The Emma Press is marking the publication of Call and Response, a poetry pamphlet by Rachel Spence, with a virtual booklaunch on Friday 27th March.
This will be the first virtual booklaunch for the publisher, which started exploring alternative options two weeks ago.
Publisher Emma Wright said: “We were originally planning to do a launch event in London around Mothers’ Day (22nd March), but as I was monitoring the news it seemed wiser not to book anything until the situation in the UK became clearer. Once we understood that all events and inessential travel would be out of the question, I had a chat with Rachel about if she would be happy trying a virtual booklaunch with me, and luckily she embraced the idea. I think everyone likes being read to, so I think it will be a really nice event.”
Call and Response is a collection of sonnets, exploring a mother-daughter relationship and focusing on the time of the mother’s illness, where that relationship was repaired. The poems explore the darker side of familial bonds and the strange ways suffering can heal old wounds. It is the twelfth in the Emma Press Picks series, a series of themed and illustrated poetry pamphlets.
The booklaunch will be at 7pm on Friday 27th March, and people can register to attend here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jIjsvTYKRBGZdP7iQ_Suxw
Call and ResponseISBN 978-1-912915-48-428 pages26 March 2020 / £5.00
About the author:
Rachel Spence is a poet. Now living in London, she spent nearly ten years in Venice, Italy. She has a pamphlet, Furies (2016) and a collection, Bird of Sorrow (2018), both published by Templar Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in publications including PN Review, the Financial Times, Envoi, The Indian Quarterly, The Frogmore Papers, South Bank Poetry and Iota. Her poem ‘Antonello’s Song II’ was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2019. In her day job she is a freelance arts writer, chiefly for the Financial Times.
The Emma Press has just launched Vivarium, a poetry pamphlet by Maarja Pärtna, translated from Estonian by Jayde Will.
Vivarium contains a selection of poems from Vivaarium, published by Elusamus in 2019. Vivarium was the first collection of poems about climate change to be published in Estonia, with Pärtna addressing topics of major environmental changes, loss of biodiversity and global warming by aligning them with themes of national trauma, examining the impact of Soviet rule on Estonian society.
The Emma Press is publishing Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai, a food memoir by award-winning poet Nina Mingya Powles, at the end of the month.
Tiny Moons is a collection of essays about food and belonging. Powles journeys between Wellington, Kota Kinabalu and Shanghai, tracing the constants in her life: eating and cooking, and the dishes that have come to define her. Through childhood snacks, family feasts, Shanghai street food and student dinners, she attempts to find a way back towards her Chinese-Malaysian heritage.
The Emma Press has published six more titles in the Bicki-Books series, originally published in Latvia. Bicki-Books are postcard-sized picturebooks aimed at children aged 3+, each featuring a poem and illustrations by different contemporary artists.
Publisher Emma Wright acquired UK rights for the series from Liels un mazs, Riga. The BIKIBUKS series was curated by Rūta Briede, arts director at Liels un mazs and tutor at the Art Academy of Riga. There were 101 BIKIBUKS published in Latvia between 2012 and 2018, with the 101st book released to mark 100 years of Latvian independence.
Wrights said: “The Bicki-Books are the perfect size for little hands, and a great way for children to feel ownership over books. All the illustrations are rich with details, so readers can discover new delights every time they return to the books. They have become instant classics to children in Latvia, and I hope that they will help connect children in the UK with the wider world.”
Birmingham publisher The Emma Press has published Poems The Wind Blew In – the latest addition to their flagship children’s poetry book list.
Poems The Wind Blew In, by Karmelo C. Iribarren, was first published as Versos que el viento arrastra in Spain in 2010, by Ediciones El Jinete Azul. It has been translated into English for The Emma Press by Lawrence Schimel, with newly-commissioned illustrations for this edition by Riya Chowdhury.
The Emma Press has published an anthology of gothic poetry, edited by Nisha Bhakoo. The book, published on 31st October 2019, features poems by contemporary poets including Angela Readman and Anna Kisby, and translations of poems by Spanish poet Sofía Rhei and Hungarian poet Lajos Szórádi.
The Emma Press has announced that it is accepting poetry manuscripts submissions until 24th January 2020. There are two categories – pamphlets for adults and collections for children – which will be judged by publisher Emma Dai’an Wright and poet Edward van de Vendel.
Birmingham-based publisher the Emma Press is launching The Goldfish in Kyoto on 26th October 2019. Written by Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi Degoul, an Indonesian poet based in Japan, The Goldfish is to join the Emma Press’ list of award-winning poetry pamphlets.
With her experimental, playful poems which capture the voice of a goldfish, Ikhda undergoes a surreal exploration of femininity in the new world – one which she describes as being of ‘cross-cultural thought and divergence’ – by drawing on the dualities of the life of a goldfish and the life of a woman.
Award-winning Birmingham publisher the Emma Press has published a new children’s anthology of dinosaur poems titled Dragons of the Prime.
The Emma Press has announced the next two titles to join their award-winning poetry pamphlet list in 2019. These are: The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher, by Dawn Watson, and priced out, by Conor Cleary, both publishing on 6th June 2019.
Find us in the wild
