The Emma Press Newsletter #39: The Year of Firsts and Lasts

#39: The Year of Firsts and Lasts

Hello everyone,

I'd like to wish you all an extremely belated but no less heartfelt happy new year. As you may have deduced from the tardiness of this newsletter, I've hit the ground running in 2017, spending the majority of January working with editors and authors and trying to get a head start on the nineteen (!) books we've currently got in the works.

This will be a year of many firsts for the Emma Press, as it has been every year since I started it. I know that 2017 will be the first year we publish prose and translations, and I've promised myself it's the first year we'll publish a book without a mad rush to get the files off to the printer. It will be the first year I launch our books in Birmingham as well as London, the first year I really ask for and accept help, and – I hope – the last year the Emma Press is a one-woman operation. I'll let you know how that all goes!

And now, on with the newsletter. Scroll down for details of our Valentine's giveaway and an exclusive preview of our next call for submissions.

* * *

Introducing... This Is Not Your Final Form

This Is Not Your Final Form is our anthology of poems about Birmingham, featuring poems from the Verve poetry competition. I had tremendous fun editing the book with Emma Press stalwart Richard O'Brien, and we're looking forward to meeting the poets in the book at the (sold out!) launch on 18th February. 

Seasoned Emma Press-watchers may notice that this is the first time we've used a photo on a book cover, and subscribers old and new may spot that the photo is of an enormous pink gorilla's head. I feel I owe you some answers:

• The head belongs to the 7ft pink gorilla sculpture built by the Birmingham Originals last year, utilising the various skills of the team members. I'm a member and I actually worked a bit on the early stages of the head, as well as contributing a snippet of pink-themed poetry by Rachel Piercey to be stencilled across the gorilla's torso. 
• The title is a quote from one of the poems in the book (by John McGhee), and we picked it because it nods at the way Birmingham is constantly re-inventing itself. Once we'd decided on that, Richard suggested that the pink gorilla was the perfect fit for the cover, because it's an homage to the famous King Kong statue which stood in Birmingham in the 1970s. The photo is by Lee Allen Photography.

* * *

Andrew Wynn Owen's new poetry pamphlet We published Andrew Wynn Owen's first poetry pamphlet, the delectable Raspberries for the Ferry, back in 2014, followed by his collaboration with John Fuller, AWOL, in 2015.  We're delighted to be working with Andrew again for The Dragon and The Bomb, his mini-epic poem which tells the tale of Don Armando, who wants to be a saint, and Haplo Nous, who wants to split the atom. There's also a dragon, but you'll have to read the book to discover the extent of its involvement in DA and HN's plans. We're launching The Dragon and The Bomb at All Souls College in Oxford on Friday 24th February and you are all invited – see our Events page for details. * * * Dates for your diary: events & opportunities * The Tangerine, the new Belfast-based magazine for new writing, is open for submissions of all sorts of writing. Deadline: 12th February. * BIRMINGHAM. Verve Poetry Festival runs 16-19th February in Waterstones. Booking info here. * The Christopher Tower Poetry Competition for students aged 16-18 years closes very soon. It's judged by Sarah Howe and Vahni Capildeo and the theme this year is 'Stone'. Deadline: 17th February. * BIRMINGHAM. Remember 1000 Trades, our new favourite bar in the Jewellery Quarter? We're running a poetry-and-wine evening with them on 23rd February. £10 earlybird tickets are available until 11th February (£15 after that) – details here. * The Poetry Business has two contests open at the moment: their International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Ian Duhig and Mimi Khalvati, and their New Poets Prize, judged by Andrew McMillan. Deadline: 1st March. * LICHFIELD. Come and see three of our new pamphlet poets read at Lichfield Literature Festival on 4th March! Details here. * LONDON. Save the date for our launch party for our three newest poetry pamphlets on 24th March, with readings from Andrew Wynn Owen, Emma Simon and Jack Nicholls. * * * Valentine's Giveaway! We've teamed up with our fellow Jewellery Quarter business Connolly's Wine Merchants to offer a Valentine's giveaway of champagne and love poetry books. 'Like' our Facebook page and leave a comment on the photo before 10th February to be entered into the prizedraw. * * * Verve Poetry Festival It's been a pleasure to be involved in this brand-new poetry festival, hosted by Waterstones Birmingham and taking place next weekend 16-19th February. I programmed the children's events, including readings, workshops, and an open mic event for children aged 6-16. You can find out more here and you can read my blog about the importance of children's poetry here. * * * Submissions Update Open calls for submissions Here's some exclusive news for readers of this newsletter: our next call for submissions will open on Monday 13th February and we'll be looking for POEMS ABOUT BRITAIN. This will be the fourth book in our Emma Press Ovid series, and our inspiration this time is the Fasti. We'll be looking for poems about customs, ritual and festivals which take place in Britain, to try and build up a picture of what this country and its people are now. The call will close on 26th March. Closed calls for submissions * Our call for poems about British and Irish KINGS AND QUEENS closed on 13th November 2016 and we are no longer accepting entries. We are aiming to send our responses by the end of February. * We have sent out all the responses for POEMS ABOUT ANIMALS and POEMS ABOUT AUNTS. If you can't find your response, feel free to send me a nudge and I'll forward the response on to you again. This is a complete update on all of our calls for submissions, and we do send responses to everyone's submissions individually. In the meantime, just keep an eye on our newsletters for news of our progress and read our blog to find out what we do when we process submissions. That's all for now! Do forward this newsletter onto your friends if you think they might enjoy it, or encourage them to sign up themselves. Best wishes, Emma Wright Publisher at the Emma Press

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!).

* * *

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.'

Why I Published our Pamphlets (Part 1)

Our open call for poetry and prose pamphlet submissions ends on 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 2 here.

* * *

Oils, by Stephen Sexton (£6.50)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

Oils, by Stephen Sexton

Why: These are definitely poems which grew on me each time I read them (we read manuscripts at least twice, if not three times, before even shortlisting them). I found it hard to get a handle on the poems initially, but then literally dozens of Stephen's nervy, melancholic thoughts – like 'I ask what it means when even / in my dream I'm a coward' – stuck in my head and I knew that these were special and I had to publish them.

Favourite lines: 'I can’t hold onto anything, Anne. Because it doesn’t exist, 
I’ll meet you in town. Borrow some wine from the woman 
next door, reach for glasses. Live, then show me what I got wrong.'

Captain Love and the Five Joaquins, by John Clegg (£5.00)

Series: The Emma Press Picks

Captain Love and the Five Joaquins

Why: The Pick is the original Emma Press pamphlet format and I always hoped that established poets would use it for their more experimental projects. Captain Love is a wonderful example of this, as John Clegg tells the frankly unbelievable (and yet true-ish) story of bounty hunter Harry Love, through a mixture of poems and prose. It's short, but by gum is it swashbuckling, packed with swordfights, tequila and... Zorro?!?

Favourite lines: 'Love isn’t safe. The lines across his palm, which Ezmerelda stared at for so long before confessing she could read no future there, have started to converge. One eye popped halfway open overnight and Love was busy with his needle in the morning. Nothing’s ready for the visit. Love must send to Fresno for his epaulettes. '

Raspberries for the Ferry, by Andrew Wynn Owen (£6.50)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

Raspberries for the Ferry

Why: I do have a soft spot for formal poetry, and Andrew Wynn Owen's way with metre and rhyme is so infectiously playful that he had me at 'These luscious buds should be illegal / Reserved for emperor and eagle.' The language in his poems is rich, textured and colourful, which I love, and – more than that – his worldview in this pamphlet is exuberant and joyous, which makes it a pleasure to read and very easy to want to share with readers.

Favourite lines: 'I précis 

this shaky simile because I am 
so happy, life-hallowed, the carp that swim 
in the Arno know, the leaves by the dam 

rustle knowledge of it, and the pilgrim 
stops short to wish me well [...]'

Ikhda, by Ikhda, by Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi (£6.50 / £4.25)

Series: The Emma Press Pamphlets

Ikhda, by Ikhda

Why: Ikhda is a multi-lingual globetrotter, so she uses the English language in a rollicking way which feels instinctive and fresh. When I was reading her manuscript, I liked how her poems had a surreal quality and could be viciously satirical and angry but also innocent and tender. This pamphlet feels feminist to me on a very personal level, so it felt important to publish it.

Favourite lines: 'I smelled your distinctive 
typical smell 
from hundreds of kilometres, 
branches of trees swaying gently. 
I walked along silently 
looking for a stud 
to marry me once 
and feed my ren for years.'

The Held and the Lost, by Kristen Roberts (£5.00)

Series: The Emma Press Picks

The Held and the Lost

Why: Escapism is a large part of the appeal of reading for me; it feels like a weight is being lifted when I can immerse myself in someone else's way of seeing the world. I've never been to Australia, but from Kristen Roberts' poems I can imagine the wide gaping spaces, luscious vegetation and oppressive heat. There are so many finely-observed details in Kristen's poems that reading the manuscript felt like stepping out into a variety of distant bedrooms, backyards and beaches.

Favourite lines: 'You cook and we eat, fingers barbeque-blackened, 
lips soft with lamb fat. Your smile is eager, 
mine a dam defying rivulets of ageing, unpaid crimes. 
 We ignore the old conversations pressing at closed doors 
 and instead talk longingly of rain.'

The Emmores, by Richard O'Brien (£5.00)

Series: The Emma Press Picks

The Emmores, by Richard O'Brien

Why: Love poems were my point of entry into liking poetry as an adult, but before long I started feeling resentful of the treatment of the muse: either they would barely be present in the poem, sidelined by the poet's interest in the poet, or they would suffer a lot of assumptions being made about their feelings. What I like about The Emmores is the honesty of these love poems – Richard doesn't pretend that these are anything other than the hopeful declarations of someone whose main pulling power is his way with words.

Favourite lines: 'and if I could I’d call tornadoes down 
to wrench up rooves of Collyweston slate, 
disintegrate unyielding dry-stone walls 
and crazy-pave a path across the fields 
to your door.'

The Flower and the Plough, by Rachel Piercey (£5.00 / £3.50)

Series: The Emma Press Picks

The Flower and the Plough

Why: Back in 2012, these poems struck a deeply personal chord with me, and I was astonished that another person could express feelings that I felt intensely but couldn't articulate. It felt like these poems were about my failing relationship and increasingly conflicted ideas about romance, and I felt all the better for having read them.

Favourite lines: '[...] when you temper
 scraps into treasure

 I think it’s worth it,
 and when you
 spit out glass

though you only got sand
I think it’s worth it.'

POEM CLUB #7: 'Raspberries' by Andrew Wynn Owen

Andrew Wynn Owen. Photo
   © Belinda Lawley

We had some very exciting news last week, that Andrew Wynn Owen had won the Newdigate Prize. We published Raspberries for the Ferry, Andrew's first pamphlet, so we are incredibly proud of his achievement. This week in Poem Club we're going to look at the opening poem of his pamphlet, which gave the collection its title.

* * *

Raspberries

Available, but not for long,

They look like lesser fruits of Eden.

So sweet they force you into song

And fill your head with dreams of hedon-

istic gymnasts born in Sweden.

These luscious buds should be illegal,

Reserved for emperor and eagle.

Yes, don't they make you salivate?

That danglingness, their regal nods

To passers-by as if to state

A bloodline running back to gods.

You'd like them to arrive in squads

And drag you screaming to a cell

With sticky fists on each lapel.

These friendly triffids catch your eye

Across a busy motorway

And beckon you to have a try.

Their trimming is décolleté

With underbrush for négligée

And crimpled leaves that make you think 

Of Cleopatra draped in mink.

The provenance this clustered fruit

Can claim is unlike any berry:

Venusian origins impute

Its power to party and make merry.

When Charon chauffeurs in the ferry

The only bribes to turn his head

Are juicy, globular, and red.

— by Andrew Wynn Owen, from Raspberries for the Ferry 

* * *

Emma's thoughts. I love this poem for many reasons, not least of which is that raspberries are also my favourite fruit. They deserve a hymn, because they're wonderful: a great shade of pink, sweet and tart, and delicious. I also like the layers of menace eased into the poem, which create a sexy kind of tension between the speaker and the raspberry: they 'force' you into song, should be 'illegal', and, err, 'drag you screaming to a cell'. Is fruit erotica a thing? With Andrew Wynn Owen at the helm, it should be!

Your thoughts. A couple of great comments this week! ThatBookGirl had the only natural response to the poem, as far as I'm concerned: 'This poem makes me want to go and eat all the raspberries in my garden, but now I think of Swedish gymnasts when I chew them!' I hear you, ThatBookgirl.

Courtney Landers had a similar response, and gave a helpful blow-by-blow account of her reading experience: 'The first time you read it you think ‘oh that’s cute, I like raspberries too', the next few times you start to catch the multiple layers, and then each time you read it you’re giggling because ‘did he just say THAT, about RASPBERRIES?!’ She gives an in-depth description of her favourite bits in the comments below, so I'd highly recommend you scroll down to read it in full.

And the winner of this week's 'Most Thoughtful Commenter' prize is... Courtney Landers!

* * *

Raspberries for the Ferry

What do you think of 'Raspberries'? Do you think it is funny? Do you think it is sexy? What's your favourite line? Bearing this poem in mind, why do you think we choose 'Raspberries for the Ferry' as the title of the book? This week's Poem Club is closed, but you can still let me know in the comments section below. Don't be afraid of sounding stupid! Just let me know what you like about the poem or what it makes you feel. All comments will be held for moderation, so don't worry if it doesn't appear immediately after you send it.

<-- POEM CLUB #6: 'Brown Leather Gloves' by Oliver Comins
--> POEM CLUB #8: 'Night music' by Kristen Roberts