This week at Valley Press: 'History' in the making

Dear readers,

This week we brought a new book into the world, our first since November. History is the debut collection by Northumberland-​based poet David O'Hanlon; the first product of our two submissions periods last year. The volunteers were all over this one on the July 'reading day'; words like wow and fantastic adorned the envelope by 5pm, and it was unanimously agreed to be a 'must' for the 2016 list.

So what's it about, and why all the fuss? Half the book is actually a re-telling of ancient myths (including my favourite, 'Danaus', which you can read here.) What David has done with these familiar stories is astonishing – he's pulled out the crucial elements from each, found a completely original way of reading them, and delivered this to us in poetry that is perfectly constructed, down to each individual comma. I don't say this lightly, but in my view, that part of the book is an achievement to rival Carol Ann Duffy's The World's Wife.

The other poems are mostly studies of personal history, including an epic 'bildungsroman' describing a twelve-year struggle to paint an authentic picture of the sky – that's where the concept for the cover came from (it's pictured above, if you haven't seen it). These poems have plenty of their own myths, too; it all ties together beautifully. Suffice to say, I really think this book is worth reading; you can find it on our website here.

In other news, if you want your Valentine's fix, you could do a lot worse than read this wonderful article about modern love poetry by The Telegraph, featuring such charming folk as The Emma Press, Andrew McMillan and Warsan Shire. Better still, there's a new love poem by Richard O'Brien on the Emma/Valley blog, here – it's fantastic.

Richard's new poem (particularly the last line) reminded me of this classic by Matthew Hedley Stoppard; so I've decided to make Matthew's collection A Family Behind Glass our half-priced paperback of the week. You can find the book here; just enter the code FAMILY50 at the checkout to get the discount.

This is the fourth newsletter since I went weekly – hope you're all enjoying them so far! See you next week for more (and maybe a submissions update?)

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

Lemman, a love poem by Richard O'Brien

Happy Valentine's Day! We recently reprinted The Emmores, Richard O'Brien's pamphlet of love poems from 2013. The new edition (available exclusively on the Emma Press website) includes a new poem at the end, written a couple of years after the other poems in the book. We don't want the people who bought the first edition to miss out, so here it is:

Lemman

Lover, slumberjack, roll over in
your clown pyjamas, wonder if
it’s really all from here true comfort comes – 

from ticket stubs and hotel breakfast deals,
and cooking meals together. Chop for you,
and save what’s left the way you ask me to, 

and stock the fridge for you with juice, lemon
parfait, two kinds of cheese with unfamiliar names,
salmon for bagels. Share a single plate. 

The little rituals I assimilate,
like washing rice, wearing more red
and sleeping on just one side of the bed 

(though sometimes, your first night away,
on yours.) So find me in the kitchen
where I’ll kiss your neck and whisper 

in your ear how I like the way you
dislike things more than I like
the way most people like the things they like, 

and feel like this could be the future,
leaning lightly on your shoulder, cracking jokes
about your thermal-stockinged legs. 

I can’t believe the way you poach those eggs.

The Emmores, by Richard O'Brien

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The Emmores, by Richard O'Brien
Illustrated by Emma Wright
ISBN 978 0 9574596 4 9
£5, available to buy from the Emma Press website

This week at Valley Press: 'a new website is born'

Dear readers,

This week we've been finishing and launching our new website, which went live sometime early this morning – you can see it now, in all its cutting-edge glory, right here.

So far only a small handful of people have witnessed and used the new site, so I'd very much welcome any feedback, particularly if you run into errors. We'll be tweaking and fine-tuning it as we go along ... probably forever, in fact, as nothing stays still for long in the world of the internet. But it's here, at last, and I'm very excited indeed (though I appreciate it may not be quite as thrilling for you!)

To celebrate the launch, I'd like to jump straight on the Valentine's bandwagon and offer two of our love-related titles at half price: Sarah Holt's post-modern take on romantic fiction Love and Eskimo Snow, and Michael Stewart's fantastic high-concept poetry collection Couples. Click the links to find out more about each book.

You can get either, or both, of those in paperback at a massive 50% discount by entering this code when you reach the checkout: LOVEVP. This is the very first time we've done one of these codes, so it may not work flawlessly – but if you run into any problems, drop me a return email and I'll sort it.

I must take a moment to thank our web design agency, Askew Brook, who've given the 'new website' project an enormous amount of time, energy and passion over the last few months. They're actually based in Woodend, like ourselves and many other great businesses, so its great to be able to support that little ecosystem. Oh, and of course, big thanks to Arts Council England for funding the whole project.

Next week we'll be getting back to the serious business of publishing, with our first new publication of 2016; so there's something to look forward to!

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

This week at Valley Press: a call for Yorkshire poems

Dear readers,

I'll leap straight in this week with the biggest news: as part of our Arts Council grant for 2016, we promised to publish a Yorkshire-themed poetry anthology, and we are opening submissions for it today. Here's the official announcement, which you can feel free to spread around the internet:

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Call for submissions: Yorkshire poetry anthology (deadline: 31st May)

In October 2016, Yorkshire-based Valley Press will publish an anthology of poetry which aims to document and celebrate our multi-faceted home county. We are now searching for great poems to feature in the book, from writers based anywhere in the world. Poems can be on any subject or topic – a place, an incident, a person, an idea – with only one rule: there must be some connection with the county of Yorkshire. (If in any doubt as to where Yorkshire begins and ends, consult this helpful map.)

Contributing poets will each receive a copy of the finished book, and a share of £900 in prize money/fees. We are considering poems which have been published before, but the author must be able to grant Valley Press non-exclusive rights to reproduce them in this anthology (if in doubt, consult your previous publisher).

The anthology will be edited by York-based poet Miles Salter, and submissions (maximum three poems per author) should be sent to milesinyork@hotmail.com, with the subject line 'Yorkshire Poetry Anthology', by 5pm on May 31st. The featured poets will be announced by September 1st, and the book is expected to be launched on National Poetry Day (Thursday 6th October).

Funding for this project has been generously provided by Arts Council England. We look forward to seeing your poems – best of luck!
 

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In other news: I was delighted by the response to last week's newsletter – no great exodus of subscribers, plenty of emails of support, and better still, lots of people taking advantage of the 'buy one get one free' offer! Thanks folks!

To keep the goodwill going, I'll do another offer this week: anyone who buys our first hardback, Ex Libris by David Hughes, can receive a second VP book free of charge. You should be able to add a 'note to seller' at the checkout advising me which book you'd like as your freebie (or say 'surprise me!') – but if you can't find that button, just reply to this email and let me know your choice.

I've chosen Ex Libris as Antony Dunn, the book's editor, is coming to Scarborough on February 11th for a reading at our favourite bookshop Wardle & Jones, and he's promised to read from David's book as well as his own collections. You can find details on that event here, and contact the bookshop for tickets, which are £5. I won't be featuring too many events in these newsletters – as I worry about annoying the 95% of subscribers who don't live anywhere near Scarborough! – but that will be a really special evening.

Next week: the new website is coming, and it is looking good. Watch this space!

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

This week at Valley Press: 'the dawn of a new era'

Dear readers,

Welcome to another year on board the unstoppable literary juggernaut that is Valley Press; which, since I last wrote, has been described as 'one of Yorkshire's leading publishers' by the Yorkshire Post. I could get used to that!

I want to try something a bit different this year with the newsletter; rather than giving you a lengthy missive at random intervals, I'm going to do a short email every Sunday afternoon. Most people I've broached this idea with have reacted in horror, but I've always felt market research can only take a person so far ... so let's give it a whirl.

February will see the launch of our new website, and with that operational, I'll be able to give out 'exclusive discount codes' to newsletter subscribers; so there's one good reason to stick around. The plan is to have a half-price paperback on offer every single week – but in the meantime, I'll do a 'buy one get one free'. This week, anyone who buys our latest publication, Jo Brandon's The Learned Goose (pictured above), can receive a second VP book free of charge. Just make sure to formally request the free book at the checkout. You can specify which you want, or say 'surprise me' and see what turns up!

Two bits of news since the last newsletter: first, I've expanded the team at Valley Press, with the finer details announced in this blog post. My newly-minted colleagues have been working wonders with our Twitter feed since then; plus, Rosa has resurrected our Tumblr (which to be honest, I'd forgotten existed) and launched us onto Instagram. If you're into that sort of thing, make sure you follow us; and there's always Facebook too.

Finally, and perhaps most excitingly, I need to draw your attention to a new opportunity for writers, which could lead to publication in a Valley Press book this June. The Remember Oluwale Writing Prize, to be judged by Caryl Phillips, Marina Lewycka and Ian Duhig, has been explained wonderfully on the Leeds Big Bookend site, so head there if you think you could come up with a short story or shorter poem on an important subject.

Check your inbox for more of the same next week – thanks for reading.

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

Why I Published our Pamphlets (Part 2)

Our open call for poetry and prose pamphlet submissions ends this Sunday (13th December) and I've been thinking about what I can do to help people who are still deciding what to send us. I've already written about what we do when we process submissions, so I thought it might be useful to look at submissions from another angle and explain why I chose to publish all the pamphlets we've put out already.

You can read Part 1 here, and all the pamphlets are available to buy in our webshop (pamphlets make great Christmas presents and stocking fillers!).

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Malkin, by Camille Ralphs (£5.00)

Series: The Emma Press Picks

Malkin, by Camille Ralphs

Why: Last year I hadn't worked out how to tether my netbook to my phone to access the internet, so I just downloaded all the Word docs and read them on my many train journeys, only matching them up to their covering letters later. Consequently, I was a little flummoxed by both the premise and language of Malkin: the poems take the form of monologues from those accused in the Pendle witch trials of 1612, and Camille uses unorthodox spelling for various reasons but partly to immerse the reader in the atmosphere of the period. But even though I didn't know who was speaking and why the spelling was as it was, I still had a powerful response to the visceral poems and knew I loved them.

Favourite lines: 'And after, well fed-up but famished, I knashed at th bare bakside 
of an apl csh csh - -/ nd an appl & 
another apple – and felt non the better for it, only old.'

AWOL, by John Fuller and Andrew Wynn Owen, illustrated by Emma Wright (£10.00)

Series: Art Squares

AWOL, by John Fuller and Andrew Wynn Owen

Why: One of my poetry bugbears is poems that don't seem to be written with any reader in mind. I don't need that reader to be me, but in the poems I publish I like to have a sense that a poem has been written with an audience in mind; that the poet wants to share something with a reader. I was drawn to the poems in AWOL because I can't get enough of both poets' joy in form and language, but also because they are letter-poems, written from a poet in his late seventies to a poet in his early twenties. I like the way John and Andrew's different perspectives on life sit together in the book, and I find the tenderness and mutual respect throughout very touching.

Favourite lines: 'We want, not days strung out like beads, 
But the whole present in our hands, 
Constant, as the past recedes. 

We’ve had enough of wonderlands: 
We want our share of wonder now. 
Who cares if no one understands?'

True Tales of the Countryside, by Deborah Alma (£6.50)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

True Tales of the Countryside

Why: I think a good word to describe Deborah Alma’s poems might be ‘indomitable’. She writes about insecurity, fear and self-doubt, as well as sex, the countryside and ageing, but the underlying theme is strength. I love the directness of the emotions in True Tales of the Countryside, and reading the manuscript for the first time felt exhilarating. Little details from everyday life and love leapt out at me, perfectly observed and sometimes horribly familiar: the graffiti on the bus shelter, the sticky closeness of nature, the squashing down and clawing back of self in an abusive relationship. I thought True Tales would resonate with and give strength to a lot of readers.

Favourite lines: 'I am a mother, a field, a house. 
Without me, windows darken, 
no-one else knows how to put on lights 
 just to bring the house to life.'

If I Lay on my Back I Saw Nothing but Naked Women, by Jacqueline Saphra, illustrated by Mark Andrew Webber

Series: Art Squares

If I Lay on my Back I Saw Nothing but Naked Women

Why: This is the book which launched the Art Squares! Jacqueline’s sequence of prose poems was so compellingly strange and full of rich visual details that I knew the best way to present them had to be something that gave the text room to breathe. I liked the idea of creating a kind of picture book for adults, with plenty of white space around the text and illustrations that complemented the atmosphere of the poems. As a publisher, I think a lot about how to influence and enhance the reader’s experience, and I think the format of the Art Square encourages a slower, more contemplative reading experience, which might be how I think all poetry should be read.

Favourite lines: 'When I was a child I tied my mother and father together with bandages and put a song in their mouths. If I wound them up they sang an Afrikaans duet in perfect thirds.'

Myrtle, by Ruth Wiggins (£6.50)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

Myrtle, by Ruth Wiggins

Why: This is another set of strength-giving poems, I think. There are ideas in Ruth’s poems which really stuck with me from the first read of her manuscript, and felt like a good, grown-up way of looking at life. She writes about sex and death with a mix of solemnity and mischief which I love, and which I wanted to share with other readers.

Favourite lines: 'This morning we mostly lay on the couch, 
impersonating cats, talking gibberish. 
This afternoon you fucked me, right out 
of my pyjamas and into yours.'

Rivers Wanted, by Rachel Piercey (£6.50)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

Rivers Wanted, by Rachel Piercey

Why: Reading poetry can sometimes feel like a relief from being me, as I become immersed in another person’s world view. Rachel’s world view is full of sharp, disturbing observations, about animals, social interactions and courtship rituals, but I still find myself delighted whenever I read any of her poems, because they contain such unexpected ideas that I feel utterly transported.

Favourite lines: 'If you have always been 

on a train between two places, 
 put up your feet here. 
A hero has come to show you 

the revelatory stoniness of stones 
 and how, upturned, they disclose 
 an adjacent magic underneath.'

Two new books (and assorted news) from Valley Press

Dear readers,

Let me start by sharing a photo, taken last week by the great David Chalmers:

Yes, that’s every Valley Press book from the last five years, in one towering stack. It’s an odd feeling to see five years of work expressed so visually (precariously, even!) It makes me think ‘wow, we've really achieved something’, with perhaps a little bit of: ‘five years work, for one mid-sized stack of books?!’  But hey, what a stack.

Balancing at the top is our third publication for November, The Finest Years and Me by Mark Woodburn – sequel to Winston and Me, which long-term fans will remember VP publishing in 2012. Winston and Me saw plucky young scot Jamie Melville run away to join the army, in 1916, aged just fifteen years old. He ended up as an orderly to Colonel Winston Churchill, and they faced various battles in the trenches and outside them. (I won’t go into too much detail, rest assured it moves along at a pace – and is still available of course, see here.)

The sequel (pictured below) picks up the story twenty-five years later, in 1942, when Winston is Prime Minister, facing enemies ‘across the world, inside his own parliament, and within his very soul’ (to quote the blurb). With all this in mind, Winston’s family decide to call for Jamie, who has since relocated to Scarborough (very wisely), but soon finds himself in London and Washington D.C., involved in ‘high-end decision making, intrigue, treachery and betrayal’.

Both Mark’s books are meticulously researched; early readers were convinced the first was a genuine memoir. If you’re a fan of historical fiction and interested in the world wars, they come highly recommended. The Finest Years and Me is out now, but we’re officially launching it on Tuesday 8th December, at Blackwell’s in Edinburgh, from 6.30pm. It’s free to come along, of course, and you’ll get to see me interview Mark about the writing process and more. Should be fantastic! Click here to find out more information on this book and next week’s event.


The final Valley Press book for November, and 2015, is The Learned Goose by Jo Brandon – copies haven’t arrived here at time of writing, but they do exist, as evidenced by this photo kindly provided by Villi from Pulsio (one of our wonderful printers). Again, long-term fans will recognise the name; we published Jo’s debut pamphlet Phobia in 2012, and are very proud to now present her first full-length collection ... in a glorious, foiled-up, almost-square production.

It was partly this last-minute change of dimensions that led to me waiting for copies at 9pm on release day; but I think you'll agree, when you read it, that abandoning our usual B-format was an inspired move – with the new wider pages giving Jo’s wonderful lines room to stretch out, and allowing all the poems to appear in the shape she originally intended. I've had the privilege this year to work on some of the best poetry I've ever read, and ‘the Goose’ (as we've been calling it) is firmly in that category.

There’s a launch, of course! Head to the Heart Centre in Headingley, Leeds, on Friday 11th December from 6pm for a fantastic night of poetry, discussion (chaired by James Nash), and themed refreshments (apparently!) We'd be honoured if you RSVP’d to the event on Facebook here, and of course purchased the book.


Finally – I can report that as of 5pm today, submissions to Valley Press for 2016 have closed. I’ve just emailed the last few stragglers, so if you haven’t had confirmation from me (or Mrs. McGarry, who has been kindly assisting in my quest to clear the inbox) that your manuscript has been received, it may be lost – or there could be a problem with your email address, we’ve had quite a few error messages. If this applies to you, please get in touch and we’ll put it right.

I’ll be looking at this new batch of subs over the next month or so, and will be putting together another ‘focus group’ to come to Scarborough one day and help me go through them. If you‘d like to take part in that, please do drop me a message – it involves a good few hours of completely unpaid work, but everyone seemed to have a great time when we did it in July!

The submissions process for 2017 publications will start in February, with a slightly different format, as part of our big Arts Council project – so look forward to hearing about that. I’ll leave you to it now, but if I don’t manage a December newsletter (and I don’t see you at the two excellent launch events mentioned above), I hope you all have a brilliant festive season; huge thanks for your support in 2015.

All the best,
Jamie McGarry (VP Publisher)