
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]