Announcement of The Emma Press pamphlet poets of 2022
The Emma Press is delighted to announce the pamphlet poets of 2022, chosen from 413 submissions (from the 2019-2020 call for submissions).
The selected poets were chosen by publisher and editor Emma Dai’an Wright, and the new pamphlets will all join the Emma Press Poetry Pamphlets series. The Emma Press has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlet Publishers 5 times, and won in 2016.
Three of The Emma Press poetry pamphlets have won the Poetry Book Society Choice award – Oils by Stephen Sexton, Requiem by Síofra McSherry, and Menagerie by Cheryl Pearson.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their work, it was a truly rewarding experience to read the varied and exciting work from poets who want to be part of The Emma Press.
The Emma Press has just published two of the eight poetry pamphlets for 2021, Simone Atangana Bekono’s how the first sparks became visible, translated from Dutch by David Colmer, and Rachel Matthews’ do not be lulled by the dainty starlike blossom. A brief introduction to the new pamphlet poets:
- Valerie Bence finished her doctorate in her mid-fifties and completed a Poetry MA at MMU in 2017. She was shortlisted for the Poetry School/Nine Arches Press Primers 4 in 2018, the Fish Poetry prize in 2019, and longlisted for the Ginkgo Prize in 2019. Her first collection, Falling in love with a dead man, was published by Cinnamon Press in 2019. She is a mum and nonna and lives and works in Buckinghamshire.
- Rebecca Hurst is a writer, opera-maker and illustrator, and co-founder of the Voicings Collective. Rebecca’s poetry has appeared in various magazines including: The Rialto, PN Review, Agenda, Aesthetica, The Clearing, and Magma. In 2021 a selection of her poems was published in the Carcanet anthology, New Poetries VIII. Rebecca has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester and was artist in residence at the John Ryland’s Library from autumn 2019 to spring 2020.
- Jack Houston is a writer and public librarian from London. His poetry has been shortlisted for the 2017 Basil Bunting and 2018 Keats-Shelley Prizes, and has appeared in publications including Blackbox Manifold, Magma, The Morning Star, The Rialto, Poetry London and Stand. His short fiction was shortlisted for the 2020 Brick Lane Bookshop Prize and the 2020 BBC National Short Story Award. He lives in Hackney with his partner and their three children, two goldfish and a stick insect.
- Joanna Ingham writes poetry and fiction. She grew up in Suffolk and has recently returned to live there after 20 years in London and Hertfordshire. Naming Bones, her debut pamphlet, was published by Ignition Press in 2019 and she won the Paper Swans Press Single Poem Competition in 2020. She has worked in community arts, facilitating creative writing workshops in a wide variety of settings. She lives with her husband and daughter.
- Toby Buckley is writer and archives fan from Donegal, currently based in Belfast. He completed his MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast as the first recipient of the Ruth West Poetry Award Scholarship. His work has appeared in numerous literary publications including Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Channel Magazine and the Doire Press anthology, Empty House (2021).
- Pamela Crowe is an artist and writer based in Leeds. Having written poetry in her teens, her art practice brought her back to words and she continues to produce work that sits across the visual arts and writing, focusing on text, voice and performance. She is an Artistic and Quality Assessor for Arts Council England. Her work has been shortlisted for the 2019 Bridport Poetry Prize and longlisted in the National Poetry Competition 2020.
The Emma Press has relaunched its submissions programme, opening with a call for essay collections, and the press will be accepting general submissions (including poetry pamphlets!) from September 2021.
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