Announcing the Short and Long Listed Proposals: July 2022 Call for submissions

We are excited to announce the shortlisted and longlisted submissions from our July 2022 general call.

Thank you to all the writers who submitted for trusting us with your work, and congratulations to the shortlisted and longlisted authors.

In this call we received 356 submissions of poetry and prose for adults and children, and we’re happy that a range of genres are represented our shortlist of 8 titles.

We’ll choose which submissions to publish from the completed manuscripts. In the meantime, we’d like to celebrate the shortlisted writers and share why we were particularly captivated by these proposals.

Shortlisted Authors

Angela Long with A Lexicon of Snow

Hokkaido emerges in these sparse, understated poems as landscape both harsh and invigorating. Drawing on Japanese snow-related vocabulary, the poet addresses suicide, the search for home and a sense of connection. We were sold on Long’s vision of the collection: a pamphlet to read beneath a weeping willow.

Instagram: @angelamaelong

Attie Lime with Eating Crisps in the Bath

A collection of children’s poems ranging from the serious to the alluringly silly—we especially enjoyed ‘The Jar’. We liked how the poet placed an emphasis on practically engaging children in poetry and could see young readers having fun with these!

Instagram @attielime | Twitter: @AttieLime

Gurmeet Kaur with So Much Sun

Beautiful, assured and tightly-crafted poems which explore displacement, haunting and the environment. We were captivated from the first poem, ‘Instructions on English’, and love how the poet shifts nimble-fingered across forms in this collection, which we can see resonating with many readers.

Instagram: @gurms.k | Twitter: @gurmeetkaur01

Jen Feroze with Tiny Bright Thorns

The exhilaration, fragility and loneliness of the early days of motherhood during the pandemic are captured in poems which gift the reader tender images and witty and surprising turns of phrase. Clear, confident, immersive.

Kate Scott with We all have our stories

Piercing and direct poems form an insightful picture of relentless everyday misogyny. A lightness of touch crafts distress into a sense of angry determination; we see these poems speaking powerfully to a lot of people and would love to hear them read aloud.

Instagram & Twitter: @KateScottWriter

Madeleine Ballard with Needle and Thread: A Sewing Diary

A collection of prose essays on sewing in which the creation of each garment leads to a series of lyrical considerations on themes such as love, failure, racism and self-care. We were enchanted by the author’s gentle style and found her reflections on her Cantonese-speaking grandmother to be especially powerful.

Instagram: @maddieballard27

Serge Neptune withWithin the Realm of a Dying Sun

‘A dark little book…that leads to some hope’: a compelling proposal matched by the poet’s skilled employment of imaginative language to navigate pain and distress. This exploration of queer grief, trauma and sexual assault struck us with its strong voice and revitalising sense of place.

Instagram & Twitter: @mermanpoet

Victoria Gatehouse with The Hawthorn Bride

From ‘Aspen Rain’ to ‘Waking Alder’, each tree-poem is the departure point for reflections on wider themes ranging from motherhood to the poet’s Jewish ancestry. A variety of poetic forms informed by mythology and folklore form a collection we felt to be warm, inventive and relatable.

Twitter: @vickygatehouse

Longlisted Authors

Anna Kisby, VERA: a memoir

Anne Elicano-Shields, A Menagerie of Magical Animals

Christy Ku, Spacewalking

Clare Sandling, Bringing The Tree To You

Flo Reynolds, the shy

Gill Barr, Why We Leave

Heloisa Prieto, The Tale Trackers

Holly Moberley, Kinder Parasites

Idman Omar, Bearing

Jamie Field, Swimming In Can-Tho

Jane Salmons, Growing Flowers on Mars

Karan Chambers, Where the Light Still Reaches

Kathryn Pallant, Devotional

Laila Sumpton, Neptune Midheaven

Laura Wetherington, Feel Fragments

Laura Warner, My Vagina, My Valentine

Marilyn Donovan, The Sea is Road

Phillip Crymble, The Rowan Berries of Winter

Sofija Ana Zovko, The Willow Bears Grapes

Sophie Bathurst, T

[Cover image ‘Nimblemen’ by Helene Boppert, taken from page 63 of Wain (2019) by Rachel Plummer]