V. Press is delighted to announce the launch of art brut by David O'Hanlon. The official blurb for this wonderful pamphlet can be found below. As an editor reading through manuscript poems submitted during last year's open submissions window, this pamphlet stood out from the start. Why? Well, there's the gripping and moving characters and background narrative. Also the way O'Hanlon plays with syntax, pushing sentences to do as much as they can go without snapping...But that's just a fraction of my thoughts. Here's what the cover has to say:
Set against a background of literary and artistic allusions, art brut is a precise and moving sequence on childhood and teenage institutionalisation. Tackling the nature of trying to reshape memories and carve out something positive, this pamphlet is a concentrated crafting of raw experiences into a poetry that is alive with characters and thought-provoking truths. Stripping back the sometimes over-romanticised notions of institution life, David O’Hanlon creates his own sharp and haunting art that is very real and very gripping.
"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. Through poetry which is both lucid and engaging, O’Hanlon manages to transform his intensely personal experiences into something more universal: poems which can resonate with everyone (and not just those who have regular appointments with a psychiatrist). Bright lights cast dark shadows, and there are references to padded cells, catatonic states, self-harm, suicide attempts, OCD, et al, yet the deftness with which they are revealed, and the resilience, honesty and humour of this highly promising young poet’s writing, will leave you feeling uplifted. 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
A sample poem from the pamphlet may be read below.
art brut
So, after my swirling black abyss, a work
still in progress, we turned to Sophie’s landscape:
a jazz-hands sun, the wide Vs, almost Ms
of birds, a green ribbon, edge to edge,
and, poking their heads up out from the grass
five earthworms, five pink splodges
more finger than worm, with blobbed eyes
and there’s-no-bad-in-life smiles.
Are they supposed to represent real people
or a specific event, maybe?
It’s a fascinating choice of subject matter.
Worms usually have quite negative associations,
particularly death, but yours are content,
blissful. Do you think maybe there’s
something in that, a desire to make
positives from even the worst situations?
She didn’t take it with her.
Like others left behind, it ended up
on the wall where, my sentimentality
assures me, it remains, unfaded.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes at V. Press, a lot of other plans are in motion for new titles, launches, readings, and, hopefully, re-opening our open submissions window in August. As they say, watch this space, because it won't stay unfilled for long!
V. Press is very proud to launch Ransom Notes by Jacqui Rowe, her fourth published pamphlet.
This is a sequence of little poetry fictions that are simultaneously very serendipitous and very idiosyncratic. Each poem is an abstraction from the lives of characters conceived by chance and who emerge through the writing without ever fully explaining themselves.
Originating from a process of cutting up and randomness, fragments of writing, sketches, poem drafts and found texts were initially combined to form documents resembling a kidnapper’s ransom notes. These were then crafted and shaped. It may be that the same people recur throughout the poems, heard variously in different voices from diverse points of view, or that they are several characters, interacting in and populating the same world.
“Ransom Notes is a beguiling construct of abducted and redeemed words, still trailing the resonances of unknown former contexts. From them, Jacqui Rowe has teased and finessed new narratives, characterized by dissonant echoes, tonal shifts, sudden depths and elliptical insights.” Alasdair Paterson
“Beautifully crafted poems which reveal themselves slowly with each read. This is a pioneering work by a poet on top of her game.” Antony Owen
One of the things that so strongly appealed to me as an
editor when reading Jacqui’s manuscript was the vividness and startling
freshness of the images. Also, the space the texts leave for the reader to
interpret and participate, and the fact that every re-reading gives me
something new – an aspect that can be hard to find and very welcome after
reading a large pile of poetry manuscripts. I’d even go further and say that
for me this pamphlet was not only highly re-readable but gets stronger and more
addictive the more I read it.
It was great then to see these and other aspects of Ransom Notes picked out in the pamphlet’s
first, and detailed, review, by Alice Tarbuck on Sabotage Reviews. She comments on how “Rowe enjoys playing with
meaning, but is also aware of the potency of the non-meaningful in found poetry”
and concludes: “the tantalizing lack of punctuation makes this poetry text
flexible, as if what is found there might alter according to the reader’s whim.
A fascinating pamphlet.” The full review may be found here.
The pamphlet can be purchased from our bookshop, with a
direct link here.
I’m also very excited to say that we have another two debut solo
poet pamphlets in the pipeline for this summer and autumn. More details about
these to come soon, but suffice it to say that they are very, very much as
exciting as Ransom Notes, but very,
very different in style and subject matter – so watch this proverbial space!
V, Press is very very excited to announce its new 'Chez Nous' recommendation scheme and introduce our poetry 'sommeliers'.
We have gathered together a small team of poetry tasters who will recommend their favourite tipples to enjoy with each V. Press publication.
They are:
Jane Campion Hoye is a poetic writer, storyteller and performer, who has gathered knowledge of a diversity of wines from around the world…whether filming in a German vineyard or sampling the liquid silk of a smooth cabernet on Stellenbosch’s wine route in Cape Town. And not only wine. Her poem 'Waterfall Glory', recently selected for international publication Inspired By My Museum, was first penned on a visit to the Guinness Museum in Dublin. For more about Jane’s work see: www.inspire2speak.com.
Julie Boden was co-proprietor of a Country House Hotel for more than 20 years, so has had to taste an extensive range of wines – hard work... but someone had to do it! This year, she celebrates her tenth year as Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall, and continues to enjoy working on exciting new collaborations with a selection of amazing musicians. Following her BAFTA nomination in 2012, she has enjoyed writing new pieces for theatre and film and, when not writing or performing her work, she loves to relax and to raise a glass or two with her lovely family and friends.
Angela Topping was born in the year post-war food rationing ended. Perhaps this is the reason for her lifelong love affair with food and all good things. Another of those good things is poetry, of which she has written seven collections and three pamphlets. Over the years, her prowess in wine appreciation has graduated from Blue Nun and Mateus Rose into a liking for the finer fragranced and fuller bodied. And since she has become more full bodied and likes perfume, this is very appropriate. For years, wine was a balm after a hard day in the classroom and now she is freelance again, it is an inspiration and a treat.
The Anon Poet: Our anonymous wine connoisseur is in fact a number of different people, who may be a non-poet. Our three V. Press wine-lovers have generously agreed to make regular Chez Nous recommendations. The Anon Poet allows for poetry-lovers who wish to take part but remain anonymous, or to only recommend very occasionally.
N.B. Anyone tempted by the Anon Poet role should email vpresspoetryAThotmailDOTcom. While those doing this will need to be anonymous on the V. Press website, we would be perfectly happy if they wished to blog about their involvement elsewhere.
poetry that is very very
While the V. Press blog has been quiet, we've been very busy behind the scenes: reading submissions, making decisions about our first solo poet pamphlets and planning a few other surprises for next year.
SUBMISSIONS
We were absolutely delighted with the poems received in our first open submissions window. The joy of reading was only tempered slightly by how hard this made the final decisions.
In the end, we asked to see the full pamphlets by four poets. We are delighted to have offered publication to one poet and hope to launch this very, very exciting pamphlet in the spring. More details of this will follow soon, along hopefully with some other publications news.
CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLER
It's the first day of advent and, if you're looking for a small poetic something to offer the one you love, laugh with or lust after, then the V. Press pamphlet anthology The Vaginellas may be just the thing. We have a few copies of this delicious concoction of fun left in the bookshop post the poets' Ledbury Poetry Festival gig. At just £5, we hope you'll find it very, very tempting!
Early/not-so-early festive greetings from V. Press.
Thank you to all the poets who sent us work during last month's submission windows.
Although statistics have little to do with individual poems and poetry collections, an initial scan of the inbox reveals roughly two thirds of those who submitted are women. Also, roughly two thirds of those who submitted are based in the West Midlands.
We will now be reading all the poems and considering these submissions in detail. Our aim is to send initial responses out to everyone by the end of October.
Thank you again to everyone who submitted.
V. Press submissions open for August!
What are we looking for? Well, maybe poetry that opens, or closes, doors inside, that shines a light where most people walk past or that illuminates the familiar in a different way. Or however else a poet chooses to interpret 'very, very' in a meaningful/crafted/awe-inspiring way.
Full guidelines can be found here or under the submissions tab in the menu above. Please do follow these, or poems are likely to be returned unread.
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