Summer Reading & other news!

NATIONAL POETRY DAY

V. Press is very very delighted to share that a poem from Sarah Doyle's chapbook Something so wild and new in this feeling has been chosen for this year's National Poetry Day resources. You can enjoy her poem 'Birds sang divinely to-day' here.

The website has lots of other poetry resources that can be used for this year's National Poetry Day celebration on Thursday, 6 October 2022, themed 'The Environment'.

Another sample poem, more information and ordering of Something so wild and new in this feeling can be found here.

NEW TITLES NOW AVAILABLE

Fifteen Brief Moments in Time

V. Press is very very pleased to share details of our latest novella-in-flash, Fifteen Brief Moments in Time by Philip Charter.

“A book of unexpected insights and extraordinary grace, rippling with loveliness, sorrow, and finesse. All taking place in one room, bound by a single unraveling ribbon of time.”
David Eagleman

“Charter balances the light but rich ideas of philosophy and time with well-drawn if flawed characters, hustling and striving, and wishing for better lives. As one of them says, ‘There are no checks at the door. Anyone can walk in and expand their mind.’ I’m glad I took my seat for this novella and surrounded myself with the sounds and actions of its characters.” 
Tommy Dean

Fifteen Brief Moments in Time is a very fast and very philosophical novella-in-flash.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-0-5 
52 pages
R.R.P. £7.99

A sample and ordering for Fifteen Brief Moments in Time can be found here.

You'll need an umbrella for this 

Meanwhile, our latest poetry collection, You'll need an umbrella for this by Victoria Richards, launched at the start of July.

“The title isn’t messing about: these poems soak the page with language that is visceral, immediate and sharp. An exciting debut full of vitality, pain and joy.” 
Luke Wright

“In this gorgeous debut, Victoria Richards asks ‘What are girls made of?’ And the poems answer: cans of Strongbow; ballpoint tattoos; dirty jokes; ghost bikes tied to lampposts; Ingrid Bergman’s eyeballs. All of the above and so much more is contained in this collection. A world of mothers, journalists, children and girlhoods are all drowned or on fire in You’ll need an umbrella for this. Richards tells us these stories with love, humour, lyricism and the sort of eye for detail which leaves an impression on the heart. I will read these poems for years, pass them onto friends: part secret, part gossip, part gift.” 
Lewis Buxton 

“Victoria Richards’s remarkable debut, You’ll need an umbrella for this, is more than a book of poems, it is a best friend. These poems will be there for you in the middle of the night when you are lovesick or broken hearted; they will glance you a knowing look when you need one most and make you laugh even when you think you’ve forgotten how. In these poems, without reserve, expectation or apology, Richards is offering us her heart. Accept it and she will make a fire out of beauty and pain, pour vodka on the flames and dance with you in the light.” 
Amelia Loulli

You’ll need an umbrella for this is very wild and very windswept.

ISBN: 978-1-8380488-8-4

74 pages

R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem and ordering for You'll need an umbrella for this  is available here.

FORTHCOMING & AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER

Creature Without Building

“Creature Without Building is a striking debut publication from Ray Vincent-Mills, a poet of exceptional skill and tenacity. The subtle – at times surreal – imagery only serves to underscore the fragmentation of identity provoked by hostile and challenging contemporary cultural politics. At the same time, the poems contained within are laced through with the rawness of lived experience and the precision of authentic observation. In their work, Vincent-Mills offers readers a lens through which to appraise and re-appraise their own complicity in the construction of a social fabric that so often excludes what it should enfold. I exhort readers to keep their eyes peeled for Vincent-Mills, whose star is sure to keep on rising.” 

Jack McGowan

“These poems speak for themselves: bold, bracing, and creating their own style and voice!” 
Sarah Leavesley

Creature Without Building is very visceral and very captivating. 

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2021

ISBN: 978-1-8380488-9-1
36 pages
R.R.P. £6.50

TRIGGER WARNING: Some of the poems in this chapbook deal with traumatic experiences that readers may potentially find disturbing, including domestic abuse, bulimia, rape, racism and graphic violence. 

A sample poem and pre-ordering for Creature Without Building, which is published in August 2022, can be found here.

AWARDS & REVIEWS

May We All Be Artefacts

V. Press is very delighted to see Chloe Hanks' May We All Be Artefacts receive a special mention in the Best poetry pamphlet category of the Saboteur Awards 2022. 

A sample poem, more information and ordering for May We All Be Artefacts  can be found here. 

The full shortlist and special mentions for all categories of the award can be found here.

What love would smell like

"These are tender poems, rich in intertextual images.[…] Grout handles form and content with dexterity and a lightness of touch.[…] These poems of love, desire, and loss create an intimate portrayal of female love. ‘Ursa Minor’ describes home as ‘a place like/ Sunday morning coffee and two opposite words/ pushed together to make something delicious// and startling’. This description can equally be applied to Grout’s evocative pamphlet."

Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon, issue 6

A sample poem, more about What love would smell like and ordering for the chapbook can be found here.

Launching You'll need an umbrella for this

 

V. Press is very very delighted to announce the publication of You'll need an umbrella for this by Victoria Richards.

“The title isn’t messing about: these poems soak the page with language that is visceral, immediate and sharp. An exciting debut full of vitality, pain and joy.” Luke Wright

“In this gorgeous debut, Victoria Richards asks ‘What are girls made of?’ And the poems answer: cans of Strongbow; ballpoint tattoos; dirty jokes; ghost bikes tied to lampposts; Ingrid Bergman’s eyeballs. All of the above and so much more is contained in this collection. A world of mothers, journalists, children and girlhoods are all drowned or on fire in You’ll need an umbrella for this. Richards tells us these stories with love, humour, lyricism and the sort of eye for detail which leaves an impression on the heart. I will read these poems for years, pass them onto friends: part secret, part gossip, part gift.” Lewis Buxton 

“Victoria Richards’s remarkable debut, You’ll need an umbrella for this, is more than a book of poems, it is a best friend. These poems will be there for you in the middle of the night when you are lovesick or broken hearted; they will glance you a knowing look when you need one most and make you laugh even when you think you’ve forgotten how. In these poems, without reserve, expectation or apology, Richards is offering us her heart. Accept it and she will make a fire out of beauty and pain, pour vodka on the flames and dance with you in the light.” Amelia Loulli

You’ll need an umbrella for this is very wild and very windswept.

ISBN: 978-1-8380488-8-4

74 pages

R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY You'll need an umbrella for this NOW using the paypal options below.

You'll need an umbrella for this (including P&P)

You'll need an umbrella for this (including P&P for U.K. only) £13.00 GBP You'll need an umbrella for this (with P&P for Rest of World) £22.00 GBP

N.B. Any international customs/duty charges are the buyer's responsibility.

You’ll need an umbrella for this 

I hold on to the handlebars of the buggy 

like they’re an anchor, tethering me to the pavement. 

Without them I am rudderless, adrift – 

my stomach full of metal wool, cutting me slowly. 

No one can see me bleeding right here 

on the street. They just say, “How’s the baby?” 

as my spleen ruptures, my liver withers, twists itself 

inside out. My gums shrivel up around my teeth, 

which start dropping like rain. They form pearlescent 

puddles for you to crunch through. The wave 

surges up, up, up and breaks over the berth of my inner ear;

my eyes leak floodwaters, red with the bodies 

of billions of crustaceans who meet a slow, wet end. 

How ironic – to be a creature born of sea, dead by drowning.