FLARESTACK

                  It's Flarestack, Jim, but not as we know it

 

    Changes at Flarestack

 

Flarestack Publishing now has a metaphorical daughter (or two). Flarestack Poets is taking over the pamphlet side of the enterprise, in the capable and enthusiastic hands of Meredith Andrea and Jacqui Rowe, starting with the flourish of an opening competition -

 look at www.flarestackpoets.co.uk for details of what the new editors are planning.

 

During the next 12 months, I intend to publish the following collections:

 

Kathleen Kenny “Sandblasting the cave”

 

Jo Pearson “Joanne doesn’t live here anymore”

 

Roberta Burnett “Trying not to look”

 

Cat Dickson “For those of you still travelling”

 

Ellen Rachlin “Captive to residue”

 

Anne Cluysenaar “Water to breathe” &

 

Tricia Torrington – a title to be decided

 

(I do hope I have not overlooked anyone – please get in touch if you think I may have done and it’s you). Thereafter I shall 'simply' be carrying on as editor of Obsessed With Pipework magazine, but I am passing on the Flarestack pamphlet torch.

 

Here's chapter & verse:-

 

 

In autumn 2009, Flarestack is launching its new imprint, Flarestack Poets, under the direction of Meredith Andrea and Jacqui Rowe (both Flarestack poets). We are looking for poetry that dares outside current trends, even against the grain…collections that aren’t bus queues, from poets who are forging their own linguistic connections with the root-ball of experience.  Flarestack pamphlets have a reputation for quality and diversity, and for encouraging work from new and established voices. The first pamphlets from the new imprint will be selected through a competition, to be announced in September 2008.  For further information, contact jacquirowe@hotmail.co.uk or meria@btinternet.com

or see the Flarestack Poets website www.flarestackpoets.co.uk

 

 

 

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Last evening (8th November 2007) I was delighted to be able to go to Exeter Cathedral and hear a concert by the Exeter Festival Chorus that included the premiere of Living Tree, a work by Peter Nickol for choir, harp and brass ensemble. Most of the words for the piece are drawn from Joan Poulson's book of poems onetree singing. Later this year we shall be publishing an edition of the journal section of the book, with watercolour illustrations from Elizabeth Stuart-Smith.

 

Negotiations are proceeding with Roberta Burnett, from Tempe, Arizona, whose first collection we hope to publish next year. For a preview of her poetry (reminiscent of Elizabeth Bishop and even Miss Marianne Moore) take a look at OWP 40, which includes a number of examples. Other poems by Roberta will be appearing in future issues of the magazine.

 

         New collections:

London Water, by Mark Leech, a sequence of poems that relates events from Mark’s life to the old, now hidden, rivers of the city,

 

Russian literature scholar Belinda Cooke's collection Resting Place, and (by the time you are reading this)

 

Onetree journal: following the seasons - Joan Poulson's poems about the onetree project, with artwork by Elizabeth Stuart Smith.    

 

Robert Hamberger has written a sequence (or is it a long poem?) dealing with John Clare’s nightmarish return from his ‘madness’. Heading North has just had a successful launch at Leicester Guildhall.

Ivan Silverberg's poem Equine encounter  (from Obsessed With Pipework) appears among the Highly Commended  poems in the 2007 Forward Book of Poetry.

 Obsessed With Pipework number 40 (the autumn issue and also our tenth anniversary number) has now been mailed to subscribers & contributors. We continue our policy of including up to half a dozen poems by a poet where the quality of their submissions warrants this - which gives readers a much better idea of the poet's range. As usual, the magazine includes new voices alongside some OWP  regulars.

 

         One of Flarestack’s recent projects is a Grasshopper Inscriptions, pamphlet of work by South Birmingham poet Meredith Andrea. Meredith writes with great subtlety.