“Masters”, the latest chapbook from Read This Press, now available for pre-order!
Monday, August 31st, 2009
I’m really excited to announce the newest addition to the Read This Press fold — after two fantastic single-poet collections (from Chris and Eric), I thought it was high time for an anthology.
And what better than an anthology of poetry from some of my nearest and dearest writerly friends? For the past year, I’ve been slogging through the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Creative Writing (Poetry), and keeping me on the straight-and-narrow were seven other lovely and talented poets — all of whom definitely deserve to have their work read by all of you lot! They are:
Niki Andrikopoulou, a passionate political poet from Athens, Greece // Aileen Ballantyne, journalist-turned-poet and winner of the Sloan Prize 2009 // Dave Coates, originally from Belfast in Nothern Ireland, now a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library, the lucky swine! // Aiko Harman, American poet and recently a London Poetry Festival Poet in Residence // Natalia Herrero, hailing from Mexico and now living in Edinburgh, previously published in Tontine and Read This // Struan Robertson, Read This Magazine editor, metapoet, budding filmmaker // and Hayley Shields, previously published in Textualities and a reader at Blackwells 2008 Best of Scottish Writing Event. (I’m also in there of course, but you all know who I am!)
The anthology is not yet OUT, only available for pre-order. There is a reason for this, however — there will only be TWENTY COPIES available for general sale, so if you want one, I suggest getting a pre-order in as they’ll go quickly. Copies are a bargainous £5 (plus p&p), and if you pre-order one now you can expect it to land on your doormat sometime in mid to late September.
The book’s inner pages are printed on high-quality 80gsm white paper, and you can choose between a blue or pink cover theme. The “pink book” features a fuschia-coloured 80gsm inner-cover, a cream 180gsm cardstock cover, wrapped in a fuschia-pink “belly band.” This is secured by a sticker that reads “This is poetry.” The “blue book” features a cornflower-blue heavy-paper inner-cover, the same cream 180gsm cardstock cover, and a cornflower-blue “belly band.” This is secured by a sticker that reads “You are beautiful.” The inner contents of both books are identical.
If you want to order a copy of “Masters”, just click on the button below to be taken to Paypal. Don’t worry if you’re not in the UK, currency conversion is done for you automatically. At present, I am offering a flat shipping fee to all destinations. Remember to specify which colour you’d like, or you’ll get a lucky dip! And as always, any queries to claire@onenightstanzas.com
I’ll leave you with a sample poem from the anthology, by Dave Coates:
Oystercatchers
I’d clocked it earlier and not realised,
the chubby stroller on the loch-shore, duck-like
and energetic in flight, was the same oystercatcher
I’d imagined or remembered years before,
for whose thin bill I’d confused a cormorant portrait,
for whose chunky flanks I’d muddled a lanky heron’s
scything lift off. Now it sat, dumpy and peaceful
and bobbing to the ripples that tripped across the loch.
A corridor of hedgerows opens onto the rocks
and sand dusting the spray – so I’d written –
as the oystercatchers loiter in the shallows,
waiting for the water to offer its secrets.
Yeah, right. This one was loath to wet its feet.
As I inched towards the water, it turned
its head, showing its remarkable profile,
or just turning. I froze with a squelch.
It opened its wings like a shrug. “Oystercatcher?” it said.
“Yeah, right.” It sloothered leisurely away.
When I told this story later, no one believed it,
or no one said they believed it.
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