Description
In the Anthologies Bundle
The Anthology of Illness (2020), ed. Amy Mackelden and Dr Dylan Jaggard. From interactions with hot oncologists to life-threatening hospital stays to a really bad case of glandular fever. Whether a diagnosis is life-altering or treatable, a total surprise or painfully invisible, The Emma Press Anthology of Illness explores what we wish people knew about being ill, and whether finding that ‘new normal’ is ever possible.
With poems from Cassandra Atherton, Sharon Black, Astra Bloom, Samara Bolton, Constance Bourg, Rachel Bower, Emily Brenchi, Sue Burge, Jane Burn, Louisa Campbell, Stephanie Conn, Marc Darnell, Marian Fielding, Charlie Fitz, Lucy Fox, Helena Goddard, Rhiannon Grant, Paula Harris, Holly Magill, Gillian Mellor, Ruth Middleton, Rebekah Miron, Jess Redway, Hollie Richards, Sam Rose, Mollie Russell, Jane Salmons, Deb Scudder, Helen Seymour, Mairi-Claire Traynor and Alison Winch.
‘Generous, open-hearted and frank’. Glass Magazine
“It takes a year for the four white stripes on my nails
to grow out. Evenly-spaced transverse bands of
white discolouration on my nail plate, I’m told I
should think of them as my growth rings, my tree
rings. But I bite them to the quick and cover them
with nail polish, from cuticle to tip. When you take
my hand, I curl my fingers around yours, hiding
the ridges. Later, I push back my cuticle to examine
my lunula for chalky striations, but I find only a
waning gibbous.”
– ‘Mees Lines’, a poem by Cassandra Atherton from the anthology.
Page count: 80 | Publication date: 24th September 2020 | Paperback ISBN: 9781910139530
Some Cannot Be Caught: The Emma Press Book of Beasts, ed. Anja Konig and Liane Strauss. The Emma Press Book of Beasts rustles and roars with the voices of animals and humans, co-existing on Earth with varying degrees of harmony. A scorpion appears in a shower; a deer jumps in front of a car. A swarm of snowfleas seethes through leaf litter; children bait a gorilla at the zoo. The poems in this anthology examine hierarchy, herds, power, and the price we pay for belonging.
“In a bath with baking soda the boy pondered
the vanished bird: spindly wings netted with veins,
tufts of fuzz at the wattled throat, the skin there
pink and feathered as an old man’s neck
or hand. Black eyes visible through skeins
of lids. The soft pink belly like a clam.Later he’d dream of swimming in air without
a float or wings, of a raw chicken in a pot
of wine and herbs, and the bald neighbour
who spoke by holding a box to his throat.”– from ‘Late Spring’ by Maggie Dietz
Page count: 88 | Publication date: 21 June 2018 | Paperback ISBN: 9781910139882
Best Friends Forever (2014), ed. Amy Key. A book of poems about best friendships between women, examining and celebrating this most intense, rewarding, devastating and enduring of relationships.
“Did I mention this was in California? There was
corn on the cob. She was English and her heart
almost stopped when her aunt served her a bowl
of red and yellow tomatoes so spectacular she would
never get over them. I can only imagine the perfectly
suspended seeds, the things a cut tomato knows
about light”
– from ‘The Tomato Salad’, by Emily Berry
Page count: 88 | Publication date: 4th December 2014 | Paperback ISBN: 9781910139073
