Meet the Emma Press editors: Rachel Piercey

The Emma Press is introducing a new element to pamphlet submissions: authors get to choose the editor they would like to read their submission in the first round. This doesn't mean that you have to have this editor if your book is chosen, and nor does it guarantee that your chosen editor will be the one who reads your manuscript in the first round, but we will try our best.

We've put together profiles of all four Emma Press editors, to help you decide which editor might look most favourably on your manuscript. We do recommend that you read all four profiles and give them some thought, but don't agonise over your decision – if the editor reading your manuscript thinks it's good but might appeal to another editor more, they will pass it on to them.

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Hello, I’m... Rachel Piercey.

Mandatory editor selfie
in front of bookcase

Here's a bit about what I’m hoping to find: Samuel Johnson said the aim of writing was to enable readers ‘better to enjoy life, or better to endure it’. I’m hoping to find poems and pamphlets which manage both, which navigate between consolation and transcendence. I’m also keen to find poems which pay close attention to their network of sounds. I’d love to discover some new writing for children, too – something well-crafted, engaging and empowering.

Three of my favourite books are... God Loves You by Kathryn Maris, Public Dream by Frances Leviston and High Windows by Philip Larkin.

I wish I’d published... White Hills by Chloe Stopa-Hunt. I love these mythic, mysterious, profound poems. Stopa-Hunt’s voice is contemporary, direct and urgent whilst drawing on archaic language and sentence structure. It’s a mesmerising combination, and gives White Hills a timeless quality.

I wish I’d written... Falling Awake by Alice Oswald. I am currently musing on how to write about nature myself. The poems are almost painfully emotive, without being sentimental, or using nature as a translucent metaphor to talk about human experience. Oswald has found the language to make nature fully present.

I’ve got a soft spot for... poems about joy. And half-rhyme.

I’m less keen on... poems that set up and explore a conceit but don’t take it any further.

Recently I edited... a whole range of wonderful pamphlets! Rakhshan Rizwan’s vivid, impassioned debut Paisley; Julia Bird’s warm and filmic semi-biographical, semi-autobiographical Now You Can Look; and Simon Turner’s dashing arrangement of experimental riffs, Birmingham Jazz Incarnation. I like a collection to have fire in its belly, whatever the source of that flame.

My advice to anyone thinking of submitting is... to think carefully about ordering your selection. Look at it as a journey – what experience do you want the reader to have? And on the practical side, don’t underestimate the power of a clean and readable presentation!

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This round of pamphlet submissions ends on 10th December 2017. See the Emma Press website for guidelines.

Meet the Emma Press editors: Emma Wright

The Emma Press is introducing a new element to pamphlet submissions: authors get to choose the editor they would like to read their submission in the first round. This doesn't mean that you have to have this editor if your book is chosen, and nor does it guarantee that your chosen editor will be the one who reads your manuscript in the first round, but we will try our best.

We've put together profiles of all four Emma Press editors, to help you decide which editor might look most favourably on your manuscript. We do recommend that you read all four profiles and give them some thought, but don't agonise over your decision – if the editor reading your manuscript thinks it's good but might appeal to another editor more, they will pass it on to them.

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Hello, I’m... Emma Wright.

Mandatory editor selfie

in front of bookcase

I'm hoping to find... deft, crisp writing that charms and delights. Prose and poems where I lose all sense of time while I’m reading them and then feel like I’m floating when I’ve read the final line. I’ll be focusing on the prose pamphlets, and I hope to find some cracking short stories, essays, novellas, and who knows what else. I'll also be looking out for poetry that is wild, angry and full of colours and rich imagery.

Three of my favourite books are... I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Stranded at the Drive-In by Garry Mullholland and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

I wish I'd published... The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits.

I wish I'd written... All but a Few by Joan Aiken.

I've got a soft spot for... dabs of humour in most kinds of writing. Writing that screams ‘THIS IS SERIOUS TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT AND SAD’ the whole way through makes me want to blow raspberries.

I'm a stickler for... prose that scans well. I want my authors to be in command of the rhythms of their sentences, using the beats and stresses to communicate with the reader just as much as the choices of words.

Recently I edited... Leanne Radojkovich’s cool, twisty fairytales in First fox, Jan Carson’s warm, lightly surreal Postcard Stories, and Daina Tabūna’s alarmingly honest coming-of-age stories in The Secret Box (translated by Jayde Will).

My advice to anyone thinking of submitting is... Think about what your pamphlet will bring to the readers’ lives. Sometimes writers are advised to write for themselves and no one else, but when you’re at the stage of sending out a manuscript it’s probably helpful to put yourself in the editor’s shoes and think about what will make them decide to devote months towards bringing your manuscript into print. At the Emma Press, it’s most likely to be because the editor believes your book will bring comfort and/or joy to the reader. Also, if you're nervous about submitting, go for it! Other people have books – why shouldn't you?

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This round of pamphlet submissions ends on 10th December 2017. See the Emma Press website for guidelines.

Meet the Emma Press editors: Yen-Yen Lu

The Emma Press is introducing a new element to pamphlet submissions: authors get to choose the editor they would like to read their submission in the first round. This doesn't mean that you have to have this editor if your book is chosen, and nor does it guarantee that your chosen editor will be the one who reads your manuscript in the first round, but we will try our best.

We've put together profiles of all four Emma Press editors, to help you decide which editor might look most favourably on your manuscript. We do recommend that you read all four profiles and give them some thought, but don't agonise over your decision – if the editor reading your manuscript thinks it's good but might appeal to another editor more, they will pass it on to them.

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Hello, I'm... Yen-Yen Lu.

Mandatory editor selfie

in front of bookcase

I'm hoping to find... honest, earthy, and diverse writing. I’m interested in young adult, coming-of-age stories, particularly ones that break traditions and subvert tropes and stereotypes.

Three of my favourite books are... Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo.

I wish I'd published... The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I was completely in awe the first time I read it. She wrote fearlessly about a very difficult subject matter (police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement), and told an authentic and impactful story which still ended on a somewhat hopeful note.

I wish I'd written... Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne. The way she integrated the protagonist’s anxious OCD thoughts into the text was very simple but creative and I love how her characters in this series were so unapologetically flawed.

I've got a soft spot for... stories about friendship! It feels as though they are still undervalued in literature or written as secondary to stories about family or romantic love and it would be nice to see more of them.

I'm less keen on... clichés.

My advice to anyone thinking of submitting is... Ask yourself: 'What did it cost to write this?' This was something that my creative writing lecturer would say to me and I found it useful to think about when trying to write something authentic or personal.

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This round of pamphlet submissions ends on 10th December 2017. See the Emma Press website for guidelines.

Meet the Emma Press editors: Richard O'Brien

The Emma Press is introducing a new element to pamphlet submissions: authors get to choose the editor they would like to read their submission in the first round. This doesn't mean that you have to have this editor if your book is chosen, and nor does it guarantee that your chosen editor will be the one who reads your manuscript in the first round, but we will try our best.

We've put together profiles of all four Emma Press editors, to help you decide which editor might look most favourably on your manuscript. We do recommend that you read all four profiles and give them some thought, but don't agonise over your decision – if the editor reading your manuscript thinks it's good but might appeal to another editor more, they will pass it on to them.

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Hello, I'm... Richard O'Brien.

Mandatory editor selfie
in front of bookcase

I’m hoping to find... poems that take something familiar and make it something new, whether that means bringing contemporary life to a traditional form or using precise, unusual language to help the reader see an object, an experience, through new eyes. Above all, I want poems that care about communicating with a reader. I’d also be interested in building our list in the essay and creative non-fiction genres.

Three of my favourite books are... My answer to this question changes every day. When I first got into poetry, the writers I was most drawn to were Philip Larkin, John Donne and Frank O’Hara. But most of what I’ve been reading in the past few years has been a concerted effort to engage with a greater range of voices and perspectives, and I’d especially welcome submissions by authors from less well-represented groups.

I wish I’d written... In the last year or so, poetry-wise, Jason Koo’s America’s Favourite Poem (I love its swagger, and its easy familiarity with a variety of styles and traditions), and what I’ve read online by Hera Lindsay Bird – I don’t know how she does it, and I don’t think I ever could. On the prose front, I wish I could write like Leslie Jamison, or James Baldwin, or Jon Mooallem.

I wish I'd published... Jacqueline Saphra is one of our authors already, but her crown of sonnets for the photographer Lee Miller is exactly the kind of project I wish I'd worked on.

I’ve got a soft spot for... riffs on history and classic texts, forms and characters – particularly when the author uses these to explore contemporary concerns and power dynamics. Poems, with or without formal constraints, where the author actually seems to be having a good time with the voice and medium.

I’m less keen on... writing that’s complacent about its place in the world, about who will read it, about things as they are being allowed to go on more or less unchanged; but I’m not a fan of much poetry which is purely and exclusively political sloganeering, either. There are many poems I enjoy where conventional meaning-making doesn’t seem to be a primary concern – but I’m very unlikely to pick that kind of writing out of the slush pile.

Recently I edited... an anthology of poems about Birmingham, alongside Emma. I loved the range of entries we received, and the process of picking out entries which showed that breadth of approaches to the city when we came to put the whole book together. My next project is a children’s anthology about dinosaurs!

My advice to anyone thinking of submitting is... read the kinds of things we do. The Emma Press exists for a reason, and picks up work that resonates with contemporary readers in niches other publishers have neglected. It’s also worth really considering the specifics of the pamphlet form, rather than seeing it as a stepping stone to longer work.

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This round of pamphlet submissions ends on 10th December 2017. See the Emma Press website for guidelines.