This week at Valley Press, #91: 'The Elements'

Dear bookish types,

It’s been another couple of exciting weeks here at Valley Press HQ, with visits from poetry royalty, a graphic novel launch, new books in the Valley Press shop and plans afoot for a Mother’s Day offer. But first, let me tell you about the gorgeous and unseasonable sunshine we’ve had here in Scarborough – it’s been so beautiful that we’ve all been out in the Woodend gardens, sunbathing and drinking home-made lemonade.

OK, that is a total lie. We’re on the east coast and managed to get the full force of the ‘Beast from the East’, causing hugely exciting drifts of alien-like foam over the seafront and much panic-buying of bread and milk in our local supermarket. It did not stop the tenacious and dedicated Valley Press staff from sledging, skiing and snow booting in to the office though; you can see the blizzard from our office window here and another great viewpoint here.

Before the worst set in, we were treated to a right royal visit – poetry royalty, that is – in the shape of the Bard of Barnsley, Ian McMillan. Ian had been running a writing workshop over at the Scarborough Art Gallery, and had accepted an invitation to see our offices (since they're just a few metres away). He was particularly taken with our world literature, and took a copy of Ye Guangqin's Mountain Stories away with him (along with a few other treats). If you don’t follow Ian on Twitter (@IMcMillan), you really should think about it for his early morning stroll tweets if nothing else. They’re little pockets of poetry all on their own, in fact his whole thread is filled with interesting poetry stuff, funny things and really lovely photos. He’s a noticer of things, is Ian, and a sharer. We like that.

The last couple of weeks also saw the successful launch of How to Disappear Completely, in Leeds. It was a great event, held by Tall Boys Beer Market in association with OK Comics, with a really good mix of people... one of them, aspiring film-maker Tom Box, even produced this music video documenting the night. The graphic novel is a bit of a departure from what we usually print, but we like to think that we have impressively eclectic tastes! Give it a go, you will like it.

Next up, news of a new book. This is the best bit of my job, telling all you lovely people about the brilliant authors we are able to support. Trace Elements is Nigel Forde’s first collection with Valley Press, after a long career in the poetry spotlight, and it is something very special. I try to read each book that comes out of the Valley Press publishing house, because it means I can really get behind them and know what I’m talking about; so I can tell you that the poems in this collection are delicate, fine-boned, and do not bludgeon the reader into submission. Instead, they speak softly about what it is to be human, the Ying and Yang of it all. It’s a smashing collection and you should certainly consider it as your next poetry purchase.

Speaking of which, we now get to our Mother’s Day offer. We are giving you 15% off until 3pm on Thursday with voucher code MOTHER on any purchase through our website. And there’s more, oh yes! Because we want to make it dead easy for you to treat your mum, we are throwing in a handmade Mother’s Day card, worth £3.00, printed by my own fair hands while it has been snowing and I have had cabin fever. They look like this:

So, just to clarify, all you have to do is buy your lucky mum one (or more) titles from the Valley Press shop, add the code 'MOTHER' at the checkout, and your book(s) and card will be sent out to you in the post. (You won’t have to venture out and risk polar bears or walruses in the tundra conditions out there.) If you want an alternatively-worded card for Gran, Auntie, or anyone else, just let us know and we will do the best we can to make your Mother’s Day a good one. People who care for us should be celebrated, and we might well be biased, but we think the best way of doing that is by offering cracking, first-rate literature. Chocolates often go down well too, but if we had those in the office we wouldn’t be able to control ourselves and all the books would be covered in sticky fingerprints.

That’s about it from me for this week, have a wonderfully bookish weekend. May I suggest a warm radiator or a roaring fire, a Valley Press book and a glass of something lovely and tummy-warming?

Best wishes,
Wendy Pratt (Reader Engagement Officer)

This week at Valley Press, #90: 'How to Disappear'

Dear bookish types,

It’s Wendy here again, with the Valley Press fortnightly newsletter. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks at VP HQ, with lots happening, but I’ll start by wishing you all a happy Chinese New Year! We are very lucky to be able to boast two brilliant and highly-thought-of Chinese authors: Yang Zhengguang’s How Old Dan Became a Tree is a collection of short stories which challenge boundaries and are stacked full of dark humour and film-like vividness, while Ye Guangqin’s Mountain Stories is an insightful, creative and often magically absurd collection set in China’s Qinling mountains. We’re proud of being able to explore other cultures and happy to be in a position to bring world literature into people’s lives and onto their bookshelves. If you fancy travelling to China without going anywhere, this is how to do it. (A third entry in this series is to be published in May.)

Next up, we have news of our latest launch and a new venture by Valley Press into the world of graphic novels. Si Smith has produced more than just a comic: as far as storytelling goes, How to Disappear Completely ticks all the boxes. It is intense, moving and truthful, and the artistic representation of the story is incredible; the use of colour and light as metaphor is skilful and superb. I don’t read very many graphic novels, but I have now read this one three times, finding something new to enjoy each time I do. Without wanting to offer spoilers, it is gripping. What I will say is this: we don’t talk about male vulnerability enough, we don’t talk about male mental health enough, and the pressure to ‘get on with it’. By exploring vulnerability, especially in men, and mental health problems, we challenge the taboo around it, so this feels like a very important publication. It explores a very personal journey and does it in a startlingly beautiful way. How to Disappear Completely is launching at OK Comics in Leeds on February 22nd at 5pm. If you’re on Facebook, there’s a Facebook Events Page where you can catch up with all the news surrounding it. It is quite honestly one of the best things I’ve read in a while.

In other news, we were delighted to welcome an aspiring young publisher to the Valley Press Headquarters last weekend. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any pictures, so you’ll have to believe me when I say that we had a lovely hour or two chatting about publishing, books in general, the publishing industry in the North, and how to get a foot in the door with secondary school student Evie, her mum Caroline and even Evie’s gran who came along to reminisce about Scarborough. We think it’s really important for young people wanting to work in publishing, as writers and creatives or as the behind-the-scenes team that make the magic happen, to be able to come along and chat to real life people about the realities of that industry. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have a young person eager to see how it all works.

That just about sums up this week, except to say that Jamie and Emma have once again provided a brilliant and entertaining podcast, which you can find here (and remember, you can subscribe on iTunes here). One last thing, in the form of a tiny little bit of self-promotion: I am absolutely delighted to say that my poem ‘Nan Hardwicke Turns into a Hare’ will be featured on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please on Sunday the 18th February at 4.30pm. I am so excited I can hardly breathe, especially since it is the incredible poet Liz Berry as guest host and I am a huge fan. My own Valley Press poetry collection, Gifts the Mole Gave Me, is available in the Valley Press shop alongside many, many other wonderful Valley Press titles – we also recently published new poetry by Liz herself in our Verse Matters anthology. Anyway, enough talking about me, I hope you have a lovely weekend, and check in on us on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram. We have a lot of fun on social media, come and join in!

If you are interested in becoming a Valley Press reader and helping us to gauge public reaction to potential books, drop us a line; and if you or your publication are interested in reviewing any of our titles, do get in touch. Independent publishers need all the support they can get, we’re passionate about our authors and want to support them on their writing journey; spreading the word about their work seems one of the best ways to do so.

In the meantime, have a bookish weekend!

Best wishes,
Wendy Pratt (Reader Engagement Officer)
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This week at Valley Press, #71: 'Of the Dump'

Dear readers, The video of Cath Nichols' launch event can be found here, and it's essential viewing – moving, incisive, thought-provoking (much like the book), rather like having an in-depth conversation with a friend about some important, deeply-felt social issues. We also invited Wendy Pratt, author of this forthcoming collection, to be a sort of 'warm-up act' and read a few poems at the start, so there's a bonus for you. More on Wendy next month! Next week, this series of events comes to a close when we spend an hour in the company of Antony Dunn. Antony will be appearing at the later time of 3-4pm, but in the same location as always; the Sitwell Library at Woodend, Scarborough, a.k.a. Valley Press HQ. There will of course be more events in future (Vanessa is working on approximately four zillion ideas), but probably not in this format, so enjoy it while you can! * * * This coming week sees the release of a new poetry collection by John Wedgwood Clarke, his first since Ghost Pot four years ago. The title is simply Landfill, and though not all of the poems are on that subject, the majority were inspired by a residency at the local tip here in Scarborough, which we optimistically call the "Resource Recovery Centre". Here's John explaining how this period of his writing life began:

"I’d driven past Seamer Carr on the bypass and always noticed the great flock of gulls circling over its summit and the slow lorries crawling over it. The lorries were like fishing boats or tractors with the way the gulls followed behind them. So while this might seem the least wild part of our ‘natural’ landscape, I also sensed it was a place of great ecological energy, a fertile and exciting place from which to view our culture and identify our behaviour as a species. Also, if there’s a fence around a place, I want to have a look behind it."

Reading the book will give you a better idea of how the poet relates "the dump" to the larger ecological / biological issues that have long fascinated him. Hanging round the public skips, watching people dispose of their rubbish was one thing, but the biggest "coup" was to access an open landfill cell, as described below:

"That took some persuasion. I was driven up in a land rover and only allowed ten minutes on the cell itself. It fell like I’d landed on the moon of waste. I bounced along over marshy fields of nappies and chicken carcasses and plastic water bottles. They’d had to fire off rockets to clear the gulls before we could step outside, so my visit was timed to the vast flock that wheeled away on a vast arc over the A59 before making its shit-laden return: the droppings were a key part of the hazard of being on the landfill cell – that and the enormous tractors with spiked wheels twice my height that had enormous, shining, bespattered blades that spread the rubbish out like butter."

We'll bring you the full text of this interview once you've all had time to digest the actual poems. I'd like to feature one here though, and I'm going to be inexplicably awkward and share one of the few poems in the book with no direct link to the theme (but you can still draw a line in the subtext). I think this is just an extraordinary bit of work.

Know Your Place A Northern classroom after the war and her hand’s in the air. She wants to try for grammar school. Oh, the teacher smiles, put it down.  Next day, at the front, there’s a box, gift-wrapped, and she’s called forward. She likes ‘nice things’ but can’t think what she’s done. As she reaches for the gift, the teacher grabs her wrist and squeezes. You must open it in front of the class.  The clock cuts one moment from the next. Should she save the wallpaper? The outer layer reveals a lidded box. Heat glazes her face as the class gazes like sunlight through a magnifier at her fingernails. Inside, she finds another box, string-tied, the paper fingernail creased. She picks at the knot as she will always pick at the knot, her nails bitten to the quick. There’s only another, brown paper this time, the paper of dispatch and back office, of shop counter and bags of seconds, minutes, hours, clocks and klaxons – open it, it’s yours, the teacher urges. Inside the box is nothing, and inside nothing another box, in which she prays.

A launch event will be held on Saturday 30th September, in Hull, details of which you can find here. There are four separate Valley Press events that day, spread all over the country, a real sign of how busy we are at the moment! I'll share details of the other events next week. Oh, and you'll be able to catch John on BBC4 soon presenting a programme about Larkin's photography – details of that will be in a future newsletter too. * * * Before I get back to my publishing responsibilities, two other exciting pieces of news: we've just signed our first comic book artist, Si Smith, for a "graphic novel" (or, literary comic book) in March 2018. Very excited about that project, and getting into a whole new genre. Also, we heard this week that Valley Press is a finalist in the Chamber Bridlington and Yorkshire Coast Business Awards, the scope of which apparently includes Hull, East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. We're up for "Arts Business of 2017"... you can't vote though, it's judged by business experts, who are coming for a visit in a week or two. The winners are announced at a black tie gala (!) at Bridlington Spa on the 20th October – and we're all going, of course – so look out for more news on that nearer the time. It seems newsletters are going to be increasingly packed this autumn; my poor keyboard is already praying for the return of an intern or two... All best, Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher