Monday 25 May 2020

Saboteur Award Success, new poetry titles and a video reading, lockdown ideas and offers to celebrate National Flash Fiction Day


V. Press is very very delighted to celebrate Damhnait Monaghan's The Neverlands winning this year's Saboteur Award for Best Novella. An Inheritance by Diane Simmons was also one of the four titles shortlisted for this category. 

Big congratulations to both Damhnait and Diane!!!

The full list of this year's winners can be found here and the shortlists here. Big thanks to all at Sabotage Reviews who work so hard on the annual awards, on top of their year-round review coverage. 


More about both flash fiction novellas, sample flash and ordering can be found by clicking on the titles above or here:  The NeverlandsAn Inheritance.


NEW TITLES

This also month saw the launch of A Bluebottle in Late October, a poetry collection by John Wheway that is very particular and very human.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering can be found here.


Helen Kay's poetry pamphlet This Lexia & Other Languages, which is published in July, is also now available for pre-order.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and pre-ordering for this pamphlet of very genuine and very human poems can be found here.

V. Press will also be sharing snippet quotes from the pamphlet on Twitter and Facebook from the start of July.


NEW PRINT RUN

Although it was only published in January, Ruth Stacey's I, Ursula is already on to its second print run.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering can be found here.

Fiona Sampson's recent Guardian review of the collection can be enjoyed here


VIDEO READING

V. Press is also v. v. delighted to be able to share this beautiful short video reading by Nichola Deane of two poems from her V. Press collection Cuckoo.


More information about Cuckoo, another sample poem and ordering for Cuckoo can be found here.

KEEPING BUSY IN LOCKDOWN


V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley/James is very pleased to have had Arts Council England funding for a hypertext fragmented poetry narrative > Room.

The multimedia project features 45 virtual rooms containing poetry and images, with hypertext links on certain words or phrases allowing readers to move to different rooms and create their own path through the labyrinthine narrative.

You can explore and enjoy > Room for free here.

For those who are writers as well as readers and may be using their time at home to work on their writing, Sarah Leavesley also has a short (eight A4 pages) guidance sheet on 'Structuring a Pamphlet'. 

The advice and points to consider are based on Sarah's own experience as a writer putting together her pamphlets and collections, as well as her work as an editor reading and working on other writers' manuscripts. 

This guidance sheet is mainly intended for those putting together a poetry pamphlet. But some of the points on it may also be useful for flash pamphlets and full collections. This guide is free, though a voluntary Tip-jar donation of £2 is invited.

For a pdf copy of 'Structuring a Pamphlet', please either email Sarah at vpresspoetry@hotmail.com or click on the paypal Tip-jar donation button below.


LOCKDOWN & NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY OFFERS

To celebrate this year's National Flash Fiction Day on Saturday, 6 June 2020, V. Press is v. v. pleased to have a special flash fiction bundle offer (for U.K. delivery only and valid until 11.59pm U.K.-time on Sunday, 7 June 2020).

The NFFD2020 offer is any two flash fiction pamphlets from Carrie Etter's Hometown, Jude Higgins' The Chemist's House, Santino Prinzi's There's Something Macrocosmic About All of This, Paul McDonald's Midnight Laughter or Diane Simmons' An Inheritance for £12 including U.K. delivery. 

The offer is valid until midnight on 6 June 2020 and only available for U.K. delivery. A random selection of two will be made by V. Press for orders where no preference is stated at the time of ordering.



NFFD2020 flash offer (U.K. only)
Specify your preferred 2 flash pamphlets (from Carrie Etter's Hometown, Jude Higgins' The Chemist's House, Santino Prinzi's There's Something Macrocosmic About All of This, Paul McDonald's Midnight Laughter or Diane Simmons' An Inheritance) in the text box below, then click Buy Now.

Monday 18 May 2020

Launching A Bluebottle in Late October

V. Press is very very pleased to launch A Bluebottle in Late October, a poetry collection by John Wheway.

“John Wheway’s first full collection places its trust exactly where it should be: in the poetic present tense where every gnomic detail is magnified, every commonplace brought to its own species of transfiguration. At a time when the lyric is so much in need, he rejuvenates it in its most pellucid and most effortless form; the couplet is reshaped and crystallised, and comes to life. A Bluebottle in Late October is a memorable sequence of poems.” Tim Liardet

“This is a funny, sad, yet uplifting account of how we live and love. Poems by a formidable poet, pulling no punches, yet with a delightful lightness of touch.

Domestic bliss is here, with moments of tenderness and beauty, hopelessness too, and a deep urge to engage. How can we live together? Why do we need to?  What compels us?

These poems made me laugh out loud, though their acuity is sobering. We’ll all glimpse ourselves in them. Marked by meticulous diction and vibrant imagery, this is poetry with an authentic voice.” Neil Rollinson

A Bluebottle in Late October is very particular and very human.

ISBN: 978-1-9161096-0-5
72 pages
R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem from A Bluebottle in Late October can be enjoyed below.

BUY A Bluebottle in Late October NOW using the paypal buttons (with delivery options) below. 


A Bluebottle in Late October (including P&P)


Making Up 

At the mirror, she takes a step back, 
like an artist changing places 

for a different angle, absorbed 
not in herself 

but in the portrait’s subject, dabbing 
pigment over each cheek, circling 

with the tip of her pinkie to reveal 
unseen depths. 

He’d never seen his mother in her, 
but now he’s like the boy who watched 

the woman in the strapless dress, lips kissed 
with Rouge Noir, hurrying 

downstairs to the street, bowing 
into a waiting taxi. He’d peer 

between the curtains, noticing 
the eagerness in her pace, 

not knowing what it meant, 
though he knew she loved to dance, 

and that the Polish captain 
who gave him that red fire engine 

was not his father’s friend.

Sunday 10 May 2020

Last days for voting, eBooks, new audio poetry and video readings

Last days for voting in the Saboteur Awards

Just a quick reminder that voting for the this year's Saboteur Awards closes on May 13!

V. Press is very very delighted to have not just one but two V. Press authors shortlisted in this year's awards. Damhnait Monaghan and Diane Simmons are both shortlisted in the Best Novella category - Diane for An Inheritance and Damhnait for The Neverlands.


If you haven't already, please VOTE! for them now on the voting form here.

And while you're there, do check out all the others shortlisted 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 InheritanceThe Neverlands.


FLASH NEWS

V. Press is v. v. pleased to announce two pieces of flash news.

The first is that we will be publishing a new pamphlet of hybrid prose/ microfiction by renowned and award-winning author Meg Pokrass. Editor Sarah Leavesley has already been busy typesetting and working on the cover design for this exciting manuscript, so watch this space for more news on Alice In Wonderland Syndrome soon!

V. Press is also very very excited to announce our first eBook. Damhnait Monaghan's The Neverlands has already enjoyed several new print runs. This combined with covid-19 has prompted us to turn it into an eBook and trial the possibilities for occasional electronic publishing alongside our traditional print editions.

THE NEVERLANDS IS AVAILABLE IN THE UK AND INTERNATIONALLY ON KINDLE through Amazon, including Amazon.co.uk here and Amazon.com here.


NEW VIDEO AND AUDIO

Kelly Williams, V. Press Prize for Poetry 2019, has celebrated the launch of her debut pamphlet Ynygordna at the end of last month with some video and audio recordings that can be enjoyed below.

Kelly has also written a post about Ynygordna and raising awareness of the third gender pronoun here.







A sample poem, more information and ordering for Ynygordna can be found here.

QUICK REMINDERS

John Wheway's debut full collection A Bluebottle in Late October is published in just over a week, with pre-orders going out this coming week. So please do check out the sample poem and more information on this very particular and very human collection here.