Announcing the Short and Long Listed Proposals: August 2024 Call for Submissions

February 13, 2025

Announcing the Short and Long Listed Proposals: August 2024 Call for Submissions

We are so happy to announce the shortlisted and longlisted submissions from our August 2024 general call.

Thank you so much to all the writers who submitted for trusting us with your work. We received 516 submissions overall, of exceptional quality. The shortlisted submissions are all proposals that surprised us in some way, and stayed with us long after reading.

We will choose which submissions to go forward with from the completed manuscripts, but for now we wanted to celebrate each writer’s work and share a little about what captivated us in the shortlisted proposals.

Shortlisted Authors

Anna Reckin with a translation of The Frog in the Forest by Hanne Bramness

A charming collection of very short, haiku-esque poems for children, capturing moments in a frog’s life to construct expansive ecological narrative. Translated from the original Norwegian.

Instagram: @annareckin

Bradley Taylor with KID

Featuring the Roundhouse Slam-winning poem that stopped us in our tracks, Taylor’s performance poetry is wrought here into a pulsing narrative of class, queerness and contemporary culture.

Bluesky: bradleytaylorpoet.bsky.social | Instagram: @bradleytaylorpoet

Catherine Redford with Collected Goodbyes

Exploring the experiences of caring for a partner in their final days and young widowhood, Redford’s poems gift the reader clarity, poignancy and images of devastating beauty.

Bluesky: catherineredford@bsky.social | Instagram: @catherine_redford

Ellie Barrett with Makerhood

An inviting series of essays on motherhood, making and intergenerational exchange. Visual artist Barrett delivers incisive critical reflections in lean, charismatic prose.

Instagram: @EllieCBarrett

Katie Beswick with Urban Legend

Towerblocks, Tupac and ‘white tiles glazed as teeth’ coalesce in this dizzying exploration of coming-of-age and intimacy grounded in the rhythms and textures of south-east London.

Instagram: @drkbez

Maryann Ifeanacho with An Estate of Ironies

We were all captivated by Ifeanacho’s crafting of the narrative voice of seven-year-old Kesandu, a boy living with his family in a slum in Enugu, Nigeria. A funny, sad and incredibly smart novella.

Instagram: @i_am_shoshanna

Milena Williamson with This Syrupy World

Williamson always seems to know exactly which word belongs where! Engaging with themes of ageing, climate change and fertility, we were enchanted by the blend of modern and Old English medicinal charms in this pamphlet, as well as the vision of poems ‘ranging from the incantatory to the unhinged.’

Bluesky: @milenawilliamson.bsky.social | Instagram: @milenaeve

Monica De Bhailís with Two Level Crossings Past Kilcaven

Navigating grief following the loss of a brother in childhood, Bhailís’ poems in this pamphlet relocate a lost boy in the world of his imagination and address the effects of long-term trauma. Nuanced, formally innovative, breathtaking.

Bluesky: monicadebhailis.bsky.social

Phillip Robert with Ratboy

A semi-narrative poetry pamphlet following a young thief hiding in the exposed ventilation pipes of the Byker Estate. Emerging from fear, longing and strangled potential, Ratboy feels luminous: we were hooked.

Instagram: @philliprabbits

Rachel Lewis with Lefcovitch / Lewis

Charting a family’s history of migration from Poland to Belfast to London, the poems in this highly original pamphlet strike a perfect balance between the emotive and unsentimental in their handling of identity, grief and belonging.

Instagram: @rachel_lewis_poet

Rosemarie Corlett withThe Tide and the Light

A tender, stunning pamphlet unpacking grief following a partner’s suicide. We were haunted by these poems: quiet, yearning, and imbued with the sea.

Instagram: @rosemarieinthewater

Sarah Kwong with Heartmap: Looking for Home in Hong Kong

Leaping with the reader into the deep end of bustling Hong Kong, Heartmap is lyrical exploration of belonging, mixed heritage and personal identity.

Instagram: @sarahpomeloskin

Suyin du Bois with Eating Air

Luxurious and evocative, this pamphlet of poems reflects on Malaysian food and belonging; du Bois deftly builds bright worlds with words.

Instagram: @suyin.du.bois

Victoria Gatehouse with In the Footprint of Elephants

Gatehouse’s unique perspective as a poet and zoologist brings the natural world to life in this vivid, witty and thought-provoking poetry collection for children.

Instagram: @vickygatehouse

Zain Rishi with Lingua Franca

A supremely assured and atmospheric pamphlet of poems reflecting on the ripples of language, absence and connection. We especially loved ‘Leaving the City’.

Instagram: @zain.rishi