Out now: grown girl

V. Press is very very excited to share the publication of grown girl by Eleni Brooks!

“The essence that makes grown girl stand out can’t be distilled down to just one thing. Here, a confident voice, striking lines, unusual images and light touch all work together to create an interesting and insightful read. More than that though, this pamphlet is very relatable, very re-readable and casts both familiar and unfamiliar experiences in a new light.”
Sarah Leavesley, V. Press Prize judge

“Eleni is clever, subtly witty and honest to no fault. When poetry is this relatable, it reminds you how sharing your experiences can make another feel understood; although it’s shared and not the same, it makes you feel like you’re there again, but this time you’re not alone. Very powerful poetry.” Jemima Hughes

Grown girl is very raw and very hopeful.

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2025-26

ISBN: 978-1-0682701-1-6
32 pages
R.R.P. £7.50

A sample poem may be enjoyed below.

BUY grown girl NOW using the paypal options below. 

grown girl (with p&p options)

grown girl (with p&p for UK only delivery) £9.49 GBP grown girl (with p&p for non-EU Rest of World delivery) £23.50 GBP

 
N.B. We can no longer sell to the EU. Any other international customs/duty charges are the buyer's responsibility. 

                      

Pink Vaseline

It is a stepping stone

for children yet to bleed, it is a treat

my mother told me, when you get your period

you can wear lipstick, no one expected this

child of baggy tees and puppy fat to be a woman

so soon, so when I bled at the barbeque, I hid

it till we got home, stuffed my floral shorts with sandpaper

loo roll, went back to being the goalie

hushed mothers whispered in the months that followed

only nine years old       Lydia’s daughter

already wearing bras        Lydia’s daughter

fills night pads in the day         Lydia’s daughter

only nine, already bruising and not yet

ripe, busy with sibling bath times and baby slings

the promised lipstick slipped my mind

he preferred lip gloss

balms that tasted of watermelon

topped with glitter, left flickering

on his cheeks, my girlhood was fingered lips

rose-tinted and moist

a slathering of woman over cracked skin

priding myself on the fecundity of hips and nipples but

betrayed by an empty pouch of potential

pregnancy, the age of my mother

on the days that she breastfed me

I wear dungarees and apply for mastectomy

funding, a back-pained flattener of daydreams

a creature more like her father than she’s ever been  

today I bought my girlhood in a tin, and it reminded me

that I am not a woman

Springing into London Book Fair, new titles, events & review news

 Spring is almost here and we're springing into 2026 with new titles, events and reviews...

Tuesday, 10 March - Thursday, 12 March 2026: V. Press at London Book Fair

V. Press editor and M.D. Sarah Leavesley will be at London Book Fair, Olympia, London from 10-12 March 2026, with thanks to Inpress and Arts Council England. If you're there, please do say hello -- as a writer, editor and publisher, there's nothing Sarah enjoys more than talking about writing, reading, publishing and her other V. Press work.

Saturday, 25 April 2026 -- Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair in London

Sarah is very very excited to be heading to London for the V. Press stand at the Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair 2026. This free 12noon-6.30pm event takes place on Saturday, 25 April 2025 at St Columba’s, SW1X 0BD.

The fair is a chance to meet other publishers (and poets), find out more about their work and buy some books. For more information about this year's Free Verse, check out this year's event details on The Poetry Society website here.

Just Published

V. Press is very very excited to share the publication of Wild Boar by Jenny Hope.

“Wild Boar invites the reader into the darkest parts of the forest where a previously silenced female voice finds a new wild power. Poems that expand, take up space, howl, cackle and buck with the feel of changing seasons. A mesmerising collection.”

Ruth Stacey

“To read Jenny Hope’s poetry is to become one with nature. These poems uncover the interconnectedness of earth and woman, the strength that binds them together. Here, the richness of soil and words fill the mouth, and we discover a delicious blurring of human, animal and natural worlds. Our ‘inner raw’ secrets are unlocked while the moon looks on. In Hope’s words, we are reminded that ‘you know your inner map’ – power lies in half-light hedgerows and forests, waiting to be reclaimed.”

Claire Walker

Wild Boar is very visceral and very feminist.

ISBN: 978-1-7394122-6-5               

86 pages

R.R.P. £11.99

Ordering for Wild Boar and a sample poem can be found here.

REVIEW NEWS

“Hope writes with a green pen and considers our precious but sometimes dwindling and changing environment. She often personifies trees and animals in order to intensify the reader’s experience and she takes every opportunity to offer connection and to make us share her wonderment. The language is unflinching, raw, and moving as she journeys through the seasons, linking the changes and evolution to those often felt by women as they navigate their lives.”

Pat Edwards, London Grip, full review here

V. Press is also very very pleased to see R. M. Francis' Palmer as featured publication for March and April over on Atrium Poetry.

The feature, which includes sample poems, can be enjoyed here.

More information and ordering for Palmer, a chapbook of poetry that is very wandering and very wondering, can be found here.

Coming Soon

“The essence that makes grown girl stand out can’t be distilled down to just one thing. Here, a confident voice, striking lines, unusual images and light touch all work together to create an interesting and insightful read. More than that though, this pamphlet is very relatable, very re-readable and casts both familiar and unfamiliar experiences in a new light.”

Sarah Leavesley, V. Press Prize judge

“Eleni is clever, subtly witty and honest to no fault. When poetry is this relatable, it reminds you how sharing your experiences can make another feel understood; although it’s shared and not the same, it makes you feel like you’re there again, but this time you’re not alone. Very powerful poetry.”

Jemima Hughes

Grown girl is very raw and very hopeful.

Winner of the V. Press Prize for Poetry 2025-26

ISBN: 978-1-0682701-1-6
32 pages
R.R.P. £7.50

Pre-ordering and a sample poem for grown girl may be enjoyed here.

Launching Wild Boar

 

V. Press is very very excited to announce the publication of  Wild Boar by Jenny Hope.

“Wild Boar invites the reader into the darkest parts of the forest where a previously silenced female voice finds a new wild power. Poems that expand, take up space, howl, cackle and buck with the feel of changing seasons. A mesmerising collection.”

Ruth Stacey

“To read Jenny Hope’s poetry is to become one with nature. These poems uncover the interconnectedness of earth and woman, the strength that binds them together. Here, the richness of soil and words fill the mouth, and we discover a delicious blurring of human, animal and natural worlds. Our ‘inner raw’ secrets are unlocked while the moon looks on. In Hope’s words, we are reminded that ‘you know your inner map’ – power lies in half-light hedgerows and forests, waiting to be reclaimed.”

Claire Walker

Wild Boar is very visceral and very feminist.

ISBN: 978-1-7394122-6-5               

86 pages

R.R.P. £11.99

A sample poem can be enjoyed below.

BUY Wild Boar NOW using the paypal options below.

Wild Boar

Wild Boar (including P&P for U.K. only) £14.99 GBP Wild Boar (with P&P for Rest of World) £27.00 GBP

 

N.B. We can no longer sell to the EU. Any other international customs/duty charges are the buyer's responsibility.

Persephone Uncovered

for Gisèle Pelicot

You know they tried to bury her? That need

to silence. They robbed her of her voice – 

don’t get causing trouble – don’t make a scene.

He held her down. Filled her mouth with soil.

After all, Hades was a God. Nothing should detract

from his public image. Society was taken in –

believed this. If a woman spoke up, she was sin

and despite many similar stories, there was little heed

or concern. The other Gods, well, they made a pact,

brushed it under the carpet. Chose the official voice,

the narrative. They had good P.R. Nothing must spoil

the name of the Gods. They hid the truth. Their Creed

was such. So, she became forgotten, her truth screed

over. Yet rumours persisted. They tried to find her skin,

her body. Demeter watched her farmhands toil

with picks and hoes until their flesh began to bleed. 

No luck. Her family knew they had little choice

but to mourn. One day, Hades’ phone was hacked.

The Tabloids knew a good story. Decided to act.

(Their readership was down, so the merest gleam

of a celebrity exposure and their lips became moist

with anticipation.) Nothing would stop them. In

hindsight, their methods were unethical. Indeed,

there’d be questions now. Meanwhile, under soil,

Underworld, Persephone lay sleeping. Royal,

a queen now, even though their marriage act

was forced. Her mother taught her well. Seeds

lie dormant before they gestate. Death, often clean,

as when you decay, that’s when life may rebegin. 

But different now. When you reclaim your voice,

it is never the same voice you were before. Choice

doesn’t really come into it. You see, surface, topsoil,

is what most people choose to see. Yet, within,

or underneath, the composition has changed. Fact.

You know what’s inside is very rarely seen?

It’s not always safe to let it out. Often a need

from others. To hide cold facts. Just keep it in.

They think you’ll bleed. That you might spoil

their nice clean narrative. You will reclaim your voice.