Friday 23 April 2021

Saboteur Awards, Special Offers & More!

SABOTEUR AWARD SUCCESSES



V Press is very very delighted to have a title shortlisted and another win a Special Mention in this year's Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet.

Something so wild and new in this feeling by Sarah Doyle, which was only published last month, has a Special Mention in this year’s Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet.

Meanwhile, Katy Wareham Morris’s V. Press pamphlet Making Tracks has been shortlisted for this year’s Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet and is one of 4 titles now in the running for the award.

The shortlists for all the categories can be found here - featuring a wide range of fabulous literature and spoken word in many forms.

Voting for the next stage of the award - to decide the winners from these shortlists - is open from noon on Wednesday, 21 April 2021 until noon on Wednesday, 5 May 2021.

Readers' and supporters' votes are more important now than ever!!! 

So, please do go across to the form HERE and register your vote for Making Tracks, as well as supporting your favourites in the other categories!


REVIEWS

Something so wild and new in this feeling

"Sarah Doyle has mined the prose of Dorothy’s journals to create twenty two collage poems, skilfully re-presenting selected extracts from the journals in a wide range of forms." 
Annie Fisher, OPOI, Sphinx, full review here.

"The title poem of Sarah Doyle’s audacious and brilliantly conceived new collection says it all. Reading these collage poems, drawn from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals, there’s something absolutely remarkable about seeing her luminous words for the first time presented as poetry.

"Using cut-up techniques, elements of found poetry, and applying her own sensibilities as an unusually accomplished poet herself, Sarah has given us these words afresh. [...] Sarah has crafted individual pieces that catch the light in new and unexpected ways."   
Christopher James, full review here.

An interview with Sarah about the writing of Something so wild and new in this feeling can be found on WriteOutLoud here.

Something so wild and new in this feeling has been so popular that just a month after publication we've had to order a new print run! For more information, a sample poem or to order Something so wild and new in this feeling before this print run also sells out, please click here.

Blue Dot Aubade


"This pamphlet reminds us of the spectacular nature of the universe. Miranda Lynn Barnes uses that context of vastness together with astrophysical terms and gemstones to explore personal relationships, and her work brims with colour."
Sue Wallace-Shaddad, OPOI, Sphinx, full review here.

For more information, a sample poem or to order Blue Dot Aubade, please click here.



A Woven Rope


'“A Woven Rope” is a lyrical exploration of maternal lineage through transitional roles of daughter becoming mother, mother becoming granddaughter and the potential for the line to continue through the new daughter. Jenna Plewes’ attention to details, whether marks that create a watercolour, phrases used by a mother realising she’s quoting her own mother, the tension in a high wire, let the reader admire the intricacy and feel their deceptive strength.'
Emma Lee, full review here

For more information, a sample poem or to order A Woven Rope, please click here.


FORTHCOMING & POETRYFILM

Later this year, we have Alex Reed's much-anticipated debut full collection knots, tangles, fankles scheduled for publication.

In the run-up to this, V. Press is delighted to share a poetry film of one of Alex's poems from his collaborative pamphlet with photographer Keren Banning, These nights at home. The poetry film, which features the poem set to music and new images by Keren Banning, can be enjoyed below.

For information about the pamphlet, a different sample poem or to order a copy of These nights at home, please click here.

 


SPRING/EASTER BUNDLES *

There's just a week left to snap up one of our Spring/Easter pamphlet bundles offers. V. Press has three double-pamphlet bundle offers available from now until the end of April 2021.

In and out of this world bundle: Blue Dot Aubade and Hierarchy of Needs for £11.99 including postage and packing for U.K. delivery

Blue Dot Aubade

"I don’t think poems need to teach anything but nevertheless there's much to learn about the cosmos, the spirit, matter, and what matters here. The best part is that the lessons are delivered by a high-energy beam of surprising, hyper-attentive language.[..]" Simon Barraclough

"[...] At times playful, at times poignant, these intelligent poems illuminate our environment in the broadest sense: they give us a new view of our universe and our relationship to it. An engaging, original debut." V. Press Guest Editor Carrie Etter

More on Blue Dot Aubade and a sample poem can be found here.


Hierarchy of Needs

"This pamphlet is a reminder of the extraordinary paradoxes and dualities cultivated between the shaky coexistence of the natural world within the Anthropocene. [...]" Katy Wareham Morris

"We do not exist without nature, though more and more these days, we seem to be expected to. In this book, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is used as a narrative to consider the entwining of both nature’s and our own human needs. [...]" Jane Burn

More on Hierarchy of Needs and a sample poem can be found here.


Blue Dot Aubade & Hierarchy of Needs bundle (with delivery options)


Community bundle: Winter with Eva and Checkout for £11.99 including postage and packing for U.K. delivery

Winter with Eva

"This is a poignant but tough love story told against the backdrop of Brexit-era England. Eva is Romanian, a free spirit with a beautiful soul navigating the ignorance and hatred of her adopted country. [...] So what begins as a love story evolves to encompass a greater theme – these poems speak eloquently of the way we live now." Tamar Yoseloff

"Elaine Baker writes so beautifully about love: macrocosmic passion and domestic comfort are drawn with sharp, sensual tenderness. But Winter with Eva is also a timely sociopolitical exploration and a gripping page-turner of a pamphlet, one to read carefully yet compulsively in a single sitting." Rachel Piercey

More on Winter with Eva and a sample poem can be found here.

Checkout

"Checkout is a sequence of character portraits and vignettes based on the ephemeral characters that cross a corner shop’s bell-chiming threshold. [...] This is a bold and brave collection from the distinctive voice of Kathy Gee."  Rhian Edwards

"In a time where high street shops are declining or under threat, Checkout is a timely ode, set in Middle England with a ‘cadenced heart,/ alert to daily rhythms, oiled/ by traffic, chips and friends.’" Roy Mcfarlane

More on Checkout and a sample poem can be found here.


Winter with Eva & Checkout bundle (with delivery options)


Survival bundle: art brut and Scare Stories for £11.99 including postage and packing for U.K. delivery  

art brut

"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. [...] 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

More on art brut and a sample poem can be found here.


Scare Stories


"The poems in Scare Stories offer us exactly that: a series of richly populated narratives that show the contemporary moment as a grotesque and fearful nightmare. This is a world of war and refugees, high politics and helicopters, sex and suffering as entertainment. Somewhere at the root of things is money. It’s all delivered in sharp quatrains whose flamboyant rhyming makes it more brutal, not less. [..]" Tony Williams

"David Clarke conjures up post-apocalyptic visions that are uncomfortably close to our present. All of humanity is played out here, from gamers to generals, the whole bitingly observed. Scare Stories is a frightening mirror, but it’s also compelling and hypnotic, I dare you to look away." Claire TrĂ©vien

More on Scare Stories and a sample poem can be found here.

art brut & Scare Stories bundle (with delivery options)

* Offers intended for U.K. delivery only and valid until the end of 30 April 2021 only.


SUBMISSIONS

The quality and number of submissions received during this year's flash fiction chapbook submissions window has been incredible, making decisions trickier than ever.

Sarah Leavesley has now completed the first round of reading, with eight submissions longlisted for consideration of the full manuscripts. 

The next stage of the process will be an even harder one, whittling this down to just one or two titles for publication with V. Press this year. (Some shortlisted authors may however be invited to stage in touch about the possibility of publishing their manuscript at a later date.)

Sarah would like to thank everyone who submitted during this year's window for the enjoyable reading and their interest in V. Press.

Wednesday 14 April 2021

Launching May We All Be Artefacts

V. Press is very very delighted to announce the publication of May We All Be Artefacts by Chloe Hanks.

“Chloe Hanks’ melodic writing style rocks the reader into a dream-like state, with hauntingly beautiful scenes of autumnal skies and ghostly ballets. May We All Be Artefacts is a landscape of glorious imagery, transporting the reader to magical realities before bringing the point home with heartbreaking poignancy. This is a collection for the poets, for the lovers and above all for the dreamers.” 

Scarlett Ward Bennet

May We All Be Artefacts is an exciting and urgent new release, from a powerful and distinct voice. Hanks intermittently borrows from existing artwork, striking strong intertextual links with other artists, while also establishing her own perspectives. She borrows from magic, folklore and feminism to create fierce and sometimes disturbing narratives throughout. Neither trite nor forced, Hanks’ use of structure and imagery complement each other, further compounding the dark fairy-tale feel that is infused in these works. This is a debut pamphlet that shouts its arrival, to be consumed in one sitting – then read, and read again – May We All Be Artefacts showcases Hanks’ skillset and potential, marking her out as a compelling new poet.”

Charley Barnes

May We All Be Artefacts is very candid, yet very contemplative.

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2020

“This year’s winning portfolio for the V. Press Prize for Poetry is ‘May We All Be Artefacts’ – chosen from the University of Worcester’s shortlist of five for its striking and thought-provoking imagery, focal slants and choice of words. These are poems crafted with a painter’s eye for vivid details and a poet’s ear for language, its sounds and music. The scenes brought to life feel real, relevant and resonant.”

Sarah Leavesley, V. Press editor and prize judge

ISBN: 978-1-8380488-2-2

32 pages, perfect bound

RRP £6.50

A sample poem from May We All Be Artefacts can be found below.

BUY May We All Be Artefacts NOW using the Paypal options below. 
May We All Be Artefacts (including P&P/delivery options)

I Am a Drawing of a Flower

You should see it in me,
the way Sylvia draws the flowers 
even the texture of the paper.
The weight of ink,
the scratch. I am burdened
by this desire to appear
delicate whilst inside
the fires rage on 
you cannot save the art
I am determined to destroy.

I lose myself in the lines
and you fail to notice 
so long as it looks nice.
I filter myself like ground coffee
until the bad stuff is gone;
it’s time to move on.
Like Sylvia when she draws
the flowers  no one knows
what goes on below
where the wildflowers grow