One Night Stanzas

A little more shameless self promotion — yesterday, you got to hear about my vintage store, Edinburgh Vintage. Today, it’s the turn of my other Etsy store, Read This Press, which is much more suitable for poetic gift-giving!

For over two years I was the founding editor of Read This Magazine, a grassroots arts and literature zine aimed at promoting the work of new, young and emerging writers. After our editors scattered to the four winds in 2010, I wanted to carry on the work of RT in some way that would allow me to manage the workload alone (I know, some folk edit magazines single-handedly. I genuinely have no idea how).

Read This Press was born. We (as my team has now expanded to include Stephen Welsh, aka Lovely Boyfriend) make small, limited edition runs of handmade poetry chapbooks, make them as pretty as we can and sell them for a teeny price in the hope that we can lure some non-poetry readers in our direction and trick them into seeing that poetry is actually awesome. Our most recent endeavour was an anthology of poems inspired by the great Allen Ginsberg, Starry Rhymes, which you can buy here. We also published Eric Hamilton’s Sharks Don’t Sleep, which is sadly sold out.

Skin Deep, our first Read This Press title: an anthology of tattoo-related poems by talented folks like Kim Addonizio and Kevin Cadwallender.

To support the press, I also started making typewriter-related jewellery and accessories, in collaboration with Amanda of Reworkd Workshop. As a typewriter fanatic, though, I found it heart-wrenching to think of all the beautiful machines that had been ripped up in order to create our bracelets and necklaces (no, really). I gave up the jewellery-making a while ago, but the pieces I have leftover from my jewellery days are still for sale on the site — and there are others yet to be listed, so keep checking back!

The Camel Necklace, currently for sale here.

As the Christmas shopping frenzy is upon us, I’ll be uploading new items as often as I can in the next little while. If you like what you see in the shop, stick around and check back regularly. Please note: I am totally open to handing out mates’ discounts, so drop me a line if you see something you fancy and I may well be willing to haggle! Enquiries to claire[at]onenightstanzas[dot]com.

Merry Christmas Shopping!

OK, I’ll admit: Edinburgh Vintage is not exactly the obvious choice when it comes to presents for writers. However, I am a writer and if you bought someone something from my shop this Christmas, it would be a lovely Christmas present for me! So you’ll have pleased at least one poet…

Edinburgh Vintage is my sometime online secondhand clothing business, which I’ve been running on and off for two years. It was born of a need to make some extra pennies as a temporary (read: impoverished) lecturer trying to juggle a whole load of unpaid creative projects (literary magazine, small press, community arts initiative, etc). Since, it’s become a handy way to keep my collection of second-hand clothing at a reasonably manageable size. I also find it loads of fun.

The super gorgeous tattooed goddess Martyna, modelling one of my favourite pieces currently for sale.

Etsy’s vintage shops seem to be all too often populated by two types of item: one, things that look exactly like the kind of stock you get at Urban Outfitters and two, vastly expensive genuine 1950s bespoke ballgowns that were each made for a woman with the measurements of a particularly skinny whippet (example). Edinburgh Vintage attempts to buck that trend by stocking clothes that a) aren’t obnoxiously hipsterish, b) you might actually wear out of doors and c) come in real sizes. I like certain clothing eras and styles: Mod, Skinhead, Ska, punk and anything 1960s, primarily. Mostly, that’s what you’ll find in my store.

A very pretty embroidered kimono, also modelled by the lovely Martyna.

As the Christmas shopping frenzy is upon us, I’ll be uploading new items as often as I can in the next little while. If you like what you see in the shop or in my previously sold items, stick around and check back regularly. Please note: I am totally open to handing out mates’ discounts, so drop me a line if you see something you fancy and I may well be willing to haggle! Enquiries to claire[at]onenightstanzas[dot]com.
Merry Christmas Shopping!