Friday 15 December 2023

Seasonal greetings and some review news


 Wishing all our readers, writers and supporters a wonderful festive period and a great start to 2024! Thank you for being with us this year - and here's to many more to come!


REVIEWS


"Frequently in this moving collection, the reader has a sharp intake of breath and is propelled into knowing something visceral about the staggering pain and regret of involuntary childlessness. There are no easy answers here. Instead, Doyle has offered us a compelling and, at times, heartbreaking voice that sings of the complexity of un-motherhood." 

Diana CantLondon Grip, full review here.

"‘Corn Dolly’ opens the pamphlet, with some stunning images, ‘I am stiff-skirted, wide-/ legged, fecund and// pregnant with home-/spun magic’. [...]
One poem I found particularly moving was ‘Windsong, for my mother’: ‘Forgive me those times I slipped my moorings: the safe harbour of your arms, your kitchen/ table counsel’, summed up at the end of the poem as ‘belief, courage, hope.’ The poems in this pamphlet pay tribute to this counsel."

Mary MulhollandThe Alchemy Spoon, Issue 11

'Sarah Doyle's striking pamphlet explores deeply personal experiences of non-motherhood, endometriosis, infertility and "the faces of children / you will not have". These are poignant and painful poems, "twisted into promise", which will resonate with all those who are coming to terms with childlessness. Despite "the othering nature of un-motherhood", as Polly Atkins so eloquently puts it, (M)othersongs sings of "belief, courage, hope".'

Poetry Book SocietyWinter Bulletin 2023

(M)othersongs can be purchased through the Poetry Book Society here.

More information, a sample poem and ordering for (m)othersongs by Sarah Doyle can also be found on the V. Press website here.

Last-Minute Gifts


Finally, just a reminder that, if you're looking for a last-minute gift or find yourself with spare time over the festive break and want something to read, we do have some flash fiction titles available on Kindle. You can find more details on our fiction list here.



Friday 24 November 2023

Launching Brother

V. Press is very very delighted to share the publication of Brother, a chapbook/pamphlet of poems by Sheila Lockhart.

“Sheila Lockhart has created something special with this pamphlet. Brother is a poignant study of remembrance but one that manages to be almost joyful in its close observation of this lost life and the still-living world that goes on without it. It is special writing – clear, brightly configured, riven by pain, and perfectly formed.”

Niall Campbell

“These calm and clear-eyed poems are remarkable in their refusal to be afraid. Holding darkness and light in delicate balance, they move from suffering and loss into what comes afterwards and later, finding consolation in the dogged aliveness of the natural world and, no less importantly, in the patterns and shapes of language itself.  Sheila Lockhart has written a bold and beautiful book.”
Katharine Towers

The poems in Brother are a very heart-felt and very unflinching consideration of grief and healing after suicide.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-9-8                                
36 pages
R.R.P. £6.50

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY BROTHER NOW using the paypal options below. 
Brother (with p&p options)

Gaia

In my arms you hardly weighed a thing,
the day I returned you to our Mother. 

She spread herself wide to receive you. 
Then locked her doors forever. 

The adamantine scythe left so little
when it cut you. 

Yes, there was plenty of blood, 
but where was all the rest? A seed 

forced into my heart, tangled roots. 
I remember how thirsty you were, 

how your dust soaked up the rain. 
How the roses blossomed. 

Monday 13 November 2023

Exciting news!

V. Press is very very delighted to share an exciting prize announcement as well as a whole batch of wonderful reviews, recent/forthcoming titles and events news.

The Human Portion by Nicola Warwick has been shortlisted in the poetry category of the coveted East Anglian Book Awards 2023, which celebrate the very best of publishing, writing, and reading in the region.

V. Press is so pleased to see this beautiful pamphlet recognised and sends big congratulations to Nicola that can probably be heard all the way from Worcestershire to East Anglia!

The full shortlists for all categories of the award can be found here and the category winners will be announced in the Eastern Daily Press in January.

The winning book from each category will be considered by a final judging panel of representatives from Jarrolds, Eastern Daily Press, National Centre for Writing and University of East Anglia. One of these six finalists will then go on to win the overall Book of the Year Award announced later that year.

Meanwhile, you can find details below of a recent review of The Human Portion and a forthcoming online V. Press showcase that Nicola will be reading at.

REVIEW NEWS

Not Enough Rage

"Davies’ first collection, Bolt Down This Earth, also published by V. Press in 2017, was an exciting debut which I believe was the first book I reviewed for Litter online. The follow-up is a mature collection, reflecting some of the same preoccupations but with the distance of time and experience to bring both focus and depth to what is essentially a very personal outlook on the modern world. 


"The subject matter involves issues of class, rural life, the relationship between virtual and ‘real’ reality, claustrophobia (in its broadest sense), poverty and disaffection based on circumstance and questions of mental health. [...]
 
"These poems are filled with anxiety and disturbing imagery yet they are also very much of their time, here and now, a present filled with uncertainty and a future best not projected into. There’s a confidence though, reflected in the form and variety of the writing [...]"

Steve SpenceLitter, full review here.

"Gram Joel Davies turns a forensic eye to working class life in these poems, amplifying the voices of the disadvantaged who are too busy existing and have too much to lose in feeling the rage to overturn systematic oppressions he wants to draw attention to. 

"It is so refreshing to read about working class life without feeling as if the writer is just ranting or using ‘edgy’ vocabulary to trot out stereotypes. Davies is raw and chronicles lives that get overlooked and does so with craft and class."

Emma LeeEmma Lee's Blog, full review here.

Not Enough Rage is also November and December's Featured Publication on Atrium here, including three sample poems from the collection.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering for Not Enough Rage can be found here.




"Sarah Doyle's latest V. Press pamphlet, (m)othersongs, is a gorgeous, courageous publication. At the centre is a woman's experience of reaching middle age, having been unable to bear a child. Doyle's poems are a "complex harvest". Her willingness to be vulnerable, and her arresting language, creativity, and attention to craft make this collection shine."

Robin Blackburn McBridehere.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering for (m)othersongs can be found here.

Sarah can also be heard reading some of her (m)othersongs poems and talking about (m)otherhood, menstruation and more with Wendy Allen and Charley Barnes on the What we've been reading podcast here.




"In The Beautiful Open Sky, also published by V. Press, Hannah Linden shows what it is for a child to be emotionally abandoned by her mother. As the work unfolds, Linden reveals the later struggles of that grown child, a single mum making a life with her family in social housing. Offsetting the serious subject matter is the poet's quirky humour. A haunting and tender study of resilience."

Robin Blackburn McBridehere.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering for The Beautiful Open Sky can be found here.


"Her poems are moments of unsettling tension between the symmetry we see of ourselves in nature, and our oblivious disconnect. Warwick’s subtle glimpses of the individuals in her poems are unpredictably moving. Warwick shows us trying to bring the universe closer. Going to sleep, we still hope the birds outside call us to join our portion to the whole, as: ‘I watch them from the window for their exodus, / Count them out, count them all back in’."

Wendy Kyle, London Grip, full review here.

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering for The Human Portion can be found here.


RECENTLY RELEASED

NOT ENOUGH RAGE

“It’s rare for me to recognise, and feel kinship for, a lot of contemporary poetry. I recognise and feel kinship with this. Not Enough Rage is like a series of controlled explosions. Trembling houses. A burning voice. Experience dismantled and sewn back together with glowing needles and a mouth full of stars.”

Bobby Parker

“Like a Dylan Thomas of the age of mental illness, Gram Joel Davies leaps and flies through the world with dark exuberance. These are speakable poems, full of love for unlovable places and impossible people. In touch with but not tied to rap's rhymes and rhythms, this collection, for me, shifts the modern world into the painful focus of real poetry.” 
Peter Oswald

Not Enough Rage is very heady and very gutsy.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-7-4
62 pages
R.R.P. £10.99

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


TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE

“Combining a scientific eye with a poetic sensibility (and a sharp sense of humour), Martin Zarrop’s work is thought-provoking and wry. These poems take the long view and they never shy away from difficulty, each expertly using form to amplify content. Turn Around When Possible is an enlightening, enjoyable read.”

Helen Mort

“Whether he is looking back fondly on the seemingly mundane details of a working-class childhood or exploring the vastness of interstellar space, Martin Zarrop’s poems are distinguished by their metaphysical wit, humour, and sheer accessibility. There is a mathematical precision to every poem in this collection, a focus on details, that leads inevitably and, with a minimum of fuss, to memorable insights into love, affection, the ineluctable passage of time, and humanity’s place in the universe. Turn Around When Possible is a delight from start to finish and shows Zarrop writing at the height of his very considerable powers.”
David Cooke

Turn Around When Possible is very uncertain and very quirky.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-8-1
74 pages    
R.R.P. £10.99

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



OUT LATER THIS MONTH...

“Sheila Lockhart has created something special with this pamphlet. Brother is a poignant study of remembrance but one that manages to be almost joyful in its close observation of this lost life and the still-living world that goes on without it. It is special writing – clear, brightly configured, riven by pain, and perfectly formed.”
Niall Campbell

“These calm and clear-eyed poems are remarkable in their refusal to be afraid. Holding darkness and light in delicate balance, they move from suffering and loss into what comes afterwards and later, finding consolation in the dogged aliveness of the natural world and, no less importantly, in the patterns and shapes of language itself.  Sheila Lockhart has written a bold and beautiful book.”
Katharine Towers

The poems in Brother are a very heart-felt and very unflinching consideration of grief and healing after suicide.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-9-8                                
36 pages
R.R.P. £6.50

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



EVENTS



Martin Zarrop will also be reading from his new V. Press collection, Turn Around When Possible, at a range of forthcoming events:

Friday, 17 Nov 2023, 7pm  at Manchester Poets, Chorlton Library, Manchester Road M21 9PN;

Wednesday, 22 Nov 2023, 7.30pm at Wednesday Writers, Golden Lion, Fielden Sq, Todmorden OL14 6LZ;

Wednesday, 6 Dec 2023, 7pm at Black Cat Poets, The Locks Coffee House,13-15 Derby St, Marple SK6 7AH;

Thursday, 7 Dec2023, 7pm at First Thursday, Linghams Bookshop, 248 Telegraph Rd, Heswall, Wirral, CH60 7SG;

Monday, 5 Feb 2024, 7.30pm at Poems & Pints, The Button Warehouse, Stanley St, Macclesfield SK11 6AU.

Monday 6 November 2023

Launching Turn Around When Possible

V. Press is very very delighted to announce the publication of Turn Around When Possible by Martin Zarrop.

“Combining a scientific eye with a poetic sensibility (and a sharp sense of humour), Martin Zarrop’s work is thought-provoking and wry. These poems take the long view and they never shy away from difficulty, each expertly using form to amplify content. Turn Around When Possible is an enlightening, enjoyable read.”

Helen Mort

“Whether he is looking back fondly on the seemingly mundane details of a working-class childhood or exploring the vastness of interstellar space, Martin Zarrop’s poems are distinguished by their metaphysical wit, humour, and sheer accessibility. There is a mathematical precision to every poem in this collection, a focus on details, that leads inevitably and, with a minimum of fuss, to memorable insights into love, affection, the ineluctable passage of time, and humanity’s place in the universe. Turn Around When Possible is a delight from start to finish and shows Zarrop writing at the height of his very considerable powers.”
David Cooke

Turn Around When Possible is very uncertain and very quirky.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-8-1
74 pages    
R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE NOW using the paypal options below. 

Turn Around When Possible

BOOK BUNDLES [while stocks last]

BUY TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE & MARTIN ZARROP'S MAKING WAVES 

Turn Around When Possible (TAWP) + Making Waves Bundle

TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE & MARTIN ZARROP'S TO BOLDLY GO 

Turn Around When Possible (TAWP) + To Boldly Go Bundle

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

Achievement

Grumbling thunder gently shakes
the grimy windows, as he takes
his medication. Breakfast news 
depresses. He sips coffee, guesses
it will rain, decides he must abort
the routine of his daily walk.

The clock is striking eight, then ten.
He’ll find some other way (again!)
to pass the time. Another cryptic?
Out of sight the slow tick-tick 
of something drip drip dripping
from behind the bathroom light.

The phone is shrill. Is someone dead? 
Hello, Sir – sorry – my name’s Smith.
A class parades inside his head.
You used to teach me in the sixth…
Oh, I recall – it’s thirty years
and I’m still here, but my dear wife…

I only rang to thank you, Sir,
for making such a difference to my life.


Monday 16 October 2023

Launching Not Enough Rage

V. Press is very very excited to launch Not Enough Rage by Gram Joel Davies.

“It’s rare for me to recognise, and feel kinship for, a lot of contemporary poetry. I recognise and feel kinship with this. Not Enough Rage is like a series of controlled explosions. Trembling houses. A burning voice. Experience dismantled and sewn back together with glowing needles and a mouth full of stars.”

Bobby Parker

“Like a Dylan Thomas of the age of mental illness, Gram Joel Davies leaps and flies through the world with dark exuberance. These are speakable poems, full of love for unlovable places and impossible people. In touch with but not tied to rap's rhymes and rhythms, this collection, for me, shifts the modern world into the painful focus of real poetry.” 
Peter Oswald

Not Enough Rage is very heady and very gutsy.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-7-4
62 pages
R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY NOT ENOUGH RAGE NOW using the paypal options below. 

Not Enough Rage

BOOK BUNDLES [while stocks last]

BUY NOT ENOUGH RAGE & BOLT DOWN THIS EARTH BY GRAM JOEL DAVIES 

Not Enough Rage (NER) + Bolt Down This Earth Bundle


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


Tourist in My Own Town

Nobody chooses which home to grow up in.
I’ve become like gapers or beachcombers,
where the houses overlook a tar-stained groyne.
Our terrace, filled by other lives,
a street that centres on the eye
like sea horizon. There, a door
I stood one time.

In the form of flip-flopper or pebble-hoarder,
I’ve imagined ways it could have been
– no polished bone – another middle house.
No mother who ate mussels closed or talked
towards her children as if ready-grown.
In the home I didn’t choose. On the step 
I stood alone. Out along the sound:
three doors down.

Now I’ve turned to paddler, dipper dabbling
in rockpool life. Beyond the briny walls
in which a father may have pinched himself
and woken up a hermit, crabshelled,
sunken with a chest of gold
tobacco and green wine. Not the home
I wanted then – out along the prom
some length – three before the end.

I’ve taken on the faces of the flingers
and the fetchers, reckoning the lookout hut,
whose windows ring its stippled sections,
was the place a sister (last who fled)
once pierced her lips and other places,
painted all points red. Not a home selected,
on the edge of land. Sleeves rolled downward,
three along the strand.

From deck chairs by the channels, curved
through sandbanks, where I’ve consumed
the views of masted roofs, and thought about
a brother who took every brunt and buffet.
How, perhaps, he caught a wave.
This isn’t where I meant to be, three
before the end, out from the mainland.
Bucking on the trend.

Friday 29 September 2023

 

V. Press is very very happy to head into the autumn with news of forthcoming titles and a £500 donation to The Woodland Trust.

This is our second donation to the trust since we began publishing (2013 for a single chapbook anthology, then 2015 for our first solo-authored titles).

As a small press, one of our guiding principles is to operate as fairly and sustainably as we can within our limited resources. Many of our titles are print editions, using card and paper made from trees, hence our donation to a cause that looks after trees. (We also use recycled paper for our collections and FSC accredited paper for our pamphlets).

The photo above is V. Press’s six titles for this year’s Michael Marks Pamphlets Awards at the top: Powerless Rangers by Jack McGowan, The Human Portion by Nicola Warwick, bed by Georgia Gildea, Braised in Wine by D.D. Holland, Dancing in Babylon by Elaine Baker and (m)othersongs by Sarah Doyle.

The base features two full collections out in October and November this year: Not Enough Rage (October) by Gram Joel Davies and Turn Around When Possible (November) by Martin Zarrop. Brother by Sheila Lockhart is our final pamphlet for the year (out at the end of November 2023).

More information about these titles can be found by following the links, and details of our two most recent and our three forthcoming titles can also be enjoyed below.

RECENTLY RELEASED

DANCING IN BABYLON

“Situated in the city of the apocalypse, and arranged as a play, this is a gentle and haunting sequence of poems. Within an anxiety-infused landscape of constant peril, Baker’s skillful narrator offers a counterbalance to the darkness of uncertainty. What ultimately triumphs here is the light, joy and beauty of what it is to love and be loved. These graceful, musical and emotionally resonant poems beautifully unfold their story of hope.” Vanessa Lampert

“These poems are startling in their emotional clarity. They capture the surreal disconnection of lockdown as well as celebrating what a joy it is to be together once more. They are filled with a quietly powerful sense of wonder that is both passionate and melancholy. From tango dancers to taxi cab drivers, they draw us into a world that is heart-breaking in its beauty.” 
Aoife Mannix 

Dancing in Babylon is very elegiac and very cathartic.

ISBN: 978-1-7394122-0-3

36 pages    

R.R.P. £6.50

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

(M)OTHERSONGS

(m)othersongs is a moving, visceral exploration of the othering nature of un-motherhood. Body-shame, medical misogyny and grief are exorcised in shape-shifting forms with veins of pain running through them, in which everything from cloud formations to sea gooseberries on a shoreline speak of the changing seasons of the human body. This is a world where ‘wooden babies’ and rag dolls are born in place of children, and the womb – a ‘special bedroom’ haunted by endometriosis, fibroids and myths of creation – is surrendered with the mantra – ‘it’s only a pocket, and one you’re not using’. Both heartbreaking and strangely transporting, these are powerful and necessary poems.”
Polly Atkin

 “(m)othersongs is one of those rare examples of a collection of poetry that is both moving in content and accomplished in form. Each poem is expertly crafted, with a skilled use of structured form alongside beautifully crafted free verse. This textured and vibrant collection does not hold back, it faces the pain of endometriosis and infertility and holds that pain up to the light as valid experience of womanhood. The poetry world is enriched by this collection, and I shall return to it.”
Wendy Pratt

(m)othersongs is very meteorological and very moonlit.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-6-7
32 pages
RRP £6.50

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

A poem from (m)othersongs is also being featured on the Mary Evans Picture Library here.


NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER

NOT ENOUGH RAGE

“It’s rare for me to recognise, and feel kinship for, a lot of contemporary poetry. I recognise and feel kinship with this. Not Enough Rage is like a series of controlled explosions. Trembling houses. A burning voice. Experience dismantled and sewn back together with glowing needles and a mouth full of stars.”

Bobby Parker

“Like a Dylan Thomas of the age of mental illness, Gram Joel Davies leaps and flies through the world with dark exuberance. These are speakable poems, full of love for unlovable places and impossible people. In touch with but not tied to rap's rhymes and rhythms, this collection, for me, shifts the modern world into the painful focus of real poetry.” 
Peter Oswald

Not Enough Rage is very heady and very gutsy.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-7-4
62 pages
R.R.P. £10.99

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


TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE

“Combining a scientific eye with a poetic sensibility (and a sharp sense of humour), Martin Zarrop’s work is thought-provoking and wry. These poems take the long view and they never shy away from difficulty, each expertly using form to amplify content. Turn Around When Possible is an enlightening, enjoyable read.”

Helen Mort

“Whether he is looking back fondly on the seemingly mundane details of a working-class childhood or exploring the vastness of interstellar space, Martin Zarrop’s poems are distinguished by their metaphysical wit, humour, and sheer accessibility. There is a mathematical precision to every poem in this collection, a focus on details, that leads inevitably and, with a minimum of fuss, to memorable insights into love, affection, the ineluctable passage of time, and humanity’s place in the universe. Turn Around When Possible is a delight from start to finish and shows Zarrop writing at the height of his very considerable powers.”
David Cooke

Turn Around When Possible is very uncertain and very quirky.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-8-1
74 pages    
R.R.P. £10.99

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

BROTHER

“Sheila Lockhart has created something special with this pamphlet. Brother is a poignant study of remembrance but one that manages to be almost joyful in its close observation of this lost life and the still-living world that goes on without it. It is special writing – clear, brightly configured, riven by pain, and perfectly formed.”
Niall Campbell

“These calm and clear-eyed poems are remarkable in their refusal to be afraid. Holding darkness and light in delicate balance, they move from suffering and loss into what comes afterwards and later, finding consolation in the dogged aliveness of the natural world and, no less importantly, in the patterns and shapes of language itself.  Sheila Lockhart has written a bold and beautiful book.”
Katharine Towers

The poems in Brother are a very heart-felt and very unflinching consideration of grief and healing after suicide.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-9-8                                
36 pages
R.R.P. £6.50

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

Monday 11 September 2023

Launching (m)othersongs

V. Press is very very delighted to announce the publication of (m)othersongs, a chapbook/pamphlet of poems by Sarah Doyle.

 “(m)othersongs is a moving, visceral exploration of the othering nature of un-motherhood. Body-shame, medical misogyny and grief are exorcised in shape-shifting forms with veins of pain running through them, in which everything from cloud formations to sea gooseberries on a shoreline speak of the changing seasons of the human body. This is a world where ‘wooden babies’ and rag dolls are born in place of children, and the womb – a ‘special bedroom’ haunted by endometriosis, fibroids and myths of creation – is surrendered with the mantra – ‘it’s only a pocket, and one you’re not using’. Both heartbreaking and strangely transporting, these are powerful and necessary poems.”
Polly Atkin

 “(m)othersongs is one of those rare examples of a collection of poetry that is both moving in content and accomplished in form. Each poem is expertly crafted, with a skilled use of structured form alongside beautifully crafted free verse. This textured and vibrant collection does not hold back, it faces the pain of endometriosis and infertility and holds that pain up to the light as valid experience of womanhood. The poetry world is enriched by this collection, and I shall return to it.”
Wendy Pratt

(m)othersongs is very meteorological and very moonlit.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-6-7
32 pages
RRP £6.50

 A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY (M)OTHERSONGS NOW using the paypal options below. 

(m)othersongs (with p&p options)

This has been the sunniest May since records began*

said the weatherman and every day my skin
absorbed the air’s hot butter; every day
through May, a barometric melt and swelter
until I was slick with sunshine. My eyes
ripened from green to gold, and freckles
swarmed my arms like fire ants. Helium
trailed in my wake, a shimmer of heat-haze
to burn out the dazzled retinas, as mercury
rose from toes to thighs to breasts. I blazed
with the fizz and pop of hydrogen,
a meteorological Midas making a yellow 
mess of everything I touched, spilling
from room to room like steam, hissing
and flexing on limbs of plasma. I was fat
with photons, my mouth a glary corona
flaring electricity wrought from a heaving
belly. Month long, I radiated, basking
in the glow of my own brilliance, alive
with convection and luminous to the core.
But May broke like an egg, the sun’s
ruined yolk puddling round my feet,
as I succumbed to clammy blue in the rains
and the hail and the thunder of June.

First published in Finished Creatures 

Friday 11 August 2023

Celebrating the summer & important news for customers!


This summer, V. Press will be out of office for a month for the first time in the press's ten-year history.

During this period over part of August and September, we will be temporarily removing most of our print titles from sale through Amazon.

Customers will still be able to place orders through the V. Press website, but the orders won't be sent out until we're back in office (the second week in September) so people may prefer to wait until then before ordering.

Our flash fiction eBooks (The Chemist's House, The Neverlands, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and Set a Crow to Catch a Crow) will be unaffected by this longer holiday period and can be purchased as always through Amazon. The Vaginellas poetry chapbook will similarly still be available through Amazon over this period. 

V. Press titles that are currently available to pre-order will also be unaffected, as their publication dates are later on in the year and we will be in the office again in plenty of time to sort these.

Print titles will also go back on sale on Amazon once we're back in office after this short break.

We thank you for your understanding and wish all our writers, readers and supporters a lovely summer!

PS To get V. Press news like this direct to your inbox (or to know when we post news like this on the website), sign up for our newsletters. You can do this by going to the right-hand side-bar (just below the V. Press logo) on the website home page. Type your email address into the blank text box there, then click on the subscribe button.

Monday 31 July 2023

The V. Press Prize for Poetry 2023

V. Press is very very delighted to announce that the winner of this year's V. Press Prize for Poetry is Ella-Louise Fisher! 

This year's V. Press Prize for Poetry shortlist of four manuscripts chosen by the University of Worcester was particularly strong and varied.

V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley enjoyed the range of inventive, innovative, humorous, thought-provoking and moving poems in the shortlisted selections. In addition to striking lines, images and individual poems, she was also impressed by the care and crafting in getting these poems to work together as a whole, linked by theme, form/presentation or a narrative thread.

Deciding between these manuscripts was tough, but she eventually picked ‘Robins, Feathers, Pearls’ by Ella-Louise Fisher as the winner of the V. Prize for Poetry 2023 because of the completeness of its moving relatable narrative of grief and healing. Powerful precise imagery, techniques like repetition and a range of forms are used effectively across these poems to highlight different aspects of loss and love, while also reinforcing each other and the overall narrative.

Sarah is looking forward to working with Ella-Louise on her pamphlet for publication by V. Press in 2024.

Last Year's V. Press Prize for Poetry

V. Press Prize for Poetry 2022 winner D.D. Holland's pamphlet Braised in Wine was launched with a wonderful event at the University of Worcester in May.

Braised in Wine is a striking debut from D.D. Holland. There is a veritable smorgasbord of ways (case in point) in which food can make its way into common parlance, but Holland breathes new life into her subject matter, exploring the familiar and at times painful emotions that eating can elicit. The poems contained within Braised in Wine unpick how food can fashion the self through memory and relationships, using taste as a way to express a deeper well of feeling. Through small and large acts of confession, Holland conjures powerful and poignant images that bury themselves in the mind. I can’t wait to see what’s next.” Dr Jack McGowan 

“A book about eating disorders and abuse might sound like a tough read – but, although these poems teeter on the edge of an abyss, they are written with healthy doses of warmth and humour, and an appetite for life that proves moving and uplifting.” Dr David Swann

“Braised in Wine’s evocative, compelling and moving poems whet the appetite, while also exploring how what we eat and drink may feed into other aspects of life – body image, self-worth, relationships and more.” Sarah Leavesley, V. Press prize judge

Braised in Wine is very amusing and very genuine.

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2022

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-5-0
34 pages, illustrated
R.R.P. £6.50

More information, a sample poem and ordering for Braised in Wine can be found here.

Summer Reading

V. Press is very very delighted to have Dancing in Babylon by Elaine Baker as our summer pamphlet.

“Situated in the city of the apocalypse, and arranged as a play, this is a gentle and haunting sequence of poems. Within an anxiety-infused landscape of constant peril, Baker’s skillful narrator offers a counterbalance to the darkness of uncertainty. What ultimately triumphs here is the light, joy and beauty of what it is to love and be loved. These graceful, musical and emotionally resonant poems beautifully unfold their story of hope.” Vanessa Lampert

“These poems are startling in their emotional clarity. They capture the surreal disconnection of lockdown as well as celebrating what a joy it is to be together once more. They are filled with a quietly powerful sense of wonder that is both passionate and melancholy. From tango dancers to taxi cab drivers, they draw us into a world that is heart-breaking in its beauty.” 
Aoife Mannix 

Dancing in Babylon is very elegiac and very cathartic.

ISBN: 978-1-7394122-0-3
36 pages     
R.R.P. £6.50

More information, a sample poem and ordering for Dancing in Babylon can be found here.

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Monday 17 July 2023

Launching Dancing in Babylon

V. Press is very very delighted to announce the publication of Dancing in Babylon by Elaine Baker.

“Situated in the city of the apocalypse, and arranged as a play, this is a gentle and haunting sequence of poems. Within an anxiety-infused landscape of constant peril, Baker’s skillful narrator offers a counterbalance to the darkness of uncertainty. What ultimately triumphs here is the light, joy and beauty of what it is to love and be loved. These graceful, musical and emotionally resonant poems beautifully unfold their story of hope.” Vanessa Lampert

“These poems are startling in their emotional clarity. They capture the surreal disconnection of lockdown as well as celebrating what a joy it is to be together once more. They are filled with a quietly powerful sense of wonder that is both passionate and melancholy. From tango dancers to taxi cab drivers, they draw us into a world that is heart-breaking in its beauty.” 
Aoife Mannix 

Dancing in Babylon is very elegiac and very cathartic.

ISBN: 978-1-7394122-0-3

36 pages    

R.R.P. £6.50

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY DANCING IN BABYLON NOW using the paypal options below.

Dancing in Babylon (with p&p options)



Poetry Bundle Offer


BUY Dancing in Babylon & Elaine Baker's Winter with Eva as a poetry bundle using the paypal options below. 
Elaine Baker 2-pamphlet bundle with delivery options


The cabbie (1)

He works nights, passing blue lights. Silence. Blue lights. But the streets are magic after dark.

He doesn’t need Satnav or stars. He knows Babylon’s backstreets like his daughters and sons, like their voices in the morning, their feet on the carpeted stairs.

While she cooks, nags, worries, gets them to bed, pours a drink, watches the news, he criss-crosses the city, office blocks to station forecourt to banks to city outskirts. Fare after fare, the night goes. He doesn’t miss conversation much. He’s learned to read his fares behind the glass like texts – it’s all in the eyes, above the mask. He observes the way they watch empty pavements, traffic lights, like they’re adverts.

He curses the gulls –

fucking birds.

He takes this city, while it’s sleeping, while no one else is looking, slipping lane to lane like he’s a king, and in between, he sings, picturing her warm and safe in his bed, breathing.

He doesn’t know when it will end. He thanks God he is working.

Friday 2 June 2023

The Saboteur Awards & Other News

V. Press is very very delighted that The Beautiful Open Sky by Hannah Linden has been shortlisted for THE SABOTEUR AWARD FOR BEST POETRY PAMPHLET 2023!

The final round of voting, to decide the winners in each category of the award, is open until Wednesday, 21 June, 2023 at 11.50pm. You can vote for The Beautiful Open Sky and your favourites in the other categories here.

REVIEWS

V. Press is delighted to share two Sphinx One Point of Interest reviews, on The Human Portion by Nicola Warwick and bed by Georgia Gildea.

Considering the close observation in The Human Portion by Nicola Warwick:

“Nicola Warwick has sharp powers of observation which, allied to her skilled use of imagery, make for richly evocative poems. However, she also goes beyond description, sometimes even into the surreal, using nature as a way into deeper feelings.

[…] I sense an underlying yearning to reconcile the human with the natural world in this mesmerising, closely-observed pamphlet.”

Sue Wallace-Shaddad, OPOI, Sphinx, full review here

More information, endorsements, a sample poem and ordering for The Human Portion can be found here.

Considering the use of the present tense in bed by Georgia Gildea:

“Days no longer have names, nor do colours. They are undifferentiated. The more I look at what is in these poems the more I start to see what’s missing.

I don’t know where better is

or whether I want
to go there

Illness has no timescale, no certainties other than the immediate present and shrunken surroundings. This is set up from the opening lines […]”

D A Prince, OPOI, Sphinx, full review here

More information, endorsements, a sample extract and ordering for bed can be found here.

INTERVIEWS

Georgia Gildea talks with her V. Press guest editor, Charlotte Gann, about silence, self, resistance and more in her recently released chapbook, bed (which addresses the experience of hospitalisation for anorexia), on The Understory Conversation here.

More theme listings for V. Press titles and links to articles where authors talk about their V. Press books can be found in The Reading Room.


RECENTLY RELEASED

V. Press is very very delighted to share the publication of Braised in Wine by V. Press Prize for Poetry 2022 winner D.D. Holland.

Braised in Wine is a striking debut from D.D. Holland. There is a veritable smorgasbord of ways (case in point) in which food can make its way into common parlance, but Holland breathes new life into her subject matter, exploring the familiar and at times painful emotions that eating can elicit. The poems contained within Braised in Wine unpick how food can fashion the self through memory and relationships, using taste as a way to express a deeper well of feeling. Through small and large acts of confession, Holland conjures powerful and poignant images that bury themselves in the mind. I can’t wait to see what’s next.” Dr Jack McGowan 

“A book about eating disorders and abuse might sound like a tough read – but, although these poems teeter on the edge of an abyss, they are written with healthy doses of warmth and humour, and an appetite for life that proves moving and uplifting.” Dr David Swann

“Braised in Wine’s evocative, compelling and moving poems whet the appetite, while also exploring how what we eat and drink may feed into other aspects of life – body image, self-worth, relationships and more.” Sarah Leavesley, V. Press prize judge

Braised in Wine is very amusing and very genuine.

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2022

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-5-0
34 pages, illustrated
R.R.P. £6.50

More information, ordering and a sample poem from Braised in Wine can be found here.

LATER THIS YEAR

V. Press is delighted to have pre-ordering available already for a number of poetry titles out later this year.

Turn Around When Possible

“Combining a scientific eye with a poetic sensibility (and a sharp sense of humour), Martin Zarrop’s work is thought-provoking and wry. These poems take the long view and they never shy away from difficulty, each expertly using form to amplify content. Turn Around When Possible is an enlightening, enjoyable read.”

Helen Mort

“Whether he is looking back fondly on the seemingly mundane details of a working-class childhood or exploring the vastness of interstellar space, Martin Zarrop’s poems are distinguished by their metaphysical wit, humour, and sheer accessibility. There is a mathematical precision to every poem in this collection, a focus on details, that leads inevitably and, with a minimum of fuss, to memorable insights into love, affection, the ineluctable passage of time, and humanity’s place in the universe. Turn Around When Possible is a delight from start to finish and shows Zarrop writing at the height of his very considerable powers.”
David Cooke

Turn Around When Possible is very uncertain and very quirky.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-8-1
74 pages    
R.R.P. £10.99

More information, pre-ordering and a sample poem from Turn Around When Possible can be enjoyed here.

Not Enough Rage

“It’s rare for me to recognise, and feel kinship for, a lot of contemporary poetry. I recognise and feel kinship with this. Not Enough Rage is like a series of controlled explosions. Trembling houses. A burning voice. Experience dismantled and sewn back together with glowing needles and a mouth full of stars.”

Bobby Parker

“Like a Dylan Thomas of the age of mental illness, Gram Joel Davies leaps and flies through the world with dark exuberance. These are speakable poems, full of love for unlovable places and impossible people. In touch with but not tied to rap's rhymes and rhythms, this collection, for me, shifts the modern world into the painful focus of real poetry.” 
Peter Oswald

Not Enough Rage is very heady and very gutsy.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-7-4
62 pages
R.R.P. £10.99

A sample poem pre-ordering and a sample poem from Not Enough Rage can be found here.

(m)othersongs

(m)othersongs is a moving, visceral exploration of the othering nature of un-motherhood. Body-shame, medical misogyny and grief are exorcised in shape-shifting forms with veins of pain running through them, in which everything from cloud formations to sea gooseberries on a shoreline speak of the changing seasons of the human body. This is a world where ‘wooden babies’ and rag dolls are born in place of children, and the womb – a ‘special bedroom’ haunted by endometriosis, fibroids and myths of creation – is surrendered with the mantra – ‘it’s only a pocket, and one you’re not using’. Both heartbreaking and strangely transporting, these are powerful and necessary poems.”

Polly Atkin

 “(m)othersongs is one of those rare examples of a collection of poetry that is both moving in content and accomplished in form. Each poem is expertly crafted, with a skilled use of structured form alongside beautifully crafted free verse. This textured and vibrant collection does not hold back, it faces the pain of endometriosis and infertility and holds that pain up to the light as valid experience of womanhood. The poetry world is enriched by this collection, and I shall return to it.”
Wendy Pratt

(m)othersongs is very meteorological and very moonlit.

ISBN: 978-1-7398838-6-7
32 pages
RRP £6.50

More information, pre-ordering and a sample poem from (m)othersongs can be found here