The Emma Press Newsletter #38: End-of-year newsflash

#38: End-of-year newsflash Hello everyone, The Emma Press won at the Michael Marks Awards last week! Unbelievably, the judges gave us the £5000 Publishers' Award, commenting: 'The Emma Press has grown steadily in the few years since they were first shortlisted. As well as having a remarkable list of poets they pay close attention to every aspect of the pamphlets they publish. This is a vibrant, thoughtful press bringing a great energy and sense of endeavour to their work.' We are quite beside ourselves with joy about this recognition of all our hard work and the calibre of the poets we publish. The financial boost is also very welcome, and I'm looking forward to going out for a fancy dinner with Rachel to celebrate. The announcement took place at the British Library. There was an official photographer in attendance, so I thought I'd do a little photo story about the evening for you, below. [All images © Tony Grant.] The shortlisted publishers had to give a 3-minute speech before the winner was announced, and I took the opportunity to talk about diversity in publishing. I've posted in on the blog, so you can read it if you'd like to get the full experience of the evening. Also on the blog, you can also read Jamie-from-Valley-Press's lovely reaction to the news. Here's Rachel and me at the photocall right at the start of the evening. The photographer said 'Not you again!' when he saw us, which was sweet. After the drinks reception up on the 3rd floor, we moved down to the exhibition space for the dinner. It's huge and there were over 100 people there. At the dinner, I was sat next to Michael McGregor, the director of the Wordsworth Trust. He was lovely to talk to, so I managed to forget my nerves about my speech during the dinner. Then the speeches began and before long it was my turn. I was worried about how it would be received, but the audience was very supportive and even burst into applause after the second paragraph! I always worry about speaking too quietly, so I tried my best to project. Rachel told me afterwards that the microphone was clearly very sensitive, as my speech had emerged at a deafening volume from the speakers. I'd got myself so worked up about giving the speech that I was really relieved when it was over and I could sit down. Then, they announced that we were the winners and it was utterly astonishing. Rachel went up with me to collect the cheque from Lady Marks, which was good because it was a long walk round to the stage from where we were sitting and it was nice to have the company. I looked pretty serious during my speech, because I wanted to deliver it with the appropriate amount of gravitas, but this all crumbled after we won. I hadn't prepared a speech in case we won, so I just said thank you and got off the stage as quickly as possible. Here we are making our way back to our seats. I think my continued shock and confusion is quite apparent! With all that over, we could sit back and enjoy the readings from the shortlisted poets. For the first time, one of the poets was ours: Camille Ralphs, reading from Malkin. She gave a stunning, spine-chilling performance and we felt incredibly proud of her. It was a lovely end to the evening, as it meant that everyone in the room got to see the kind of work we publish.

Submissions Update Open calls for submissions None currently. We'll open our next call for submissions in early 2017, once we have replied to all the 2016 submissions. I will give newsletter subscribers a sneak preview of some of next year's subjects in January. Closed calls for submissions * Rachel and I have made our selection for POEMS ABOUT AUNTS and we will be sending out our responses from now until Friday. If you can't find your response by the end of Friday, feel free to drop us an email in the new year and we'll forward it on to you again. * Our call for POEMS ABOUT ANIMALS closed on Sunday 4th December 2016 and we are no longer accepting entries. Anja and Liane will be sending our their responses in the new year and everyone will have heard by the end of January 2017. * Our call for poems about British and Irish KINGS AND QUEENS closed on 13th November and we are no longer accepting entries. We aim to send our responses by the end of February 2017. 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 here. Ooh, and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!  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.'