shortlists for these. More about both flash fiction novellas, sample flash and ordering can be found by clicking on the titles above or here: An Inheritance; The Neverlands. Reviews/Interviews John Dust
"[..]so authentic and richly imagined is the character of John Dust that I had assumed he really was part of folklore, a figure stalking the South-West for generations. In fact the character is Louise Warren’s own invention and it is the realisation of this character that gives the pamphlet licence to dazzle, with inventive imagery and new rung language running through the poems. [...]
Neil Elder, The High Window, the full, detailed review here.
A sample poem, more information and ordering for John Dust can be found here.
"A deceptively slim book that tells an entire Irish family saga, Damhnait Monaghan’s debut, The Neverlands, is a beautiful treatise on who we love and how do we love–especially those closest to us. In this story love is vulnerable and risky…but it is also redemptive. A stunning mini epic full of equal parts sorrow and hope, each tension-filled story stands alone and yet together they create something powerful and universal."
Nancy Stohlman, So You Wrote a Book?, full interview with Damhnait Monaghan about The Neverlandshere.
A sample flash, more information and ordering for The Neverlandscan be found here.
V. Press's The Reading Room also has more links to interviews and articles by some of our authors about their V. Press titles.
JUDGING
Unfortunately, this year's Hastings Litfest has been cancelled, including the flash fiction competition that V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley was due to judge.
However, Sarah is delighted to be the poetry judge for this year's Gloucestershire Writers’ Network 2020 Competition, supported by The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.
The theme is 'My World' and the deadline is early July 2020. Full details about the competition and how to enter can be found here. Please do follow the instructions carefully, particularly making sure your entry is anonymous.
PUBLISHED SOON
Just a reminder that Ynygornda by V. Press Prize for Poetry 2019/2020 winner Kelly Williams is published on Friday, with pre-orders going out this week.
Meanwhile pre-orders are also available for John Wheway's debut full collection A Bluebottle in Late October, which is out next month.
VIDEO READINGS
Listen to and watch Charles G Lauder Jr reading his The Aesthetics of Breath poem, 'Sir Walter Raleigh of Bexar County, Texas', below:
Another sample poem, more about The Aesthetics of Breath, endorsements, reviews and ordering for this collection can be found here.
STILL POSTING
V. Press is v. v. pleased to still be sending out orders across the U.K. during the current lockdown. Orders can be placed via the website (bookshop here). Our poetry titles are also available through the Poetry Book Society here. (Use the search tool to find the book or poet you're after.)
V. Press is very very delighted to see V. Press poet Natalie Linh Bolderston win third prize in the 2019 National Poetry Competition for her poem 'Middle Name with Diacritics'. Big congratulations to all the winners and commended poets, especially Natalie. Her winning poem can be enjoyed on The Poetry Society website here, along with a video of her reading the poem.
"Disproportionately overlooked are non-metropolitan poets such as Ruth Stacey, whose second collection, the mysterious and fabular I, Ursula (V. Press £10.99) appears from an award-winning West Midlands micropublisher. The book conjures a Dantesque lost forest [...]"
Fiona Sampson, The Guardian, full review 'The best recent poetry – review roundup' here.
For a sample poem, more information and to order I, Ursula, please click here.
"[...] this collection actively encourages our seeing beyond the harrowing experiences that being human entails. [...] I feel I will recall Nina Lewis’ Patience in those darkest moments."
Mhairi Owens, Sphinx/OPOI (One Point of Interest), the full review 'A call to the light' here.
For a sample poem, more information and to order Patience, please click here.
"This is a love story so sensual that you can smell autumn leaves on the ground and taste snow on your lips. [...] It’s this mixture of words and meanings and connotations which adds depth to the poetry, and tension to the story. [...] Elaine Baker’s visually surprising images are a joy. [...]"
Candyce Lange, Sphinx/OPOI (One Point of Interest), the full review 'When reading a pamphlet is like watching a play' here.
For a sample poem, more information and to order Winter with Eva, please click here.
"[..] And that is what I suppose struck me most — how human he [Einstein] was — this man who has always seemed to me larger than real life, distanced by his genius.
"There’s humour here, too. [...] After reading these poems, I think of the great man differently. He has stepped down from his stone pedestal. He has turned into a human being."
Helena Nelson, Sphinx/OPOI (One Point of Interest), the full review 'Oddly Human' here.
"So the world of these poems contains beauty and love, but it is undoubtedly ominous. Much is shared. Nothing is hammered home. There are careful layers, many of them, and the poems draw their reader back and reward re-reading. They are expert pictures from the life, and the poet has declared them fearlessly her own."
Helena Nelson, Sphinx/OPOI (One Point of Interest), the full review 'Omens' here.
For a sample poem, more information and to order The Escapologist, please click here.
AND MORE
A recent article, and new addition to the V. Press Reading Room is a fabulous interview by Nancy Stohlman with Michael Loveday, about his flash fiction novella Three Men on the Edge.
'So You Wrote a Book? Michael Loveday' can be enjoyed here. More on Three Men on the Edge, including sample flash fictions, endorsements, reviews and ordering, can be found here.
EVENTS
Obviously, Covid-19 has affected many events and launches in the UK, including Elaine Baker's launches for her pamphlet Winter with Eva. Although these have been postponed, Elaine has been doing a series of daily video readings from Winter with Eva on Instagram and Twitter. Day 10, featuring her poem 'Water cooler', can be watched below.
