10 Years of Publications -- 2024

2025 marks ten years of V. Press publishing solo-authored titles and, as part of our celebrations, we're sharing our year-by-year publications over that period.

The press was originally launched at Ledbury Poetry Festival in July 2013 with a one-off poetry chapbook anthology before moving on to solo-authored poetry pamphlets in 2015.

Our first solo-authored poetry collection and our first flash fiction pamphlet came out in 2016. There have been illustrated poetry pamphlets, a dual-authored poetry pamphlet and a full-length flash fiction title along the way.

Today, we highlight our 2024 titles!

Fire and Bees -- Bethan Rees -- 20 April 2024

“Fires both real and metaphorical crackle through this exciting new collection by Bethan Rees, and its pages hum and crawl with insect life. These poems are hard-hitting and poignant; exploring themes of class, loss, mental health and the way familial trauma is passed on from one generation to the next. Rees’ work is surreal and compelling – an exciting new voice in the poetry world.” Julia Webb

“Fire and Bees darts with unexpected twists and edges, projecting its imagination into past, present and future, with themes of family, relationship and corporeal sensitivity. Mirroring the very nature of poetry, thresholds between the interior and exterior of bodies feel permeable, with recurring images of stings and syringes pricking the skin. Rees’ work is quick-witted and blazing.” Claire Williamson

Fire and Bees is very intense and very reflective, like the burning memories we carry. 

A sample poem from the chapbook can be enjoyed below. More information and ordering for Fire and Bees can be found here.

Stitches

I need to let you know what

I’ve done in my life.

The journeys I’ve been on.

The people I have met

that you might have hated

or loved.

Sitting in the parlour, I take

thread from Gran’s biscuit tin

come sewing kit.

I’m telling you my story through

my skin. Stitching my narrative into

the body you gave me.

The thread slides through my palm

and the pull of the needle is guided

by your spirit.

I want to let you know what you want

to know. And hopefully you’ll feel this too.

I create an aeroplane with black cord

and flesh. But from your perspective it looks more

like a bird.

So, I start to stitch a bird, because I think

that’s what you want me to do.

The Love Trio (LT) Bundle

This bundle consists of one poetry collection, Like love by Brenda Read-Brown, and two pamphlets/chapbooks: A Z-hearted Guide to Heartache by Charley Barnes and Winter with Eva by Elaine Baker.

The Love Trio (LT) Bundle is £18 including postage and packing for UK delivery only. Bundle details and ordering can be found here.

 The Mothering Trio (MT) Bundle

The bundle consists of one poetry collection, Unable Mother by Helen Calcutt and two pamphlets/chapbooks: The Beautiful Open Sky by Hannah Linden and (m)othersongs by Sarah Doyle.

The titles in this bundle, which might equally be called Mothering or Not, include the points of views of being a mother, being a child, the difficulties of both and also the perspective of being unable to have children.

The Mothering Trio (MT) Bundle is £18 including postage and packing for UK delivery only. Bundle details and ordering can be found here.

The Narrative Poetry Duo (NPD) Bundle

This bundle consists of two poetry collections: knots, tangles, fankles by Alex Reed and A Bluebottle in Late October by John Wheway. 

The Narrative Poetry Duo NPD Bundle is £18 including postage and packing for UK delivery only. Bundle details and ordering can be found here.

The Narrative Poetry Trio (NPT) Bundle

This bundle consists of three poetry pamphlets/chapbooks chosen from the following four options: Checkout by Kathy Gee, art brut by David O'Hanlon, Winter with Eva by Elaine Baker or Dancing in Babylon by Elaine Baker. 

The Narrative Poetry Trio (NPT) Bundle is £15 including postage and packing for UK delivery only -- please remember to specify which 3 titles you would prefer, or V. Press will select 3 (out of the 4) titles for you. Bundle details and ordering can be found here.

The V. Press Prize for Poetry Trio (VPPPT) Bundle

This bundle consists of three poetry pamphlets/chapbooks chosen from the following four options: ynygordna by Kelly Williams, May We All Be Artefacts by Chloe Hanks, Creature Without Building by Ray Vincent-Mills or Braised in Wine by D.D. Holland.

The V. Press Prize for Poetry Trio (VPPPT) Bundle is £15 including p &p for UK delivery only -- please remember to specify which 3 titles you would prefer, or V. Press will select 3 (out of the 4) titles for you. Bundle details and ordering can be found here.

Robins, Feathers, Pearls -- Ella-Louise Fisher
-- 30 September 2024

“Robins, Feathers, Pearls takes us on a journey of what it means to lose but also what it means to have. These poems are proof that the greatest moments of sadness and despair can be written with beauty and light. You will get lost in these words, and you will be grateful for it.” Casey Bailey

“This remarkable debut publication from Ella-Louise Fisher is a powerful reminder of how bereavement can be more than an individual experience. Elegiac work is by nature difficult to write. It is often particularly difficult to communicate the balance between public and private grief which holds the elegy in place, but Fisher’s poems skilfully present personal moments from a rich life that frames the context of loss in beautiful, heartbreaking, and strikingly recognisable ways. More than this, Robins, Feathers, Pearls is a true commitment to honouring life as well as reflecting on death, and honesty, integrity, and deep love for family lives in every line.” Jack McGowan

Robins, Feathers, Pearls is very honest, and very moving. 

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2023

A sample poem from the chapbook can be enjoyed below. More information and ordering for Robins, Feathers, Pearls can be found here.

The Aisle of Urns in Charity Shops

I might donate your ashes to a charity shop. 

When I think of you, 

I picture you stroking the sleeves of jumpers 

in the aisles of Oxfam, 

holding teddies, and a book,

and dolls and wool, 

ready to give to me. 

I picture you grasping bin bags 

of knitted blankets and cardigans 

ready to donate, 

and, after promising not to take too long,

you’d spend hours browsing the 

fine china and teacup sets. 

You came home one day with a necklace, 

a small statue of a dog’s head for your fireplace, 

and a jewellery box, slightly chipped. 

Carrying a box of Beano comics on your hip. 

It might be worth something one day,

you said, 

as I raised my eyebrows. 

Now I walk in and find your pearls 

and your picture frames 

and your tea pot 

in the aisles of Oxfam

and, even though I donated them myself, 

I take them all in my arms and buy them again. 

A change of heart, 

I’ll wear you around my neck instead.

The Trajectory of Ghosts -- Tom Vowler -- 14 October 2024

“Tom Vowler takes us into the thick of the moment with slow confident detail that makes us poise within time, where actions have distinct consequences and there is a path taken through havoc. He captures what happens at the intersection of human fragility and the might of nature, using language that caresses and haunts.”

Catherine McNamara

“Beautifully written bite-sized stories, exploring ghosts and hauntings and loss. Stimulating and satisfying – a splendid collection.”
Alison Moore

The Trajectory of Ghosts is very ethereal and very necessary. 

A sample flash fiction from this chapbook can be enjoyed below. More information and ordering for The Trajectory of Ghosts can be found here.

Ghost Rock

We’re losing the moon, you say. It’s past midnight and we are sitting in the rubble of our eight-year coupling, sipping cheap red wine in a pool of moonlight on the kitchen floor. You’ve told me this before, but I indulge you as you articulate this little-known quirk of astrophysics, how our ghost rock is gradually slipping its orbit, an inch or so a year, the rate a fingernail grows. You are wearing the burgundy jumper we fought for custody of, its scent now a blend of our odours. I consider the division of other nouns we’ve accumulated: CDs, furniture, friends. The tidal bulge caused by the moon always sits just ahead of it, you continue, the force slinging the moon outwards, like being on a roundabout. I have to teach a writing class in the morning and, for a second, I marshal sufficient pragmatism to note this phenomenon as a potential prompt. Lunar poetry can occupy them while I try to buttress myself. You announce that days will lengthen as the Earth’s rotation slows and, like a spinning plate losing its centrifugal force, the planet will become unstable. Eventually, it will cease turning altogether. From nothing, a car alarm mauls the air, violating the stillness. You wait for it to discontinue, then offer me a seductive smile. It’s possible we may yet converge in the bedroom, a final plundering of one another, rhapsodic and ferocious, an act guillotining past and future. You know the Americans were going to detonate a nuclear bomb on its surface, you say. In the 1950s. Just to flaunt it at the Soviets. Despite the wine harshening with every sip, I realise I could listen to you all night.