https://www.burningeye.co.uk Never Knowingly Mainstream 119530458 Coffee With Cayetano *** pre order *** Publication date 26th November '26 In Coffee with Cayetano Lydia Towsey encounters the ghost of her unlikely ancestor, Cayetano Romero — Mexican Ambassador to Washington DC and the Court of St. James, keen amateur astronomer, and her grandfather's grandfather. Across a year of encounters, the poems in Coffee with Cayetano move through imagined conversations and sudden visitations; through monologues spoken by the overlooked women in the margins, through kitchens and courtrooms, buses and borderlands. Over four generations — in accents, silences and departures. Coffee with Cayetano asks what it means to come from somewhere — and to find yourself arriving elsewhere. How do we carry the ones who made us? How do we live inside stories that began before we did? How do we continue — radiant with inheritance, crowded with ghosts, remade by love — when what we have lost is also what we are made of? Lydia Towsey is an NHS worker, mother of two, cat-fancier and daughter of a bus driver and a nurse. Twice shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize, Lydia has an MA in Creative Writing, and is a self-taught ukuleleist in the genre of Les Dawson. She is of mixed English, Welsh, Hungarian and Mexican heritage and uses poetry and performance to explore such diverse themes as culture, migration, class, gender, and ecology. Lydia is the CEO of WORD!, a poetry organisation uniquely co-produced by an NHS Trust and delivering one of the longest running poetry nights in the UK. She is the Community Lead for BrightSparks CIO and the Founder and Co-Director of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust's Arts in Mental Health Service. She writes for a generation that must find a way. One of the new intriguing voices of her time.’ ~ Jean Binta Breeze 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/coffee-with-cayetano-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/425469303/9781913958770.jpg 119530458 new in stock 119530332 deep breath by myndstate *** pre order *** Publication date 5th November '26 'the day i came out and accepted myself was the first time i ever truly exhaled. i had spent so much of my life holding my breath, hiding my truth, i thought i’d never have to do it again. i didn’t realise how wrong i was.' myndstate’s debut collection is a vulnerable story of survival; an insight into the struggles of finding yourself, and your place, in a world that often doesn’t want you to belong. exploring themes of sexuality, identity, love, and shame, deep breath follows his journey from growing up closeted and searching for acceptance to navigating the twists and turns of life as an openly gay man - reflecting on where he is today, how far he’s come, and how much further the world has to go. featuring viral pieces alongside never-seen-before poems, deep breath is a beautifully raw and unwaveringly honest read that offers comfort and validation to those who can relate, while opening a window of understanding and awareness to those who can’t. myndstate (he/him) is a spoken word artist, poet, and performer whose work centres around sexuality, identity, and mental health. His words - full of emotion, storytelling, and rhyme - have made him a national poetry slam winner, got him featured on the likes of BBC Radio London, Sky Sports, and Attitude, plus have amassed millions of views online. Known for blending hard-hitting, vulnerable performances with wit and humour, he creates poetry that feels deeply personal while speaking to human experience that resonates far beyond the stage. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/deep-breath-by-myndstate-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/425468949/9781913958756.jpg 119530332 new in stock 119436591 Dream Time by Lucy English ***pre order*** Publication Date 15th October '26 DREAM TIME We are living through fractured and anxious times. Dream Time is a poetry collection that explores the delicate intersection between the conscious and unconscious realms. How do we navigate this uncertain world? Drawing inspiration from dreams, and storytelling, Dream Time delves into themes of memory, identity, and transformation and takes us through the unreal land of the lockdown experience, how this still resonates today, and the confusions caused new technology. Dream Time is an invitation to journey beyond the waking world into a place where time is fluid, and reality bends. Through vivid imagery and introspective verses, Dream Time reflects on the inner landscapes that define human experience—moments of clarity, disillusionment, wonder, and awakening. It captures the ethereal quality of dreams while grounding them in our everyday awkward experiences, creating a space for us to reflect on our own subconscious voyages. With a sense of mysticism, reverence and some offbeat humour, the collection invites us to embrace the unknown, to trust in the power of the imagination, and to explore the boundaries between dream and reality. 'On the cusp. In the cracks. These are the edgy places of Dream Time, where Lucy English's rich imagery finds form. Her travels, childhood and her Bristol home are closely observed. Care for our world, enlivened by her marvellous wit, makes for a wild ride. Strap in!' Kate Noakes. Lucy English is a novelist, spoken word poet and poetry filmmaker. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/dream-time-by-lucy-english-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/425468874/9781913958749.jpg 119436591 new in stock 118899189 the beautiful boys by Stanley Iyanu *** pre order*** Publication date 24th September '26 Stanley Iyanu takes the reader on a poetic voyage in search of the beautiful boys four characters and sections: the Libertine, the Outcast, the Villain, and the Joker. Exploring themes of mythology, memory, modern love, and loss, the beautiful boys takes a humorous look at the pitfalls of dating in a city in your 30s to losing friends to suicide to finding love in oneself and in one’s community. 'the beautiful boys' is a love letter to the defiant, dejected, and deeply enigmatic. 'Iyanu's poems are contemporary in their phrasing even while they deal in the glitter and heartache of nineties love; addressed to various habibis, amores and darlings, they delight in their unstintingly open-hearted sexiness.' Martha Sprackland - 7.50 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-beautiful-boys-by-stanley-iyanu-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/423339630/the+beautiful+boys+Stanley+Iyanu_Cover+DIGITAL+RGB+APRIL+2026.jpg 118899189 new in stock 118699287 Good As A Rest by Malaika Kegode Publication Date 6th August '26 A change is as good as a rest, but change is rarely restful. In her second full collection, Malaika Kegode sits with the transformations we choose and the ones that choose us. Good as a Rest is a collection of poems and stories that explore moments of change - from grief and nature, to finding community in a circle of strangers sharing words. Inspired by life, loss and her experience as a workshop leader and mentor, this is a warm and witty paean to the resilience of the human spirit, and the power of creativity to heal. “Poems to make you sigh for the lives you’ve left behind, and rejoice for the ones you’re yet to live. A gorgeous affirmation of what poetry is for. ” Ivo Graham “Good tellings. Good lookings - inwards and out. Warm, larking and fluttering onwards.” John Hegley “Good as a Rest is such a brilliant and beautiful book, written with so much generosity and tenderness, each page is packed with light and truth. I enjoyed reading these intimate and intricate poems. Malaika Kegode is a truly wonderful poet.” Salena Godden “Packed with crystal clear poetic human images that will hang on the interior walls of your skull for a long time … Malaika knows exactly which words to put next to one another to make you want to experience all aspects and angles of our world.” Rob Auton 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/good-as-a-rest-by-malaika-kegode-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/422613306/9781913958671.jpg 118699287 new in stock 117423642 Thalassic By Malaika Kegode Thalassic contains poems Malaika wrote in response to songs by the band Jakabol with whom she has frequently collaborated. Inspired by their swirling, oceanic riffs, the stories that played out between the strings. Dark and Light, deft and delicate, falling into heavy, raucous noise. Matched with colour illustrations by Andreea Diana Stan, the poems were written during the autumn of 2018. Thalassic was first published by Burning Eye as a limited edition in 2020. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/thalassic-by-malaika-kegode https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/417932418/9781911570981.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/417935418/Screenshot+2026-01-26+at+12.27.14.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/417935184/Screenshot+2026-01-26+at+12.26.43.png 117423642 new in stock 117371724 Graveyard Of Skinny Jeans by Cat Hepburn Graveyard of Skinny Jeans is the sharp and shockingly funny latest offering from award-winning writer Cat Hepburn. A brave and honest collection of poetry and short stories that dares to unravel the mess of modern womanhood. Welcome to the graveyard, where the ghosts of skinny jeans, broken relationships, and shattered glass ceilings linger. Hepburn’s writing moves between satire and sincerity, humour and heartbreak, blurring the line between auto-fiction and grounded sci-fi. These pieces ask what happens when life doesn’t just fail to meet your expectations - but mocks them outright. From postmodern feminism to celebrity worship, body image battles to the creeping hand of technology, Cat explores the absurd contradictions of living in a world that often feels like it’s gone sideways. Can we trust men, machines, or neither? Does dating around fill the screaming void? What does it mean to come of age in an era where every choice is scrutinised, commodified, and hashtagged? Darkly comic and disarmingly relatable, Graveyard of Skinny Jeans doesn’t just entertain – it reflects the anxieties and contradictions of the millennial generation. If you’ve ever felt at odds with the world (or with yourself), Cat Hepburn’s words will not only resonate, they’ll make you feel seen. But don’t be fooled – this is not a comforting collection. It’s a hyper-sensational, twisted ride through the trenches of the modern female psyche; an unflinching portrait of the ways we stumble, shag and sometimes laugh in the face of it all. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/graveyard-of-skinny-jeans-by-cat-hepburn-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/417734181/9781913958718.jpg 117371724 new in stock 117369387 Cask Strength by Elvis McGonagall Staggering through the heather like a ramfeezled Monarch of the Glen after a night on the randan, Elvis McGonagall is back with his trademark blend of satirical verse, anarchic wit and dazzling Weltschmerz as he takes a spin round Bus-Replacement-Service Britain and beyond. War, famine, pestilence, and Gregg Wallace. What a world. The apricot hellbeast is slouching round The White House, Babylon’s burning and God’s too busy taking selfies and posting TikTok videos to notice. But dinnae fash yersel. Just find a comfy chair, open a bottle of single malt and join Elvis as he desperately searches for some silver lining in the gathering storm clouds. From BYO boozy Bozza bantz to Sir Keir’s karaoke toolshed via Marxist cockerpoos and tech-bro-billionaire bullshit, it’s all here in “Cask Strength”, 5 years’ worth of 55 degree proof poetry – think Ken Dodd’s “Happiness” sung by Leonard Cohen. With pictures for those who don’t like words. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/cask-strength-by-elvis-mcgonagall https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/417733443/9781913958657.jpg 117369387 new in stock 117368325 Adaptive Strategies For A Sensitive System Publication date - 5th May 26 Adaptive Strategies for a Sensitive System is a lovingly disordered field guide for surviving a world that keeps turning up the brightness. Disguised in the respectable badge of a diagnostic title, this is in contrast a poetic log of being too sensitive in a society built for the perpetually unbothered. From violent mornings to dreich late nights, Kate sifts through bedrooms, public transport, supermarkets, her Gran’s house, the surveillance-era optimism of mindfulness apps, and the wild terrain of her own mind- gathering softness, silliness, and unexpected wisdom along the way. Kate Ireland is a Glasgow-born poet, artist, and performer. She’s performed across UK theatres and festivals, had poetry featured on BBC 6 Music and at Glastonbury, and makes spoken-word-driven music with DJs and electronic artists. Her debut album Self Regulating Behaviours came out in 2024, and in 2025 she premiered her one woman spoken word show Golden Time and other behavioural management strategies at the Pleasance Dome Edinburgh Fringe. 'Preludes for an anxious generation, adaptive strategies is the zen to your zeitgeist' -Graeme Armstrong 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/adaptive-strategies-for-a-sensitive-system-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/423013047/9781913958688.jpg 117368325 new in stock 116209287 the heart is a holding by Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson 'the heart is a holding' is Lateisha's debut pamphlet and is a visceral journey through birth, life and death cycles across personal, intergenerational and ancestral time. Moving through landscapes of spirituality, earth futurity and memory it is a calling to embody the current moment through the ever present hauntings of social-climate injustices and apocalyptic reality. Lateisha seeks healing through the lens of survivorship and legacy. As transformation. As the gathering of love, holding and dignity for Black mothers, earthworkers and care-givers beyond gendering, beyond racialisation, beyond this time. Weaving life-giving reflections, love letters and funeral rites together as imprints of belonging. Expressing multidimensional ways of being, across the realms of Blackness, queerness, disability and working-class immigrant and diasporic experience as conduits to call in the powers of lineage, survivorship and purpose. 'Lateisha is a poet of revision, remix and renewal, a summoner of Dub, sound, lyric and narrative poetics. This work is a gift from the gifted.’ Raymond Antrobus ‘An incredible collection of poems that begins with a poet’s To-Do List, which becomes the muscle and heart of a life’s intention and care, until the book ends with the completed list. I love and admire this brilliant and unique book.’ CAConrad 7.50 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-heart-is-a-holding-by-lateisha-davine-lovelace-hanson-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/413820672/9781913958428.jpg 116209287 new in stock 115116501 I Love by Rosy Carrick In her second collection, award-winning poet and playwright Rosy Carrick presents a passionate, lyrical and unflinchingly intimate collage of ruptured memory, drowned childhood, irreducible violence, and the intoxicating chimera of inviolable desire. Experimental and playful, the poems dart across a fractured and eclectic terrain: from quantum mechanics, grimy London sex clubs and fridged women to blood retinal barrier corruption, haunted reservoirs and salted gastropods; from Baudrillard’s semiotics to the architectural aspirations of Elizabeth Bennet; from gurning infants to ecstatic glitter and misplaced canine arseholes; and always back to how it might be possible to love from under the rubble. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pre-order-i-love-by-rosy-carrick https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/413973951/9781913958527.jpg 115116501 new in stock 114222675 And The World Spins Anyway by Georgie Jones This a love letter to real life, however it shows up; an antidote to the highlight reel that is social media, a tribute to the unfinished, the unfiltered, the uncertain. In this debut collection of poetry, stories and questionable choices, Georgie Jones, with her signature wit and warmth, explores the exquisite messiness of modern existence and makes the chaos feel, somehow, like home. She can’t promise any answers, but she can make you feel a little less alone in not having them. Georgie Jones writes poems. It is her favourite thing to do. Although, she’d like it to be known that a packet* of Frazzles and an episode** of Below Deck: Mediterranean comes an incredibly close second. A performer by nature and a poet by trade, Georgie is known for her humour and heart. She was a Roundhouse Poetry Slam finalist before joining the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, and subsequently spent a year as Roundhouse Resident Artist. (It’s all a bit Roundhouse-centric, this, isn’t it? But wait, there’s more!) Her debut spoken-word show Ish was commissioned by a consortium of Midlands-based venues and generously supported by the Arts Council. It sold out its preview tour, garnering four- and five-star reviews, and was set to sell equally well during a full UK tour in 2020, until, y’know (gestures at everything). Undeterred, Georgie took her poetry to social media, where she has built an unexpectedly large and loyal following. An antidote to the algorithm, Georgie’s poems struck a chord with audiences across the globe. Her work is widely shared, often quoted and repeatedly returned to. * 10 packets, they’re only small ** three episodes   DONNA ASHWORTH 'If you’ve been craving some sunshine, this book radiates in spades. Just gorgeous. Like a breath of fresh air through your soul. Georgie Jones is light. This book is a balm.' HARRY BAKER 'The world is a warmer, wiser, and more wonderful place with Georgie Jones in it.' HOLLIE McNISH 'A beautifully written love letter to life and laughter. This book is an absolute gem from start to finish.' 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pre-order-and-the-world-spins-anyway-by-georgie-jones https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/407154708/9781913958510.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/407154705/BACK.jpg 114222675 new in stock 113471403 At What Point by Caitlin O'Ryan At What Point is the debut poetry collection from Caitlin O'Ryan. It is a journey of mirror smashing and everything we have come to accept being called into question. With deep vulnerability and wit, she invites us to look inside of ourselves and to interrogate what we find there. Fuelled by the times that we are living in, her poems vibrate through the pages, grabbing you with a sense of urgency that says “you are not alone, I also feel this”. Taken from her live performances and featuring her viral poem ‘AT WHAT POINT’ which has amassed millions of views online and culminated in her being invited onto BBC Woman’s Hour, this book will light a fire in you that will continue to burn long after you have put it down. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pre-order-at-what-point-by-caitlin-oryan https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/407537907/9781913958503.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/90602474-c679-464d-96c4-f357859a3d05/pre-order-at-what-point-by-caitlin-oryan.jpg 113471403 new in stock 113154702 Flanked By Jo Eades Release date October 2025 From the horrors of toddler classes to the complexities of grief, Flanked is a smorgasbord of maternal experience and emotion. A scrutiny of motherhood across generations and an exploration of loss as both heart-wrenching and liberating. Tinged with doubt, regret, guilt, acceptance, joy and love, Flanked captures the intricate dynamics of mother / daughter relationships — where roles morph and history repeats. A reflection on letting go and looking forward. Jo Eades performs regularly on the Bristol spoken word scene. In 2023, she performed on the Milk Poetry stage at Valleyfest and was selected as one of eight emerging poets from the South West to be part of Apple and Snakes’ Future Voices project. In 2024 she was the Lyra Bristol Poetry Slam Champion and won the Hip Yak Poetry Shack Slam at WOMAD Festival. In 2025 she featured at Keynsham Music Festival, won the Ledbury Poetry Festival Slam and came fourth in the England SLAM! Championships. She has been featured four times on BBC Radio Bristol’s Upload, being one of their ‘best of’ poets for 2024. “With a lightness of touch, this collection explores the joy, frustration and complexities of being both a mother and a daughter, and how these experiences are inextricably tethered to each other" Malika Kegode 7.50 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/flanked-by-jo-eades https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/4994e758-c0ab-4720-b9f1-ac3b7a805dfb/flanked-by-jo-eades.jpg 113154702 new in stock 106520325 Wonderful by Harry Baker ** Please allow at least 2 weeks for overseas delivery** World Poetry Slam championHarry Baker’s latest collection is his most ambitious yet. Following on from the success of Unashamed (Burning Eye, 2022), Harry Baker combines the insight of a mathematician and the vulnerability of the poet to find wonder in the little things that make life so precious. From a poem about wellies becoming an exploration of masculinity, a poem planning his own funeral inspiring thousands around the world to do the same, or a poem about his favourite German wheat-beer literally just being a poem about his favourite German wheat-beer. The combination of grief and joy in recent poems has led to Harry being described as the Barbenheimer of the poetry world (by himself, but he is hoping it catches on). 'Harry Baker's way with words is entirely fascinating. His Mathematical genius meets with the wonder of a golden retriever let loose on the beach.' Donna Ashworth 'Really bloody good, couldn't put it down. I laughed, I cried, I took it to the loo with me when I needed a wee!' Helen Heckerty 'Harry's Gift is that he makes us all feel less alone. Once you read his words or listen to his poems, they stay with you forever. They walk alongside you, however bumpy the road. His words are there; they put their arm around you and stroll perfectly in time with your heart beat.' James Corden Harry Baker is a poet and maths graduate based in Margate. He became the World Poetry Slam champion in 2012 and has been the people’s champion ever since.He is a big fan of playfulness and vulnerability and tries to combine both in his work as much as in his day-to-day life. His poems have been viewed by millions online, but he personally thinks they are even better in person and hopes you will come and see him perform live one day. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/wonderful-by-harry-baker-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/381173106/9781913958497.jpg 106520325 new in stock 105890796 Angry Yellow Woman by Vera Chok Angry Yellow Woman is the debut poetry collection from Vera Chok. Is Vera a woman, though? And how yellow are they? The anger is real. These playful, searching, and violently sexy pieces expose Vera’s immigrant-hobo journey through the landscapes, beds, and bodies of the UK and beyond. They were scratched out to understand an alien identity. They’re a record of how­—and where—Vera has tried to locate safety and joy. At the ends of the earth, or down Bethnal Green station? It might be a coming-of-age tale, but this colonised body seems stuck dreaming of the Empire—flat nose pressed up against the window of Tesco, Chinese eyes wide, hungry. Mouth sighing Malay. ‘It’s little surprise that Vera Chok’s poetry shares the same sharp qualities as her performances on screen and stage. Every line in this radical collection is alive, yes, with anger, but also acute observation, boundless humour and an entirely singular imagination. Part memoir, part essay, part prose poem, Angry Yellow Woman is an explosion of words that deserves attention and demands to be read.’ Lara Pawson ‘Angry Yellow Woman is outstanding and brilliant. It is unique and unflinching, powerful and moving. This work has a beautiful tenderness and wry humour.’ Salena Godden ‘Vera Chok’s poetry is by turns, thoughtful, political, mesmerising and absurdist. Her ability to move from belly splitting laughs to devastating quiet moments while also maintaining a fluid politics that never overshadows the lyrical wordplay is masterful, playful and brilliant.’ Nikesh Shukla Vera Chok (they/she) is a queer Malaysian-Chinese actor, funny-person, poet and dogmum. They are both Disruptor and Homemaker. Best known as a co-author of The Good Immigrant; Vera wrote the chapter, Yellow, which exploded ideas around “East Asianness”. Vera has been published by The Guardian, Bloomsbury, and Brain Mill Press, and in Rising and Transect magazine. They have been commissioned by The Roundhouse, CNN, WeTransfer, and Hakkasan Group, and funded by The British Council. Their writing has been performed at The Roundhouse, Shakespeare North, Rich Mix, and at Byline, Stoke Newington, Dinefwr, Cambridge, and Bare Lit Festivals. Vera is also a regular participant and sometimes champion of Varjack & Simpson’s Anti-Slam. Vera co-founded The Brautigan Book Club, was a resident artist at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, and the actor who played Honour Chen-Williams, head of the first ever East Asian family in any UK continuing drama. They produce both gently joyful happenings and mischievous, chaotic celebrations to platform historically marginalised groups. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pre-order-angry-yellow-woman-by-vera-chok-our-11th-april https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/379202289/9781913958473.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/379202301/VeraChok+BW.jpg 105890796 new in stock 102843064 Solastalgia - by Ciarán Hodgers In his second poetry collection Irish poet Ciarán Hodgers explores the intersection of mental health and the natural world; what it means and how it feels to seek out better states of being, both individually and as part of a living ecology. These poems ask what trees can teach us about grief; considers evolutionary biology as a metaphor for the counselling process; how autumn can encourage us to let go; what a mountain has to say about trauma and how an extinct bird might help us feel more at home in our bodies. Seeking beyond history and colonialism, this collection urges us to find deeper connections to our individual and cultural selves as a gateway for nurturing reciprocity with the wider world. ‘Ciarán Hodgers poetry is unflinching and compelling, Solastalgia is provocative and powerful, bold and beautiful, it is a timeless and essential collection.’ Salena Godden 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/solastalgia-by-ciaran-hodgers https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/370631932/9781913958435.jpg 102843064 new in stock 102774526 Dressed As Love by Jess Green Power walks in dressed like your best friend, offers to pay the bills and buy the drinks. Tells you to get some sleep because they’ve got this, they’ll keep watch, stop anyone getting in. Then Power leaves in the night and clears out your house. This is where this book begins. When Power’s taken everything. How do you get it back? BBC Slam Champion, Jess Green is a performance poet and script writer for theatre, TV and Podcasts. She’s performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and BBC 6 Music Festival as well as having taken her 5* shows, Burning Books and A Self Help Guide To Being In Love With Jeremy Corbyn to the Edinburgh Fringe and on national tours. She has featured on BBC 6 Music, E4, BBC5Live, ITV and BBC Breakfast as well as in The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Independent and The Spectator. She’s written for EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty as well as a poem for Eurovision 2023. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/dressed-as-love-by-jess-green-pre-order-due-out-7th-december https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/370572610/9781913958442.jpg 102774526 new in stock 102531424 My Achilles by Stanley Iyanu - My Achilles looks at the man behind the myth and explores both the strength and vulnerability in embracing all the sides of oneself: the complex and the ugly, the bold and the brilliant. With themes of love, hope and yearning, My Achilles aims to be not just a myth but a legend. So much about queer love and identity has been hidden between parentheses and what is not said. This pamphlet attempts to fill in those gaps, so that they are not destined to be repeated over and over. ‘Stanley Iyanu is a burgeoning talent on the spoken word scene. A lyrical, thought-provoking poet whose work embraces the mythological and natural worlds in this delicate and intimate portrait of his first significant love.’ Tina Sederholm ‘The spirit of Homer’s Illiad haunts these touching poems. Memories drift through dream-like scenarios, and there’s often an uncanny feeling of something about to happen, truths to be uncovered. There’s beauty here, hunger, and a tender queer defiance: ‘Tell him… he is deserving of something more than shame.’ Perhaps salvation is in language, how we communicate: ‘tell him that in his mouth is / where a universe can be found / a galaxy on his tongue’. A rich, original, thought-provoking pamphlet.’ Ian Humphries 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/my-achilles-by-stanley-iyanu https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/369788701/9781913958411.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/369788842/Screenshot+2023-10-06+at+11.23.39.png 102531424 new in stock 101494423 I Don't Know What Language I Dream In by Taher Adel Taher Adel is a British-Bahraini poet and spoken word artist. Taher draws from his own life, heritage, religion and cultureto map a remarkable journey. The poems in this collection operate in the lost spaces between language and identity where the poet wrestles with himself in order to understand who he really is and where he stands in the confusing world around him. ‘Taher’s poems inhabit a space of loss and longing. This unique collection beautifully captures that feeling of inadequacy when caught between two tongues – in this case English and Arabic and intimately examines the pain and pride of the diasporic experience. A gem!’ Hanan Issa (National Poet of Wales) ‘In Taher Adel’s stunning debut pamphlet, we fi nd a poet alert to the effects of migration and language loss, a voice of lyrical clarity, tenderness and hopefulness, spiritually attuned to the language of longing/the desire for the soul/to drop its chaos.’ Jennifer Lee Tsai 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/i-don-t-know-what-language-i-dream-in-by-taher-adel-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/367026706/9781913958404.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/367026712/Screenshot+2023-08-18+at+14.58.54.png 101494423 new in stock 100657228 2 Black 2 Furious by Tyrone Lewis The King of pop culture poetry returns with his second collection! As the great Dominic Toretto once said, ‘I don’t have friends, I have family’. ‘2 Black 2 Furious’ largely looks at both what family can be: linked by blood, heritage, found and chosen. Tyrone Lewis intersects his exploration on race, and continues to ask the question – what does it truly mean to be Black in a world weighted with perception. There’s also some Avril thrown in too, because you can’t go wrong with some Avril. ‘Tyrone Lewis perches pop culture on its head and gives it a spin. The result is a whirlwind of irrepressible energy, intertextual wit, the earnest honouring of loved ones and a use of repetition that makes its own irresistible rhythm. He is the nerd poetry needs, but doesn’t deserve.’ Jasmine Gardosi ‘Tyrone is a wonder. Playful and celebratory, devastating and sincere, this book will fill your soul and stay with you forever.’ Kayla Martell Feldman ‘Tyrone only has the same number of words as us mere mortals and yet somehow, he finds new, unique, vibrant and insightful ways to make the reader laugh, cry, reflect, react and know that they are understood. This collection of work touches deep, leaving the reader knowing we’ve just experienced something very special. Awesome and Amazing. That it all. ‘ Caz Ann Moy (Tyrone’s Mum) 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/2-black-2-furious-by-tyrone-lewis https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/364832857/9781913958398.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/364833127/Screenshot+2023-07-17+at+11.33.22.png 100657228 new in stock 99825385 Late Shift At The Pickle Factory by Mary Dickins In Late Shift at the Pickle Factory Mary Dickins presents the reader with an intensely crafted patchwork of stories, reminiscences, observations and whimsy. Her poems are tender, sad, joyful, surreal and ridiculous and always characterised by the distinctive blend of wordplay, humour, poignancy and politics that her readership have come to expect. Mary believes that there is nothing stranger, more intriguing and revealing than the everyday life, people and places that we take for granted. She invites you to explore and enjoy this book as part of her poetic legacy drawn from an exuberant and challenging life, well lived. ‘Mary Dickins is my rescue remedy…her poems fill up my heart.’ Laurie Bolger ‘Mary Dickins is one of the funniest, most heart-warming poets around. This collection blends her trademark wit and instinctive kindness, with stories of poignant relevance and ludicrously sweet daftness! Mary just is my favourite.’ Jack Rooke ‘Late Shift at the Pickle Factory is one of those books I will keep handy for when I need to boost my mood. Worlds away from sentimental feel-good poetry it combines optimism and humour with political fire. Dickins is never preachy and excels at the rare art of writing genuinely funny poems. Never selfaggrandising this is poetry to provoke and delight.’ Pauline Sewards ‘Wry, witty ,whimsical poems that examine and celebrate the daftness, delight and detail of everyday lives.’ James Mc Dermott 7.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/late-shift-at-the-pickle-factory-by-mary-dickins https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/362611789/9781913958381.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/362611990/Screenshot+2023-06-13+at+14.53.19.png 99825385 new in stock 99354388 Supervillain Origin Story <i>'Rick Dove is a powerful, impressive and deeply poignant poet, this new work is vital and vivid, the language emotive and melodic, Supervillain Origin Story is an outstanding, soul-stirring and essential poetry collection for our times.'</i> <b>Salena Godden FRSL</b> Supervillain Origin Story is a mischievous, seditious, and often incendiary exploration of trauma, loss, and erasure. Drawing strength and forging defiant triumph from the myriad provocations that could spin a soul into darkness, but somehow didn’t. Dove’s sophomore poetry collection weaves the ethereal from the light falling through cracked panes, taking inspiration from both personal experiences, and the political turmoil of the pandemic era, to create a collection that unsettles as it thrills. With his educational psychologist’s advice to “Use your words” echoing throughout diverse narrative strands, touching on queer love, reconciling abusive relationships, and demanding social justice, Dove’s Supervillain Origin Story, demonstrates effectively just how disruptive words can be. No one was harmed in the creation of this collection... <i>'Political poetry at its finest. where others peddle posturing soundbites, Dove provides a liminoid experience. A class act.'</i> <b>Matt Abbott</b> <i>'Empowering searching punky thumping poems exploring identity with Dove’s signature eye for wry imagery, ear for rhythm, freshness of thought, and revelry in pop cultural references and linguistic play'</i> <b>James McDermott</b> Once voted “most likely to start the revolution” Rick is a queer and neurodivergent poet and activist from London. Born in the socialist utopia of Tooting at the end of Generation X, Rick has witnessed the effects of both increasing multiculturalism and gentrification on the capital, and as such, his work reflects on both societal and personal change and how these two cardinal forces interact as we grow. Exploring themes of social justice, philosophy, and identity, and drawing on science fact and fiction, folklore, and mythology (with no small measure of mischief and provocation), Rick interrogates the liminal spaces that define our common humanity. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/supervillain-origin-story https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/361380991/9781913958459.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/361381399/Sample+Poem.jpg 99354388 new in stock 93590101 In Public/In Private by Leyla Josephine <p align="center"><i>‘There is not a poet alive today who writes about the inner lives of women as well as Leyla Josephine. This breathtaking collection teases apart the difference between what is private and what is secret; what we exhibit of love, and what we keep to ourselves and our dreams.’</i> <b>Jodi Picoult</b></p> Leyla Josephine dances between her private and public lives, her inner thoughts and outer performance, dipping into each side of herself with humour and reverence. <i>In Public/In Private</i> ends up in a stranger’s flat on a one night stand, an awkward lunch with a politician, raves in dark sweaty clubs and midnight mass in Ireland. Some poems read like public proclamations but in others we are invited to listen through the crack of a bedroom door. There is a sense that everything firmly belongs here, the opposing sides of herself do not discount each other. Leyla's stunning first collection of poetry unmasks secrets, faith, shame, lust,and death unapologetically. She fearlessly reaches through every page and asks ‘Have you felt this too?’. <p align="center">‘In Public / In Private <i>combines two of my favourite elements of poetry: formal play and emotional velocity. What a beautifully restless collection of psychological candor as well as of sensory and sensual vulnerability. In these pages you will encounter both wildly textured images (“It’s like an advert for toothpaste but the model’s got no teeth”) and piercing insights into personhood (“a poem is essentially / a classy version of social media post, right?”). How startling, these poems; how uncompromisingly engaging, this poet.’</i> <b>Chen Chen</b></p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/in-public-in-private-by-leyla-josephine https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/346271338/9781913958350.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/346271473/Screenshot+2022-10-20+at+09.16.46.png 93590101 new in stock 93179029 Unashamed by Harry Baker Following <i>The Sunshine Kid</i> (2014), <i>Unashamed</i> follows the journey of World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker from graduating with a maths degree being unsure if this poetry thing was even possible, to becoming one of the nation’s favourite poets and having his work viewed by millions all over the globe. A collection of poems taken from his live performances that have captivated audiences and sold out shows up and down the country, combined with brand new work written at a time when that was no longer possible. From the joyful creativity of German compound words to having his prime number poetry shared on TED.com, it took Harry far too long to realise that maths has been as much a part of his work as the poetry he used to use to distract himself from it. That both are about figuring out the world around us, finding wonder in your surroundings, and searching for connection wherever you can. From school bullying through climate change, via a healthy obsession with falafels and a 10,000th birthday, Harry's love of language and logic has got him through literal marathons, a cancer diagnosis and potentially ruined his wife’s chances of getting a job in an ice cream shop. Unashamed is a book of heart, humour and hope. It shows what happens when you’re truly able to celebrate all the parts of yourself, and when you are more concerned with filling out than fitting in. When what started out as a way to entertain your friends becomes a lens through which to see the world, and and celebrate numbers, words and life itself. It is his most heartfelt, playful, unashamedly Harry Baker-y work yet! --- Harry Baker is a poet, mathematician, stand-up comedian and writer. Aged 20, he became the youngest ever World Poetry Slam Champion in 2012. In 2014 he released his debut collection The Sunshine Kid with Burning Eye, and the 5-star Edinburgh show of the same name was voted Best Spoken Word Show of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015. His work has been shared on TED.com and seen by over 5 million people and translated into over 20 different languages. Having graduated from a mathematician-who-sometimes-does-poems to a poet-who-sometimes-does-maths, Harry spent five years performing all over the world, from the sold out Dubai Opera House to featuring at both the American and German national poetry slams (followed by a few years performing to his own face on screen during a pandemic). A regular at festivals such as Latitude, Glastonbury and Bestival, Harry’s schools work has also reached a cumulative 50k+ students in local and international schools all across the globe, gaining new fans from Jacqueline Wilson to Ice Cube along the way. Harry’s versatility had led to him being one of the only poets to be featured on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1xtra, and has led to him being as (un)comfortable rising to the top of the UK rap battle scene as sharing stages with the likes of Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage. More recently he has formed the UK’s leading Comedy-Rap-Jazz-Duo as part of Harry and Chris (as seen on The Russell Howard Hour) taking shows up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016-2019, as well as returning last year with a solo show I am 10,000 to a 5-star sellout run. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/unashamed-by-harry-baker https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/345159127/9781913958374.jpg 93179029 new in stock 93178987 More Mixed Messages by Mark 'Mr T' Thompson <p align="center"><i>Indefatigable activist and agitator, Mr T generally has something to say and the words worth saying.</i> - <b>Chip Hamer, poet and trade unionist</p> <i>More Mixed Messages</i> is courageous, unflinching, authentic, informed and indefatigable. Mark doesn’t look away, or speak in whispers. The work sits well in the rich vein of protest poetry; confronting the reader and society with visceral truths wrapped in humour and righteous anger. Mark compels the reader to the centre of the most heightened moments, to inhabit the hard questions about themselves, about life, about society; to hear the words as they read, to feel them as they’re heard. Asserting the questions: Am I in or out of the system? What am I made of? Do I contribute to this? If not me, then who? <i>More Mixed Messages</i> reminds us of the storytellers and activists who have spoken through the ages - the affairs of state are affairs of the people. Yes, the people must have a voice and their injustices will be heard. Poet, performer, educator, Mark Thompson trained at Rose Bruford College in Theatre. Retraining as a Drama teacher at Goldsmiths College in 2004. He’s still acting and teaching while performing his poetry and facilitating workshops on culture, identity and poetics.   Featured on Radio 4, BBC Radio London, Jazz FM and Choice FM, his commissions include work with The Royal Maritime Museum, the charities The ACLT and Crisis, as well as BBC Radio Four, for whom he crafted a suite of poems for ‘Lights Out: From the Ashes of New Cross’ in 2020.   In print he has featured in the Morning Star and three anthologies since 2020; Poets Against Trump, Football is Poetry and Poetry is our Protest - a collaboration with Spoken with whom he also contributed to a poetry exchange with Born Lippy in Newcastle in 2021.   Mark hosted local Black Lives Matter events in 2020 and contributed poetry to commemorations of ‘The Battle of Lewishham’ and the New Cross fire, helping to immortalise local moments in Black British history. With a children’s picture book in development, poetry workshops for East Side Educational Trust and contributing to a transatlantic webinar with Digital Theatre+ on the history of Black poetry in English, there’s been a lot going on!   ‘Philosophers can keep interpreting the world, it’s us who needs to change it!’ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/more-mixed-messages-by-mark-mr-t-thompson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/345159061/9781913958343.png 93178987 new in stock 92767591 The Pleasure Dome by Louise Fazackerley Pre order for 28th September Take your little feelings-junkie-self on a dash through the house of fun. Here is hedonism and anhedonia a.k.a ‘the inability to feel anything’ nothing? explored through lyric poetry and dystopian prose poetry. Here are the Romantic Poets. Here are some bands from the 1980’s. Here is a bathroom. Here is a place where the super-rich get to use your organs instead of their own. Obvs. Think escapism, mothers guilt and drink- some of it set in an alternate dimension of distorted mirrors and super-fun balloons. Dilettantes and the discerning brain are welcome here. <p align="center"><i>‘Amazing poet’</i> - <b>Joelle Taylor</b></p> <p align="center"><i>‘An amazing performer’</i> - <b>Will Self</b></p> With work rooted in word-witchery and the working class, Louise Fazackerley is a poet from Wigan, near Manchester. In performance she explores the synergy between poetry, voice and movement in a way that makes the ugly beautiful and the mundane fantastical. Winner of BBC Radio New Voices award, European Slam Finalist and support artist for punk legend Dr. John Cooper Clark, Louise is a true, Northern powerhouse. Welcome to her world of darkly humorous poetry. Previous poetry collections include <i>The Lolitas</i> and <i>The Uniform Factory</i> (Verve Poetry Press), <i>Bird St.</i> (The Secret Writers Club) and audio book, <i>Council House Poetry</i> (Nymphs & Thugs.) Louise has a degree in Theatre Studies and Creative Writing from Lancaster University and an MA in Creative Writing from Edge Hill University. She lectures and teaches creative writing in schools, prisons and universities. When she is not writing, Louise is loping around Wigan and wrangling two teenage daughters and two teenage cats. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-pleasure-dome-by-louise-fazackerley https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/344051005/9781913958329.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/344052163/lOUSE-POEM-IG+copy.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/344052175/Screenshot+2022-09-20+at+12.14.26.png 92767591 new in stock 92214838 Pantomime Horse, Russian Doll, Egg by Sally Jenkinson A poem cycle about giving birth. A creative response to the seemingly improbable and yet utterly commonplace act of somehow producing a human from your body. A rollercoaster ride of viscera and vulnerability, exploring the agony and the ecstasy of an everyday accouchement. <p align="center"><i>‘It is a hard thing to write a blurb for a piece of work which holds your face and heart so steady, daring you to also see into and through the abyss that is birth. These poems are an immediate weaving of worlds – past and present, home and hospital, power and surrender – all intimate and all universal.’</i><br><b> Deanna Rodger</b></p> Sally Jenkinson was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. She has been writing and performing poetry across the UK for more than a decade, and has also written and performed internationally in Sweden, Iceland and Australia. Her work has recently been featured in The Morning Star, Lighthouse Journal, Emerge Lit Journal, The #MeToo Anthology from Fairacre Press, and on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Power Lines’. She is a care worker and community arts producer, and is currently working towards her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Gloucestershire. She has lived in Sheffield, Bristol, and Brighton, and now lives in the Forest of Dean with her cats, husband, and various fierce and magical children. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pantomime-horse-russian-doll-egg-by-sally-jenkinson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/342588484/9781913958312.jpg 92214838 new in stock 90989808 The Trilogy of Surfaces and Invisibilities by Nora Gomringer Translated by Annie Rutherford, with original artwork by Reimar Limmer. <i>"Annie Rutherford's translations of Gomringer's poems are constantly inventive, lithe and impressive."</i> - <b>Sasha Dugdale</b> Combining the collections <i>Monster Poems</i>,<i> Morbus and Fashions</i>, Nora Gomringer’s trilogy offers a modern anthropology. Gomringer shines a light on the all-too-human, plays with the superficial and loves the invisible. Accompanied by Reimar Limmer’s illustrations, these poems unpick ideas around the monstrous, the inscribed and gendered body and the face we present to the people around us. Packed with pop culture references and always casting an eye back to where we came from, <i>The Trilogy of Surfaces and Invisibilities</i> is a call for a radical humanism. -- The Swiss/German author Nora Gomringer is one of the German language’s best known and loved contemporary poets. In the early 2000s she was a prominent voice in Germany’s young slam scene, and her background in performance continues to inform her work. Her writing blurs the boundaries between performance and page poetry, as well as often intersecting with other art forms, from film to music and visual art. Her work has won her a number of awards, including the Joachim Ringelnatz Prize in 2012 and the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Award in 2015. In 2019 she was the Max Kade Professor for the Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio. Nora Gomringer lives in Bamberg, where she is director of the International Artists’ House, Villa Concordia. Annie Rutherford makes things with words, and champions poetry and translated literature in all its guises. She works as Assistant Director at StAnza, Scotland’s international poetry festival, and translates from German, Russian, French and Belarusian. Her translations include Nora Gomringer’s Hydra’s Heads (Burning Eye, 2018), Volha Hapeyeva’s In My Garden of Mutants (Arc, 2021) and Isabel Bogdan’s novel The Peacock (V&Q Books, 2021). She is currently working on translations of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and Kinga Toth. Reimar Limmer works as a graphic designer and illustrator with a particular focus on work in the arts. His illustrations for Nora Gomringer’s Trilogy have been showcased in exhibitions in Cologne, Vienna, Zurich and Hanoi. He lives and works in Bamberg. 11.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-trilogy-of-surfaces-and-invisibilities-by-nora-gomringer https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/339353388/9781913958336.jpg 90989808 new in stock 90215001 (Re)framing the Archive by Panya Banjoko The poems in <i>(Re)framing the Archive</i> derive from Panya's personal engagement with museums over two decades and as the founder of Nottingham Black Archive. They are an attempt to give space to those voices that are otherwise submerged and highlight the disparity in underrepresentation of Black people as curators of their own history. They can be seen as an intentional social and political act of activism providing a space for political thought, discussion, and action. -- Panya Banjoko is a UK based writer, poet and a PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University with a Vice Chancellor awarded scholarship writing a practice-led PhD rooted in Nottingham Black Archive. Her debut collection, <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/some-things-by-panya-banjoko"><i>Some Things</i></a>, was published by Burning Eye Books (2018). Her work is published in numerous anthologies including award-winning Clever Girls, winner of the Working-Class Studies Association's ‘Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award for a Book about the Working-Class Academic Experience’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and her poem, ‘They and Them’, featured in Mic Drop, an exhibition by artist Keith Piper at the Beaconsfield Gallery in London, the London Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She has been artist in residence at the International School in Stuttgart, Jaipur Literature Festival in India, and for the National Justice Museum in Nottingham. Panya is a multi-award-winning poet, co-ordinates a Black Writers Network and is patron for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. https://panyabanjoko.wordpress.com/ @PanyaThePoet 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/re-framing-the-archive-by-panya-banjoko https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/337310748/9781913958275.jpg 90215001 new in stock 90185037 Priestess of the Powder Puff Experiment by Jackie Juno <i>'I bloody love Jackie Juno. This half woman, half owl hybrid has feet that merge seamlessly into the roots of ancient trees and internal organs made from equal parts campfires, incense and diesel-soaked Hawkwind riffs. A habitue of almost every counter-cultural fringe you can think of, Jackie has evolved herself a splendidly off-kilter positive wisdom which she wildly radiates through both her presence and her poetry like a Chernobyl for the common good. You will find belly-laugh whimsy in here, for sure; but you will also find poetry of enormous strength, insight and understanding, the learnings of a life lived large distilled into page-bound spells for the benefit of all. The world needs people like this; brilliant bonkers bundles of kindness, creativity, love and rage. I have no idea of her transport arrangements, but I would not be in the least surprised to find that Jackie Juno wears a Viking warrior helmet and rides an absolutely massive motorbike. '</i> - Jonny Fluffypunk Priestess of the Powder Puff Experiment has taken four years to create and compile; a distillation of deep self enquiry, bold uncensored rants, hilarious absurdism reflecting modern life’s insanity, and tender moments of beauty inspired by the natural world. Jackie also tackles subjects such as environmental destruction, mental health issues, social injustice, abuse and family. In turns passionate and confessional, sensitive and poignant, and peppered with her inimitable bold humour, this collection is something to be savoured again and again. --- Jackie Juno is a writer, poet and performer living on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon, England. She is a multiple poetry slam winner, including Glastonbury Festival Slam 2017, and was a contender in the National Poetry Slam finals at the Albert Hall in 2018. She has been a finalist in many international competitions for her short stories, flash fiction and poetry, including Arvon, Writing Magazine and Mslexia. She has performed her poetry at two TEDx Talks. She held the title Bard of Exeter 2011-2012 and Grand Bard of Exeter 2012-2019. She teaches creative writing online and in person, and loves inspiring people who think they are not writers and who find that they can indeed create great pieces of work with the right prompts. She is also lead singer & lyricist with psychedelic rock band The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet. She has a bit of a map fetish, and is so painfully hip that she needs a new one. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/priestess-of-the-powder-puff-experiment-by-jackie-juno https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/337232400/9781913958282.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/337232409/Screenshot+2022-06-13+at+11.17.48.png 90185037 new in stock 90022173 A New Game by Jemima Foxtrot <p align="center"><i>Jemima is one of my favourite poets, and one of the most distinct poetic voices I know. She tilts the world and makes me see it differently. Each poem is nothing short of a delight, fizzing with energy, fun, musicality and beauty.</i> - Cecilia Knapp</p> Jemima Foxtrot’s highly anticipated <i>A New Game</i> whirls you through a world of vivid images, hedonism, memory and wonder as it celebrates and investigates the minutiae of everyday life. Full of wry humour and written with a bold elegance, Jemima Foxtrot proves that there is no subject that can’t inspire a poem. Foxtrot specialises in joy and this book makes you smile as much as it makes you think. Jemima Foxtrot is a writer and performer who performs and teaches internationally. Her poetry has been published and anthologised widely and her debut collection of poetry was published by Burning Eye Books in 2016. She is the founder of Kindreds Creatives and has written numerous works for the stage. <a href="https://jemimafoxtrot.com/"><u>jemimafoxtrot.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/a-new-game-by-jemima-foxtrot https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/336799167/9781913958268.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/336799398/ANEWGAME_WRAPFINAL_1905+copy.jpg 90022173 new in stock 89460837 Instructions for Outlaws by Ash Dickinson Birds emerge from nests of tables/ a fox is lured from buddleia with a fishing line/ an Amazon warehouse proves no match for the written word/ infidelity/ beard envy/ country music/ a boy grows up a bear/ an audience of crows/ gravy boats for hairdos/ ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ attend a writing workshop/ while criminals are set free/ elephants born without ivory succumb to professional darts players/ and a man falls through the moon. All this and more/ will astound and provoke thought/ amuse and transport/ in this, Ash Dickinson’s third main collection/ ‘Instructions For Outlaws’. “Impressive wordplay” – <b>The Times</b> “Clever and funny” – <b>The Scotsman</b> “Brilliantly surreal invention…fabulous poems” – <b>Edinburgh Evening News</b> “A massive imagination that swings from one unpredictable world to another” – <b>Petersfield Herald</b> “Could do for poetry what Bill Hicks did for comedy” – <b>The Skinny</b> “Surreal, hilarious social commentary…a master of stand-up poetry” – <b>Apples And Snakes</b> --- Ash Dickinson has been full-time as a poet since 2008. He is a multiple slam champion, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham, the Museum of Scotland and BBC Radio. He has performed in Australia, Canada, USA, Spain, Jordan, the Czech Republic and Germany, and headlined countless shows and festivals throughout the UK. Ash is in great demand to run writing workshops in schools, galleries, museums, prisons and with writing groups. His debut collection, ‘Slinky Espadrilles’ was the very first title published by Burning Eye Books. His second major collection, Strange Keys’, also released by Burning Eye, came out in 2016. A collection for younger years, ‘Show Cats In Transit’, came out in 2019. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/instructions-for-outlaws-by-ash-dickinson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/335286951/9781913958237.jpg 89460837 new in stock 88870668 Kinsey Scale for the Emotionally Fragile Queer by Bibi June The Kinsey Scale is an archaic measure of homosexuality on a scale of 0-6, thought up by Dr. Alfred Kinsey in 1948. It ranks queerness with 0 being completely heterosexual, 6 being fully homosexual, and 3 being a perfect split down the middle. But the world is ending, and modern queers are famously bad at numbers. ‘Kinsey Scale for the Emotionally Fragile Queer’ is a rewriting of the original scale, measured to fit the expansiveness of a generation of queers who have lived from apocalypse to apocalypse. In this Kinsey Scale, our lives are not represented by rigid numbers, but by poetry on queer love, happiness, protest, friendships, and the ability of queers to adapt to a changing world. Our rituals, our families, our romances, there is place for all of them in this tale of resilience and joy --- Bibi June is a poet and performance maker whose work focuses on queerness, climate justice and post-apocalyptic stories. They work as a producer on spoken word and immersive performances, and their creative work spans from poetry to games to theatre. Their writing work has been published in places such as Gutter, We Were Always Here and Ceremony. ‘Kinsey Scale’ is their fourth pamphlet. Their first pamphlet about queer joy, ‘Begin Again’, was published by Speculative Books in 2018. In 2020, their second pamphlet ‘Critique of the Criminal Justice System’ was published by Stewed Rhubarb. It was nominated for the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award in 2021. Their third pamphlet came out in 2021, titled ‘TransMask: A DIY Zine for Queers of the Apocalypse’. Together with Ross McFarlane and Ellen Renton, they run spoken word theatre company In The Works. Their previous collaborative shows include ‘A Matter of Time’ (2017) and ‘The 900 Club’, the latter of which received 4* and 5* reviews for its debut run at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2019, they toured their newest collaborative show ‘Make/Shift’ with Ross at theatres and spoken word events across the UK & Ireland. It was adapted into an audio drama for the Saboteur Awards Festival in early 2020. They are currently writing their first ACE funded solo show ‘Homage: Can You Help Me Find Bibi June?’. They work on award-winning queer horror podcast Folxlore. <a href="https://www.bibijune.com/"><u>www.bibijune.com</u></a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/kinsey-scale-for-the-emotionally-fragile-queer-by-bibi-june https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/333709896/9781913958244.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/333709905/bibi+square.png 88870668 new in stock 88558791 My Body is a Resource I am Willing to Expend by Katie (Tom) Walters <p align="center">My Body Is A Resource I’m Willing To Expend <i>takes you into a surreal world that mirrors the mental discombobulation that can occur with long term illness. There is nearly scientific attention paid to symptomatic details involved in illness, but they manage to make the traumatic bloom into the poetic by it dual focus of the body’s machinations and the mind’s adaptation to survive. A truly difficult feat superbly articulated by this young writer of note.</i> - <b>Roger Robinson</b></p> This debut full collection is a story of becoming: of learning what it means to care and be cared for, to love and be loved. In 2016, Katie (Tom) Walters caught fresher’s flu and never quite recovered and developed a severely disabling, incurable disease. This debut collection exposes the process of acceptance, reconfiguring their relationships and finding their place in an increasingly inaccessible world. From their bed, they rebel in a world of sprawling plants and transcendental tenderness, where righteous crip pride collides with rage, grief, and mourning. -- Katie is an autistic and physically disabled writer who creates performance poetry and interdisciplinary poetic storytelling for theatre. They write complicated metaphors about serious things, like sickness, loss, and love. Their writing is highly political, with a queercrip and cripplepunk ethos, aiming to tell challenging and subversive stories that destabilise the nondisabled norm. In 2014, Katie was a winner of the SLAMbassadors youth slam, and they’ve stuck to the stage ever since. They have performed at festivals including Greenbelt and Shambala, and worked on commissions for Homotopia and Theatre Absolute. In 2019, they co-founded the disability arts organisation Radical Body, where they produce radical new performances by and for disabled people. <a href="https://katiewaltersthepoet.wordpress.com/"><u>katiewaltersthepoet.wordpress.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/my-body-is-a-resource-i-am-willing-to-expend-by-katie-tom-walters https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/332864262/9781913958220.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/332864304/Screen+Shot+2022-04-15+at+11.37.42.png 88558791 new in stock 88558434 Life Goals of the Millenials or: The Commune Manifesto <p align="center"><i>“Ross’ performances are filled with electricity, bouncing from his lips to his fingers into the audience and back. This pamphlet is buzzing with the same foot-stomping energy, and chock-full off heartwarming wholesomeness and queer love. His poetry is honest to the bone and just as raw. It is an ode to a generation that doesn’t have much, but that has each other, and storytellers like Ross to document it all.”</i> – <b>Bibi June</b></p> <i>Life Goals of the Millennials: or The Commune Manifesto</i> is about growing up queer and not growing out of it. In The Commune we champion platonic love and commitment. We tell stories, find good in those around us, holdfast our beliefs and each other, and we face down the practicalities of a world not made for us. <i>The Commune Manifesto</i> has taken shape over 10 years of late-night conversations in Glasgow tenements. It is dedicated to every beautiful soul who feels lost on their own, or terrified of losing their community as they grow older and feel the pressure to settle down. Finally, it is a personal statement of intent, an affirmation, a life goal, to retain the joy that comes from our hardfought and close-knit bonds. These poems visualise the hope we have in a future together. Come join us in the Commune. --- Ross McFarlane writes soft and kind stories which he yells in a weak Glaswegian accent far too fast for anyone to understand. He wants to write with the perfect simplicity of ONSIND, stir up heady excitement in a crowd like Laura Jane Grace, and draw you slowly into a Craig Finn-esk world of his own creation. Self-styled "Glasgow's No. 1 Support Act", Ross has opened for touring poets and musicians alike including; Sabrina Benaim, Shane Koyczan, Rudy Fransisco, Rae Spoon, Petrol Girls, Throw Me Off The Bridge, and Jesus and his Judgmental Father. Catch him on the MegaBuses searching for touring musicians to accost with poetry. Check out more stories by Ross through In The Works spoken word theatre company, where he has written for and performed in productions including A Matter of Time and The 900 Club, as well as touring the UK and Ireland with millennial drama Make/Shift. He is a writer and producer on queer horror audio drama <i>Folxlore</i>, which has won the Audio Verse Award for Best New Storytelling Production, and featured in The Atlantic’s 50 Best Podcasts of 2020. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/life-goals-of-the-millenials-or-the-commune-manifesto https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/332862915/9781913958213.jpg 88558434 new in stock 88151322 Good Listeners by Pascal Vine <p align="centre"><i>“Pascal vine is a raw, honest writer who plummets you into the world as he sees it. A world full of sensual, spiritual and visceral reflections on nature and humanity. He knows how to walk you into the core of the heart and leave you there.”</i><b>- Rebecca Tantony</b></p> The world has a way of getting into you; these poems document the process of prying it out. Whether that be from an ash tree’s trunk or a rabbit’s warren, or behind an abandoned shipping container on the way to work, or in a dusty noise show basement, Good Listeners leads you through the afterlife of trauma and disability. You will meet many strangers to guide you into a world where you may suddenly find yourself coping. -- Pascal Vine is a UK performance poet from the Somerset Levels who enjoys describing the world around him in the touchiest-feeliest ways possible. He graduated Bath Spa in Creative Writing and Religion in 2018 and has been mooching ever since. Pascal has made themselves useful behind the scenes at many slams and open mics since starting out five years ago, and has headlined poetry nights across the South West. He’s worked with punks, interpretive dancers, noise artists, radio hosts and anyone else who will let them. He is one third of the team behind Bristol Tonic Poetry Night. He has been published by Bad Betty, Three Drops, Verve and Eyeflash in various anthologies. He is disabled, nonbinary and tired. <a href="https://linktr.ee/PascalVpoet"><u>linkt.ree/PascalVpoet</u></a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/good-listeners-by-pascal-vine https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/331747185/9781913958206.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/331747188/GL+TWITTER.jpg 88151322 new in stock 87291819 Spectral by Fay Roberts <p align="center"><i>“Finally, a collection of poems from one of the legends of the spoken word scene! On the page, Fay's words retain both the musicality and muscularity of zir live performances, with poems moving like a gentle fire guiding you on a journey - through the complexity, beauty, and sheer emotionality of life. Dip your toe in and stay for a while in Fay's welcoming verse.”</i> - DAN SIMPSON</p> Moving through moods and atmospheres, Spectral is a book intended to be read in a number of different ways: 1. From beginning to end, moving through the blended spectrum of moods laid out in order; 2. As a mood-picker – either finding something to match your feelings from one of the seven main sections, or using something to change your mood to where you would like it to be; or 3. As a pic’n’mix menu of topics, emotions, and poetry forms. The pieces come from a number of places across the years – some of them from NaPoWriMo prompts, some from commissions, some from workshops, others inspired by random book pages, musical sequences, or just turning up without warning. A couple come, inevitably, from this past age of isolation and confinement, and still others are inspired by the wisdom and grace of chosen family. <p align="center"><i>“Each piece is a waystation on a voyage of discovery to a ‘sky that beckons / ever larger’ and finding ‘brightness, even in the darkest times’”</i> - ROSIE GARLAND -- Born in 1975, Fay is a classically trained singer from Cardiff who has been getting on stages since the early eighties. Ze was bitten by the performance poetry bug in 2006 in Milton Keynes, after a favour to a friend turned into a place in the final of a poetry slam. Ze helped to run Poetry Kapow! in Milton Keynes from 2007 to 2011 and has been involved with the Cambridge chapter of Hammer & Tongue since 2010. Ze set up Cambridge arts label Allographic in 2011, a live events platform and small press. Ze has been the Artistic Director for Spoken Word at The Free Fringe in Edinburgh since 2013 (mostly collaboratively), and host of critically acclaimed Fringe show Other Voices Spoken Word Cabaret since 2012. In 2014, ze ‘won’ the Edinburgh Fringe Anti-Slam as Melody Starchild. In 2017, zir first solo show, The Selkie, was shortlisted as best spoken word show of 2016–17 for the Saboteur Awards. Ze was Glastonbury Festival Poetry&Words Stage’s official blogger in 2019. Ze has been delivering poetry workshops and courses since 2014, and in 2017 ze accidentally became a voice actor, which sometimes feels like a dream come true. Ze still sings – persistently. Zir work has been described as ‘lyrical’, ‘engaging’, ‘scarily good’, and as ‘musical’, ‘mellifluous’, and ‘mesmerising’. Fay has performed in pubs, clubs, theatres, tents, malls,ships, museums, galleries, stone circles, squats, haunted houses, stately gardens, and under duvets; in open mic, slams, features, support, English, Welsh, French, BSL, collaboration, competition, and costume across the UK (and worldwide, virtually). <a href="http://linktr.ee/fayroberts"><u>linktr.ee/fayroberts</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/spectral-by-fay-roberts https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/329432790/9781913958183.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/329432817/Fay+square.png 87291819 new in stock 86571957 The Body in Its Seasons by Maz Hedgehog <p align="justify">Madeleine Ekezie has done everything right: good job, a step on the housing ladder, successful friends. But she's lost, miserable and deeply lonely. When she discovers the story of The Body - a maybe mythical, definitely magical being who feeds the hungry and soothes the hurt - Maddy blows her life up to find it. She quits her job to hunt through old zines, ignores her parents to pick through abandoned blogs, finding in each entry some truth about The Body. <i>The Body in Its Seasons</i> is a journal of Maddy's obsession, compiled in footnotes, conversations and diary entries. Maz Hedgehog unpicks the fabric of the poetry collection and reweaves them into a new tapestry of the experiential and lyrical.</p> <p align="justify">Maz Hedgehog is a writer, performer and editor working in the spaces between real and unreal, poetry and theatre, self and other. Their debut chapbook, <i>Vivat Regina</i>, was published in 2019 and their first solo show Let <i>Me Count the Ways</i> was first performed at the Hope Mill Theatre in 2021. Outside the arts, Maz dabbles in knitting, baking and excessive swearing. Find them on twitter and instagram @MazHedgehog </p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-body-in-its-seasons-by-maz-hedgehog https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/327492708/9781913958190.png 86571957 new in stock 86438703 Chosen Family by ibizo lami <p align="justify">Adapted from a spoken word solo show, <i>Chosen Family</i> by ibizo Iami is a raw but gentle story of recovery and strength. Set in the waiting room of Dr Unicorn's office, Ibizo reflects on the instances that have knocked her down and built them back up again. Through emotionally charged poems and monologues, we start to unpick the importance of boundaries, love and expression in the quest to recover the body from trauma. We meet friends and concepts along the way that shape Ibizo's journey to finding their chosen family</p> <p align="justify">Zimbabwean born artist, ibizo lami, uses multiple mediums to celebrate her personal experiences and identity. Some core themes in their work are her motivation for positive mental health and love of good food. She is a former cohost of She Grrrowls, a feminist arts night in London and a regular feature at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ibizo lami has performed live at multiple poetry events across the country including That's What She Said and Spoken Word London. ibizo lami is the founder and organiser for, Self Care Saturdays, an online event that discusses the nourishment of the mind, body and spirit. They have completed a run of <i>Chosen Family</i> at Brighton Fringe Festival, which has been adapted for the page by Burning Eye Books.</p> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/chosen-family-by-ibizo-lami https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/327141567/9781913958176.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/327141963/Screen+Shot+2022-02-01+at+11.47.38.png 86438703 new in stock 84506334 Bargain Bin Rom-Com by Leena Norms Bargain Bin Rom-Com is the first collection of poems by Leena Norms. From the politics of ice-cream to the permission slip you didn’t know you needed, this is a tongue-in-cheek look at living on a planet that is filled with both doom and glitter. Featuring: Magic Pantries Zombie-apocalypse plans Treacherous librarians Abandoned wedding dresses Talking photocopiers Burning cathedrals Mortifying texts Failed arks Hopeful meltdowns and A getaway car. Leena Norms is a British poet and writer from the West Midlands. She has been sharing her poetry online for over ten years and her video essays have amassed over 11 million views to date, covering everything from literature and second-hand fashion to protecting the planet and surviving your twenties. This is her first full-length collection. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/bargain-bin-rom-com-leena-norms https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/321910806/Bargain+Bin+Rom+Com+Cover.jpg 84506334 new in stock 84017340 I'm Hans Christian Andersen by Rachel Rose Reid <p align="center"><i>‘A classy, compelling hour’</i> - <b>Alice Jones, The Independent</b></p> <p align="justify"><i>'On the radio they said that Hans Christian Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid whilst he was avoiding the wedding of the person he loved. I thought 'that doesn't sound like a story that involves singing lobsters'. So I picked a book from my shelf, I sat down at the table, and I began to read. And as I read the stories, I remembered where I first heard them. You know how that is? You open one memory and a thousand more pour out.'</i></p> <p align="justify"><i>I'm Hans Christian Andersen</i> strips the sugarcoat from the famous teller of fairytales, whilst grappling with our own love affairs of happily ever after.</p> -- <p align="justify">Rachel Rose Reid, ‘Queen of the New Wave of Storytellers’ (Ian McMillan, BBC Radio) blends the traditional storytelling with contemporary spoken word. Since writing I’m Hans Christian Andersen, she has toured her work internationally, from the Nuyorican Poets Café to the Soho Theatre, and has collaborated and created commissions for a characteristically eclectic range of partners including Billy Bragg, London City Sinfonia, Dickens’ Bicentenary (as Writer in Residence), BBC Radio 3, and Old Vic, New Voices.</p> <a href="http://www.rachelrosereid.com/">rachelrosereid.com</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/i-m-hans-christian-andersen-by-rachel-rose-reid https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/320498247/9781913958084.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/320498313/Screen+Shot+2021-11-11+at+10.35.49.png 84017340 new in stock 83945433 That day she'll proclaim her chronicles by Muneera Pilgrim <p align="center"><i>'I was struck by the courage, sharpness, and patience of these poems. They are arresting and vigorous, with plenty of stop-you-in-your-tracks moments. I felt genuinely honored to read such tender and unequivocal truth.'</i> - <b>Carvell Wallace</b></p> <p align="justify">For centuries poetry has been a form of knowledge and a way of knowing for non centred people. In this collection Muneera recenters her voice and the voices of other people that are often times relegated to the sidelines or misrepresented in mainstream thought. <i>That day she'll proclaim her chronicles</i> explores belonging, spirituality, gender race and identity as well as themes of girlhood, pop cultural, familial bonds and crushes, against the back drop of London and Bristol streets steeped colonial power structures that still live on. Despite that this collection is a story of love and a labour of love.</p> <p align="justify">Muneera Pilgrim is an international poet, cultural producer, writer, broadcaster and TEDx speaker. She conducts workshops, shares art, lectures, and finds alternative ways to tell stories, build community and exchange ideas.   She regularly contributes to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought. She is a community artist-researcher, a mental health professional, and an alumni associate artist with the English Touring Theatre, where she is working on her first play. Muneera has written for the Guardian, Amaliah, Huffington Post, the Independent, Al Jazeera, Black Ballad, and various other digital and print platforms. She has been featured across the BBC network, as well as Sky News, Sky Arts and Al Jazeera. In 2015 a documentary about her former group Poetic Pilgrimage was commissioned by Al Jazeera. Hip-Hop Hijabis has been screened several times since. Muneera holds an MA in Islamic studies, where she focused on Black British pathways to spirituality, migration, gender and race, and she holds a second MA in Women’s Studies, where she focused on the intersection of faith and spirituality, race, gender, autoethnography and methodologies of empowerment for non-centred people. Her innovation in her work won her the Ann Kaloski-Naylor Award for Adventurous Academic Writing.</p> <a href="http://muneerapilgrim.com/"><b>muneerapilgrim.com</b></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/that-day-she-ll-proclaim-her-chronicles https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/320306517/9781913958060.jpg 83945433 new in stock 82499079 Interdimensional Traveller by DL Williams [Ebooks will be available upon release.] <p align="justify">What's it like to navigate between worlds, based in different dimensions? DL Williams is an interdimensional traveller, moving through the 2D, audiocentric world inhabited by the peculiar hearing people while negotiating the fantastical 3D world shaped by sign language and those who wield it. DL's poems reflect a journey that has been far from easy, negotiating misunderstandings and cultural confusion while trying to figure out their identity and where exactly they belong.</p> <p align="justify">DL Williams is a deaf queer poet working with British Sign Language and English. Working with such different languages has inspired a deep interest in translation and how her work can be made accessible to signing and non-signing audiences. She has performed around the UK including at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Albert Hall, as well as in America and Brazil. Several of her poems have been published, most recently in 'Leaving: Award Winning Poetry' ed. By Ted Stanley (2020) and she has collaborated with other poets, appearing in the online poem video 'The House of the Interpreters' as part of the Crossed Lines exhibition at the Science Museum, Sep 2020. DL's poems cover many themes, from bilingualism to identity, to her beloved cats.</p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/interdimensional-traveller-by-dl-williams https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/316387662/9781913958114.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/333239925/Screen+Shot+2022-04-20+at+10.18.41.png 82499079 new in stock 81986313 Fontanelle by Helen Sheppard <p align="center"><i>'Goosebumps, gasps and gratitude. This is a collection of no judgement, just observations. Poems handled with the care of a midwife - life in all its forms is at the centre of Helen's poetry.'</i><br><b>- Deanna Rodger</b></p> <p align="justify">Fontanelle, is about 'soft spots', birth, women and those whose voices are often unheard. Helen has long family connections to care: aunt a midwife from 1941, her mum worked at a Transplant hospital, and her Dad passed down a quirky nature. All these influence her reasons to become a nurse and midwife. This debut collection is her 'take' on the complexities and joys of care, duty, burnout and friendships. Unexpected tender pockets of tragedy and humour in poetry and letters. -- <p align="justify">Helen Sheppard is a Bristol-based writer, a twin and has worked as a midwife. Her poetry explores themes of birth, life, family, friendship, health and loss, and those whose voices are often unheard. She started to write in her forties during a 'kick start your reading' class. Helen co-runs Satellite of Love Word events and loves the alchemy of being involved in community events with Bristol Literature Festival, Lyra Poetry Festival and she enjoys mentoring new poets.    Helen has performed at Milk Poetry, Berkeley Square Review, Mind Matters, That's What She Said, RTB Spotlight,Torriano Meeting House, Harvard Medical School, Nuyorican Poetry Cafe, Parkside Lounge, Poetry + Health, schools parks and gardens.</p> Go direct: <a href="https://helensheppard.bigcartel.com/"><u>helensheppard.bigcartel.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/fontanelle-by-helen-sheppard https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/315026211/9781913958107.jpg 81986313 new in stock 81847992 Still Searching for the Big City Beats It is the late 80s and Punk is long dead. Not everyone made it. In London E1: the leftovers and left behind are still alive and still dreaming. Facing up to Thatcherism, despondency, drugs and desire. This is a world where everything is negotiable and everyone is searching for something, if only for the way out. Keith ‘Spike’ Williams is looking for a spark to ignite his life. Going nowhere until his old friend, the mysterious Gene Campbell reappears on the scene with a pocketful of hope and a crazy dream. The Big City Beats are born – a hard-faced Spoken Word act; arbiters of attitude and addiction, holding up a mirror to an apathetic, doom-ridden society. Spike follows in Gene's litter-strewn wake into the gutters and alleyways of Whitechapel and neon-lit streets of Soho, where dreams turn to nightmares, reality bites hard and not everyone is going to make it out alive. Bleak and black humoured, Glenn Carmichael and Kevin Evans's underground novel is a fast-paced quest for ‘kicks and meaning’ in a London that has gone for good. Martin Millar meets Raymond Carver meets Hubert Selby Jr. in Spike’s search for something, anything, approximating truth, somewhere in the treachery and dereliction of London’s E1. Paperback edition 182 pages. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/still-searching-for-the-big-city-beats https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/314657088/9781909136762.jpg 81847992 new in stock 81600513 his fingers have left by Deanna Rodger <p align="center">Five new poems from Deanna Rodger. Each one inspired by one of Kevin Elyot’s plays: Coming Clean - Forty Winks - And Then There Were None - Perfect Moment - Twilight Song To honour the emphasis Elyot placed on style and form, all poems: - Must be written from the perspective of an inanimate object - Must be written in a poetic form. - Must be on the theme of sex. <i>This work was inspired and developed through the generous support of the Kevin Elyot Award at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.</i> Includes interview with Eylot's peer and theatre producer Ian Rickson. Cover and artwork by Joanna Layla - https://joannalayla.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/his-fingers-have-left-by-deanna-rodger https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/313972620/9781913958121.jpg 81600513 new in stock 81600378 Nigrescence by Abdullah Adekola <p align="center"><i>'Adekola's voice refuses to settle in a simple picture of identity that is palatable or transferable. The multiplicity of selves that speak in his poems reflect but also create a myriad of ways to be Muslim, to be Black, to just be. There is a powerful undercurrent of hope throughout this that leaves you with the sense that despite it all, people have always and will continue, to persevere.' </i><br><b> - Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan</b></p> <p align="justify">Nigrescence is the breakthrough debut collection of poems by northern poet Abdullah Adekola. The word 'nigrescence' means to develop a racial identity which Adekola unpicks through language that tugs and pulls through his own blackness, searching for ways to heal in a increasingly fractured world. </p> Abdullah Adekola is a writer and performer, based in Leeds, UK. He was selected for the New Creatives North talent development program by Arts council England and BBC Arts. A proud Black and British and working-class artist, he believes you should tell your story or risk being ignored or misrepresented. Adekola is interested in decolonisation, creative wellbeing, social justice, mental health recovery, and healthy masculinities. He tries to be playful, curious, and kind. Adekola is a board member of the David Oluwale Memorial Association. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/nigrescence-by-abdullah-adekola https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/313972326/9781913958091.jpg 81600378 new in stock 81167253 Not Dancing with Ingrid Pitt by Andrew Graves <p align="center"><i>"“Like a looming guide of a moonlight ghost walk, leading a tour round the spooky backstreets of his own head, the walls scrawled with lyrical history and prophetic drama. Get left behind at your peril.”</i><br><b>Thick Richard</b></p> <p align="justify">Not Dancing with Ingrid Pitt is an honest and personal collection capturing missed opportunities, those unstructured moments and nostalgic, half recalled memories which skulk at the periphery of an increasingly confusing current world state. Andrew Graves circumnavigates his modern worries and presents his own uniquely crafted narratives which utelise estranged family members, eccentric strangers and forgotten Hollywood cast offs in his fascinating line up of unconventional protagonists. This is a dark, funny and bewitching paean to the cult, disregarded and devalued, a chaotic and comforting monochrome tome inscribed with both hope, fear and a thinly veiled longing for something better.</p> <p align="justify">Andrew Graves is a freelance writer and poet. His last two collections, <i>Light at the end of the Tenner</i> and <i>God Save the Teen</i> were released through Burning Eye Books. His first non-fiction title <i>Welcome to the Cheap Seats: Silver Screen Portrayals of the British Working Class</i>, was published by Five Leaves Books in 2018 and his next book, an analysis of Alice Lowe’s film Prevenge will be published by Auteur Publishing very shortly. He is currently writing a book about A Field in England for Electric Dreamhouse. He is host of Mondo Moviehouse: The Weird World Cinema podcast and is a regular contributor to Scream Magazine, Diabolique, The Digital Fix, Arrow Films, 88 Films, BFI , Eureka, Second Sight and We Belong Dead.</p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/not-dancing-with-ingrid-pitt-by-andrew-graves https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/312810105/9781911570882.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/312810192/Screen+Shot+2021-08-09+at+08.07.17.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/312810195/Screen+Shot+2021-08-09+at+08.07.40.png 81167253 new in stock 80781696 The Human Emergancy by Liv Torc <p align="center"><i>"In Liv Torc's witty, inventive and generous hands, poetry opens up new ways of noticing and sharing all that matters most."</i><br><b>Susannah Herbert, Head of Forward Arts Foundation and National Poetry Day (2012-2021)</b></p> <p align="justify">This is a book of poetry: half human, half emergency. It's about what it means to be alive and angry and afraid. It's about the climate crisis. 's about the coronavirus pandemic. It's about being in hospital and having kids and growing older and being married and facing death. It's about roller skating. It's about this gorgeous magical planet that is trying so hard to save us. It's about humans.</p> <p align="justify">Liv Torc is a spoken word artist and producer who plunders the vast caverns and dormant volcanoes of the human and planetary condition. A Radio 4 Slam Winner, a former Bard of Exeter, host of the Rainbow Fish Speakeasy and current co-host of the Hip Yak Poetry Shack. Liv runs Haiflu, the Hip Yak Poetry School and the spoken word stage at WOMAD. In 2019 her climate change in-the-face-of-motherhood poem The Human Emergency went viral across the world. She also performed at Glastonbury Festival on the Poetry and Words stage and represented Somerset for the BBC's National Poetry Day celebrations. In 2020 she was chosen as one of four Siren Poets by Cape Farewell for a commission on climate change in the time of COVID. She also wrote and filmed a poem for the BBC's Make a Difference campaign. Liv is the creator of the Haiflu, a UK wide poetry, photography and film project that uses crowdsourced haiku and images to tell the social history of life under lockdown. Haiflu has been featured in The Times, The Sunday Times and Mslexia magazine and is one of the only poetry initiatives ever aired on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme. Her first published book Show Me Life was released in 2015 by Burning Eye. She is also the proud author of the family friendly poetry book Banana Poems, released in January 2021.</p> Go direct: <a href="https://www.livtorc.co.uk/">www.livtorc.co.uk</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-human-emergancy-by-liv-torc https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/311767053/9781913958145.jpg 80781696 new in stock 80114364 This Is Not Therapy by Tina Sederholm <p align="justify"><i>‘Tina is a wonderful mix of warm, acerbic, and sometimes terrifyingly honest. She turns life's vicissitudes into lessons we can all laugh at. Her larger-than-life stage presence is perfectly crafted, and draws you in from across the intimate tea shop, the crowded theatre, or the massive festival field. '</i> <b>- Fay Roberts</b></p> <p align="justify">Tina Sederholm is a pathfinder, scouting out the best ways to survive in our confusing and overwrought world. Fuelled by a passionate belief in the healing power of art, and the contention that no person or day is exempt from an interesting story, she uses her finely honed wit to confront complex questions such as: How do you live a meaningful life? What sort of God is worth believing in? How do you best fold your socks? The result is an infectious rebel shout-out to finding joy even in difficult circumstances. hope and solace for those traversing any transition in their life.</p> -- <p align="justify">Tina Sederholm is a poet and theatre-maker. Described as ‘Completely spellbinding’ ***** (Edfringe Review) and ’Stunning’ ***** (Three Weeks), she has created four solo spoken word theatre shows that have toured extensively, including six runs at the Edinburgh Fringe. A sought-after headliner on the festival and spoken word circuit, she has performed everywhere from allotments to the Royal Albert Hall. She also loves to help other writers hone their craft, providing editing expertise through one to one mentoring and workshops. When she is not writing or performing, Tina can be found walking her dogs across the rolling North Oxfordshire landscape where she lives. Formerly a successful event rider, trainer and author of three books on equestrianism, she has also been known to still give the odd riding lesson. <i>This is Not Therapy</i> is her second full-length poetry collection.</p> <a href="https://www.tinasederholm.com/">tinasederholm.com</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/this-is-not-therapy-by-tina-sederholm https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/309969243/9781913958015.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/309969288/Screen+Shot+2021-07-05+at+10.21.46.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/309969294/Screen+Shot+2021-07-05+at+10.22.00.png 80114364 new in stock 79492242 The Last Custodian by Stephen Lightbown <p align="justify"><i>‘A compelling and formally inventive collection of poems that is also a sweeping story. Stephen Lightbown’s The Last Custodian chronicles crisis, and questions our ideas of memory, survival. Coming, as it does, in this moment of global pandemic, The Last Custodian will touch many a reader with its unrelenting, questioning, echoing voice. A moving, inimitable book.’</i> <b>- Ilya Kaminsky</b></p> <p align="justify">A paraplegic wakes to find he is the sole survivor of an unknown apocalypse. He decides to survive and spends a year navigating the empty motorways of England to see if he really is the only one left alive. He sets off with only his wheelchair and enough food and medical supplies to last a week. To live beyond that he must adapt and scavenge. Told through a daily account of poems he begins to question his own identity, whether you are disabled if there is no-one to be compared to and what does it mean to want to move forwards.'</p> -- <p align="justify">Stephen Lightbown is a Blackburn-born, Bristol-based poet and disability rights champion. Paralysed following an accident in 1996 when he was sixteen, Stephen uses his poems to give a voice to his disability. He has spoken at events across the UK and at festivals such as Shambala, WOMAD, Verve Poetry Festival and Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival. In addition, Stephen has read internationally in San Antonio, Texas. His poems have been widely anthologised, and <i>The Last Custodian</i> is his second poetry collection.</p> <a href="http://www.stephenlightbown.com/">www.stephenlightbown.com</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-last-custodian-by-stephen-lightbown https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/308166033/9781913958077.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/308166060/Screen+Shot+2021-06-15+at+09.41.44.png 79492242 new in stock 78857403 Please Do Not Touch by Casey Bailey <p align="center"><i>‘This is a beautifully shattering collection. How delicately it unstitches small and personal disasters on the page. How Casey flattens Birmingham and soaks our hands into its soil so we too feel it’s warmth, it’s grit, the seeds that may still germinate one day. Wow.’</i><br><b>- Caleb Femi</b></p> <p align="justify">Walk around any stately home, museum or National Trust property and you are likely to see the words please do not touch more than a few times. The irony is in most cases the sign is telling you not to touch something that was stolen from another land, something that should have never been touched in the first place. This collection asks important questions about these things, these places and this society. Where would these things be if they were never taken from their rightful place? How have the ill gotten gains of colonialism shaped our society today? What does it mean to appreciate and enjoy spaces that were never meant for you?</p> <p align="center"><i>‘The poems within have formal rigour and thematic punch, unafraid to address pain but also lingeron moments of irony, beauty and transcendance. One of Birmingham’s best and brightest voices, it’s great to see his words in print.’</i><br><b>- Vanessa Kisuule</b></p> --- <p align="justify">Casey Bailey is a writer, performer and educator, born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, UK. Casey is the Birmingham Poet Laureate 2020 - 2022. Casey was named as one of ‘Birmingham Live’s’, Birmingham ’30 under 30’ of 2018. Casey was also recognised in 2019 when he was made a Fellow of the University of Worcester. He was named the Greater Birmingham Future Face of Arts and Culture 2020. Casey released his debut full collection of poetry, <i>Adjusted</i> in 2018 with Verve Poetry Press. His debut play ‘GrimeBoy’ was commissioned by the Birmingham Rep in 2020. Casey’s poetry has featured in a number of anthologies and he was commissioned by the BBC to write ‘The Ballad of The Peaky Blinders’ in 2019. In 2020 the poem was internationally recognised, winning a Webby Award. Casey has performed his poetry nationally, and internationally.</p> Go direct: <a href="http://caseybailey.co.uk/">caseybailey.co.uk</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/please-do-not-touch-by-casey-bailey https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306311892/9781913958053.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306312009/Screen+Shot+2021-05-26+at+10.51.17.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306312012/Screen+Shot+2021-05-26+at+10.52.31.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306311922/My+Post+_24_.png 78857403 new in stock 78374571 Yay! by Robert Garnham <p align="center"><i>‘What I love most about Robert Garnham is that he seems naïve and childish enough to believe that poetry can be for the actual pleasure of the reader. He is excellent company. In short he’s an excellent poet with an inimitable voice and a nice smile. There’s warmth in his whimsy, it’s sturdy not flimsy. Where others might proffer inanity he offers humanity.’</i><br><b>- Matt Harvey</b></p> <p align="justify">You know how it is when the summer comes, and you have an album which you play over and over, which seems to sum up a very particular time and place? In which each song seems to sing of life and the very joy of living it? Yay! Is a collection of upbeat poems for uncertain times, poems of imagination and escape, whimsy and warmth, humanity and honesty. From a man trapped in a toilet in a motorbike museum with a cistern which refuses to flush, to a small town in West Virginia in which absolutely everything has a suddenly erotic undertone, via Scratch 'n' Sniff hieroglyphs and the world's most mediocre circus, these poems are a veritable celebration of life from the Professor of Whimsy.</p> --- <p align="justify">Robert Garnham has been performing comedy poetry around the UK for over twelve years at various fringes and festivals, theatres and poetry events. He has made a few short TV adverts for a certain bank, and a joke from one of his shows was listed among the funniest of the Edinburgh Fringe. He was recently an answer on the TV quiz show Pointless. Lately he has been writing short stories for magazines and a humorous newspaper column. During his career he has performed on a moving train, in a florist’s, on a boat and on a bus, as well as headlining at the legendary LGBT Duplex Cabaret in New York. He has won poetry slams in London, Edinburgh, Exeter and Totnes. He also provides vocals and lyrics for the experimental jazz fashion band Croydon Tourist Office. His inspirations are eclectic and include Laurie Anderson, Ivor Cutler, Salena Godden, Rachel Pantechnicon, Douglas Adams, Pet Shop Boys, John Hegley, Alan Bennett, Jerry Seinfeld, Pam Ayres, Dandy Darkly, Frank O’Hara, MargOH! Channing, David Byrne and Spalding Gray.</p> Go direct: <a href="https://www.professorofwhimsy.com/">www.professorofwhimsy.com/</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/yay-by-robert-garnham https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/304908849/9781913958022.JPG https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306312165/Screen+Shot+2021-05-26+at+10.55.18.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/306312171/My+Post+_1_.png 78374571 new in stock 77857185 I Find My Strength in Simple Things by Desree <p align="center"><i>'Lyrical, narrative and reflective I Find My Strength in Simple Things is an important addition to the spoken word canon.’</i><br><b>-JOELLE TAYLOR</b></p> <p align="justify">Political, funny, heart-breaking, I Find My Strength In Simple Things is an exploration of growth, chaos and relationships. In homage to Desree’s spoken word performances, a majority of the poems are paired with QR codes, which link to films of the performances that made her. Desree invites us to care, explore and to find our strength with her, using thought-provoking one-liners and her incredible stage presence. I Find My Strength In Simple Things, will have you laughing and crying, as you are reminded the human experience is a messy one.</p> <p align="center"><i>'I Find My Strength In Simple Things comes loaded with honesty, clarity, and the bottomless depth of a tremendous writer & performer applying her skills to create a collection of poems that battle racial and gender injustices, display self-empowerment, and aren't afraid to be chillingly sincere in an age of cynicism.'</i><br>- <b>THE REPEAT BEAT POET</b></p> <p align="justify">Desree is a spoken word artist, writer and facilitator based in both London and Slough. Currently Artist in Residence for poetry collective EMPOWORD, and an  Ambassador  for  MQ; Mental Health Research Charity,  Desree  explores intersectionality, justice and social commentary, occasionally throwing in a f*ckboy poem.  <br><br> Desree was shortlisted for both the performance and film category in 2020 and recipient of the 2019's Highly Commended Out-Spoken Performance Prize. Also the finalist in 2018’s Hammer & Tongue final and TEDx speaker, Desree has featured at events around the UK and internationally, including Glastonbury Festival 2019, Bowery Poetry Club New York, Royal Albert Hall and Sofar Sounds. </p> Go direct: <a href="https://www.iamdesree.co.uk/">www.iamdesree.co.uk/</a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/i-find-my-strength-in-simple-things-by-desree https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/303380319/9781913958039.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/304440984/Screen+Shot+2021-05-06+at+08.14.56.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/304440987/Screen+Shot+2021-05-06+at+08.15.11.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/304440990/Screen+Shot+2021-05-06+at+08.15.22.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/304441029/My+Post+_27_+copy.png 77857185 new in stock 76928550 Dating & Other Hobbies By Cat Hepburn <p align="center"><i>'Dating & Other Hobbies is a vicarious thrill-ride of a book, dragging you on an epically sexy, boozy good night out and not sparing your blushes, aches or throbbing head the morning after. A witty, gorgeous, genital-warts-and-all take on millennial dating culture that had me curling my toes for a number of reasons…'</i><br><b>- Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen</b></p> <p align="justify">Dating & Other Hobbies is a collection of female-centred poetry and short stories from spoken word artist Cat Hepburn. Screaming with authenticity and using toe-curlingly relatable observations on millennial culture, Cat’s unashamed writing treats the reader with the honesty of a wine guzzling bestie on a night out, making it both gut-wrenching and spit-your-tea-out funny.<br> Confessional, uncomfortable and hilarious all at once, from regrettable one night stands, to ghosting to extramarital affairs- no stone is left unturned. Shining a light on the nuances of human connection and interaction in a world of digital dating and sexual exploration, Dating & Other Hobbies provides a celebration of early adulthood, and all the beautiful mess that comes with it.</p> <p align="center"><i>'Dating & Other Hobbies dazzles with an agile wit, scorching honesty and a weather eye on the plight of society. It hits like an espresso martini served in a library by a doctor of philosophy dancing to Lady Gaga.'</i><br> <b>Phill Jupitus</b></p> <p align="justify">Cat Hepburn is an award winning scriptwriter and spoken word artist based between Glasgow and Berlin. Her work has featured nationally and internationally across screen, stage and page on the likes of BBC6 Music Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Channel 4. She is the author of the poetry book #GIRLHOOD, which she developed into a hit solo spoken word theatre show in 2019. Cat is also the co-founder of Sonnet Youth, one of Scotland’s leading spoken word nights.</p> <a href="https://cathepburn.co.uk">www.cathepburn.co.uk</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/dating-other-hobbies https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/300676662/9781913958046.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/300676701/Dating_Chapter_2_Casual_Final.jpg 76928550 new in stock 76060788 The Day My Head Exploded by Rob Gee <p align="center"><i>“One of the most gifted and funny poets in Britain today."</i><br> <b>- Hammer & Tongue</b></p> <p align="justify">Rob Gee worked for twelve years as a mental health nurse before becoming a stand-up poet. When his career as a performer was interrupted by COVID-19, he returned to nursing. The poems in this collection are drawn from his experiences as a nurse, inpatient and writer in healthcare settings.</p> <p align="center"><i>"A natural-born storyteller with the ability to create equal parts comedy and empathy from the stories and characters he brings to life."</i><br> <b>- Toronto Star</b></p> <p align="justify">Rob Gee qualified as a psychiatric nurse in 1994 and worked for twelve years in mental health units around the UK and Australia. Working mainly in acute psychiatry, he has also worked in child and adolescent units, drug and alcohol services, eating disorders, early psychosis intervention, dementia settings and psychiatric intensive care.<br><br>As a stand-up poet, Rob has won numerous poetry slams, including the Edinburgh Slam, the Arts Council’s Lit Up Slam, BBC2’s Why Poetry Matters Slam and the Orlando Poetry Smackdown. He’s performed at a hundred fringe festivals across the world and received over twenty awards for his solo shows. He is patron of Leicestershire Action for Mental Health Project (LAMP) and lead artist for the Comedy Asylum: comedy shows written and performed by people receiving mental health treatment. Rob returned to nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p> <a href="https://www.robgee.co.uk/">www.robgee.co.uk</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-day-my-head-exploded-by-rob-gee https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/298177800/9781913958008.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/298178268/Screen+Shot+2021-03-08+at+13.52.38.png 76060788 new in stock 70665266 NEON by Bethany Rose <p align="center"><i>“Painful, dark and true, lit up with intense poetic fire and yet curiously practical - a wonderful collection for these times and forever”.</i><br> <b>- Emma Thompson</b></p> <p algn="justify"><i>NEON</i> softly lights the shadowy path of LGBT issues, mental health, school, grief and longing. Delve into a mind of swimming pools and hospitals, planets and supernovas, classrooms and therapy offices, playgrounds and the sky – all bound together in tight poetry spliced with light. This collection is dedicated to anyone who is looking for a way to come back home to themselves.</p> <p align="center"><i>"Bethany Rose’s poetry will electrify your mind, and kiss your soul."</i><br> <b>- Dolly Alderton</b></p> <p align="justify">Bethany Rose’s poem ‘Pink’ aired on BBC3 last year and received over five million views, and her commission ‘Lightbulb’ for BBC1 had just under one million. Beth is an LGBT spoken word poet and illustrator who writes about everything from sexuality to mental health, through to longing and light. Beth has had sell out performances across the world, with shows at The Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, the Phoenix Club in the West-End, Le Chat Noir in Paris, and many more. Beth has done commissions for ITV, Amnesty International, The Courtauld Institute of Art and TEDX. Beth was also chosen to be one of Nationwide’s ‘Voice of the People’, with her poem being aired on prime-time television for ITV.</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l_UiQTjn_8k" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> https://www.bethanyrosepoetry.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/neon-by-bethany-rose https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/282591779/9781911570974.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/282591848/49276818_10101249900772864_691895905418215424_n_10101249900767874.jpeg 70665266 new in stock 70583222 Complete & Utter Cult! by Elvis McGonagall <p align="justify">Stand-up poet, comedian and walking shortbread tin Elvis McGonagall returns with <i>Complete and Utter Cult!</i>. This new collection of satirical verse captures Elvis’ ongoing futile exasperation at the dismal trajectory of our post-truth world as it trundles along the primrose path to Beelzebub’s bottomless pit. Fake news and COVID-19. Organic novichok and Piers Morgan. Yes, the good ship lollipop is sailing down the shitter. Climb aboard with Elvis as he bellows into the void of our diseased, burning planet and we all drift towards a giant melting iceberg. <br><br> <i>Complete and Utter Cult!</i> tackles everything from the pernicious effects of the patriarchy to disappearing rainforests via Brexit milkshakes and a pandemic. Yes, all the feel-good hits are here, fully annotated with the innermost thoughts from the canyons of Elvis’ mind as he banged away on his typewriter at The Graceland Caravan Park. And there’s a love poem.</p> <p align="center"><i>“Elvis McGonagall is one of my favourite poets. His poems have wit, intelligence and imagination. He performs with honesty and integrity and makes me laugh, think and feel. After, but not until, you've bought all my books I thoroughly recommend his”</i><br> <b>- Henry Normal</b> </p> <p align="center"><i>“….a sharp and savvy political commentator who pulls no punches with searing wit, astute observation and a thrilling gift for hyperbole. A deceptively intelligent commentary on modern life that is inclusive, accessible and utterly hilarious”</i><br> (Chloe Caprani, Ed Fest Mag ★★★★★)</p> www.elvismcgonagall.co.uk 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/complete-utter-cult-by-elvis-gonagall https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/286747527/9781911570950.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/282356954/c+C_U+Truthiness+P.13.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/282356978/k+C_U+Thunder+mutters+P.58.jpg 70583222 new in stock 69381104 Meanwhile by Cynthia Rodríguez <p align="center"><i>'Cynthia Rodríguez unflinchingly turns a mirror to self, to Britain, what it means to be a migrant, a citizen.<br>Fearful and fearless.'</i><br> <b>Dean Atta</b></p> <p align="justify">This is a book about being trapped in the Meanwhile. Walking through seemingly perpetual journeys between borders, genders, nationalities and social status. As product of mixing races, yet not mixed race. Inhabiting a large body of before with no clear sense of an after. Set to a time of one’s own, decades lost and found in the way, at the mercy of socio-political circumstances, legal procedures and test results. Cyclically prone to fail and start again.<br> These poems are inspired by liminality and rites of passage we cannot come back from. They look at the new millennium, where the rituals of adulthood, of becoming, of making sense as a role model citizen and perceived pillar of society, are based on capitalist milestones of maturity and self-realisation which seem impossible to those stuck in the Meanwhile.<br> These respectability parameters are the ones accepted for those who are locked within the narrative of ‘the good migrant’, ‘the successful queer’, ‘the child prodigy’, ‘the perfect body’ and ‘the beautiful mind’; as if the only way to escape judgement and earn dignity as human beings within the margins is to fit into the media and government-approved stories of acceptance and assimilation at the right time, place and age.<br></p> -- <p align="justify">Cynthia Rodríguez (Monterrey, 1986) is a Mexican-British writer and performer based in Leicester. International, intersectional and interdisciplinary, Rodríguez uses poetry to convey everyday realities that may remain untold in media, particularly on feminist issues, cultural and countercultural shock, rites of passage and self-preservation. Mouthy Poets alumna and DIY punk artist at heart, her work has been featured in several zines and independent anthologies, including <i>Welcome to Leicester</i> (eds Emma Lee and Ambrose Musiyiwa), the <i>Black Flamingo Zine</i> (eds Dean Atta and Ben Connors) and <i>Do Something</i> (ed. Selina Lock). On stage, Rodríguez has opened for renowned artists such as Lydia Towsey, Hannah Swings, Caroline Bird, Lauren John Joseph and Jamie Thrasivoulou.</p> <p align="center"><i>‘This collection’s five beautifully drawn chapters, expose cruelties of political indifference and appropriated identities, whilst celebrating, uplifting, consoling and uniting – all via a backdrop of rich magical realism, protest and transformation. In this confident and important debut, Rodriguez draws on heritage, culture and politics to sing a Girl Electric – reframing and reclaiming a range of often marginalised experiences – to devastating, triumphant and compelling effect.’</i><br> <b>Lydia Towsey</b></p> https://cynthiarodriguez.org/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/meanwhile-by-cynthia-rodriguez https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/278880260/9781911570943.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/278880320/04+The+Perfect+Body300.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/278880359/Screen+Shot+2020-09-29+at+09.02.12.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/280025756/Screen+Shot+2020-10-08+at+08.50.49.png 69381104 new in stock 68565995 Spirograph by Pauline Sewards Author's note: <p align="justify">When I think of a Spirograph I see interlocking and repeating patterns, distinctive colours overlapping, a pleasing symmetry. When I try and draw one I get into a mess, the ink smudges, the lines blur.<br> I started writing this collection a couple of years ago, although some of the poems are a bit older. For part of this time I was coediting Magma 74 the work edition and I think I was asked to do this because a lot of my poems are about work.I have been a drug and alcohol nurse for years; a job I love but the conditions, for all concerned, are frustrating. There are many stories to be told about this but I can only write from my own perspective and my main concern is to avoid appropriating other people’s experience, while wanting to give an account of something which is hardly written about from this angle. I also like writing about landscapes and hidden, mostly female, histories. This is the origin of the first three sections of the book. The last section is called wonder, which is open to interpretation. Everything is aspirational.</p> <p align="center"><i>‘These are quietly wise and beautiful poems. They hold up mundane details of lives that might otherwise be forgotten to the light and make them shine. There are compelling accounts of working in a drugs unit and of the gently cruel toll taken by time. These poems capture and redeem lost things, from English pubs to women on a psychiatric ward and Bristol’s buzzing streets. Shimmering underneath all of them is a respect and care for invisible women- and a poet whose song is ringing out clear as a bell.’</i></p> <p align="center"><b>Kate Fox</b></p> --- Pauline Sewards is a Bristol based poet and founder of the regular event in Easton called 'Satellite of Love'. Her first collection <i>This is the Band</i> was published by Hearing Eye in 2018. In 2019 she co-edited <i>Magma74 - The Work Edition</i>. Recent publications include a poem featured in <i>Messing Up the Paintwork - a tribute to Mark E Smith</i>. published by Penguin Random House and a poem in <i>Witches, Warriors and Workers</i> an anthology of working class women's poetry published by Culture Matters. <p align="center"><i>‘Pauline writes about war on the home front, coping, helping others to cope. It’s a poetry that doesn’t try to cover up, or beautify neediness. For me, its simplicity and transparency allows me in. It’s poetry from a professional carer, but not one where the profession has overwhelmed the person. She is strong. She copes. She remains responsive. Her heart is intact.’</i><br> <b>Jude Cowan Montague</b> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/spirograph-by-pauline-sewards https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/276531065/9781911570936.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/276532361/Screen+Shot+2020-09-10+at+09.50.21.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/276532364/Screen+Shot+2020-09-10+at+09.51.11.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/276532367/Screen+Shot+2020-09-10+at+09.52.31.png 68565995 new in stock 67550150 MANATOMY by James McDermott <p align="center"><i>‘Simply magnificent. You don’t have to have grown up gay to appreciate this poetry but it will have a special charge, beauty and meaning for those of us who have’</i></p> <p align="center"><b>- Stephen Fry</b></p> <p align="justify"><i>Manatomy</i> is a collection of wry, witty and cheeky poems exploring how nature, nurture, pop culture, prejudice and politics shape the identity of camp gay man James McDermott.</p> <p align="justify">Structured in three parts – ‘Boy’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Man’ – <i>Manatomy</i> interrogates how the experiences of growing up gay in a homophobic world and in rural millennial England affect a gay man’s relationships with himself, his partners, the LGBTQ+ community and the wider world.</p> <p align="center"><i>'Bold, graphic and startling'</i></p> <p align="center"><b>- Julian Clary</b></p> <p align="justify">James McDermott is a playwright and performance poet based in East Anglia, represented by Independent Talent. He graduated from UEA with an MA in Scriptwriting and trained on the Royal Court Writers’ Group, Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab and Hampstead Theatre’s Inspire: The Next Playwright Programme. </p> <p align="justify">James has performed his poetry at venues across the country including the Southbank Centre, Arcola Theatre and Norwich Arts Centre. He has been commissioned to write poems for The Scottish Mental Health Festival, Ian Giles’s queer walking tours Open Ramble East and for Luton Culture’s People PowerPassion. James has also written several verse plays including <i>Human Screens</i> and <i>Reveal</i> (both commissioned and produced by Collusion). James was shortlisted for Outspoken’s Prize for Poetry 2020 in the Performance Category. </p> <p align="center"><i>'This funny, frank and filthy debut begs to be shared with friends, lovers and homophobic relatives'</i></p> <p align="center"><b>- Molly Naylor</b></p> -- https://youtu.be/sc91UEP6xfc Follow James on Twitter @jamesliammcd jamesmcdermottwriter.weebly.com. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/manatomy-by-james-mcdermott https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/273771530/9781911570912.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/273646970/Screen+Shot+2020-08-18+at+11.42.36.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/273646973/Screen+Shot+2020-08-18+at+11.42.51.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/273646976/Screen+Shot+2020-08-18+at+11.43.05.png 67550150 new in stock 66917480 Tales from the Other Box by Rick Dove <p align="justify">As a mixed heritage, biracial, neuro-diverse writer (and middle child), Rick Dove has generally avoided being put in boxes, and while many books could be written in an attempt to answer to the question “Where are you from?” this isn’t THAT book, but an attempt by the author of that book, to come to terms with the question itself.</p> -- <p align="center">‘If explosions could be gentle, this book is one. Fusing a lyricism founded in beauty and a rage bitten back for decades, this is a startling and important new work.’</p> - <b>Joelle Taylor</b> <p align="center">‘This is the kind of book you will softly write notes in with a pencil so you do not forget the parts that touched you the most. It is the kind of book you will excitedly pull out from the bookshelf to read for years to come.’ </p> - <b>Kat Francois</b> <p align="center">‘Tales from the Other Box contains quiet rage at racism’s aggressions and micro-aggressions. It is also a book about regret for loves and lives lost. Judging from the quality of this debut, Rick Dove will definitely be one to watch.’</p> - <b>Roger Robinson</b> -- <p align="justify">Rick Dove is a London-based poet and storyteller. Born in Tooting and raised in south London in the 1980s and 1990s, Rick has witnessed the effects of both increasing multiculturalism and, more recently, gentrification on the same childhood streets, and, as such, his work reflects on both societal and personal change and how these two forces interact as we grow. A regular on London’s burgeoning poetry scene since late 2015, Rick’s performance features have included the Boomerang Club; Spoken Word London; Speak=; the ClitArt Festival 2017; Crystal Palace International Festival; Once Upon a Mic; The Chocolate Poetry Club, including a residency in 2016. As a poetry slam participant Rick has come second in the UK Slam Final 2019, been a highly commended semi-finalist of the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam 2018, he won the Farrago Slam (November 2018), and won the Hammer & Tongue Hackney’s 2018/2019 season.</p> <p align="justify">Rick’s work has been published widely, including pieces in London South Bank University Anthology, London Spoken Word Anthology, New Poetry Magazine, Soapbox, Guardian Online and the Morning Star. His first solo pamphlet, Haigha’s Noosphere Canticles, was published by William Cornelius Harris Publishing in 2017. This is Rick’s first full published collection of poetry.</p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/tales-from-the-other-box-by-rick-dove https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/271862828/9781911570899.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/272640635/Screen+Shot+2020-08-10+at+07.59.39.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/272640638/Screen+Shot+2020-08-10+at+08.00.53.png 66917480 new in stock 65633756 Get Over Yourself by Leanne Moden <p align="center">‘There’s something magical about Leanne. Each time I hear a new poem from her it’s like an old friend has come round to visit.’ - <b>Mark Grist</b></p> <p align="justify"><i>Get Over Yourself</i> is a biographical delve into belonging, exclusion, and the relationship between self-awareness and self-delusion, the rejection of social norms, and the ways in which we accept and question implied cultural rules. Using humour, spoken word poetry and storytelling Leanne takes us through the familiar – teenage rebellion, grief, sex, self esteem and self-discovery in a personal political narrative that always reminds us of the uncertain world we are growing into. The poems in this collection question received wisdom, playfully unravelling the awkward and the bizarre aspects of modern life. </p> <p align="justify">Leanne's poetry is an exploration of human failures and resilience, the things that make us angry, and the things that make us laugh.</p> -- <p align="center">‘Leanne has a razor-sharp eye for detail and a turn of phrase that’ll stay with you. These poems are joyous, uplifting and filled with lines that jump out and grab you by the heart.’ - <b>Jess Green</b></p> <p align="center">‘Leanne’s work wraps around your brain like a word hug. It is caring, healing, encouraging, empowering, and full of love. A love born from an understanding of hurt, struggle and oppression, met with wit, wordplay and wisdom. A heartfelt and powerful collection.’ - <b>Dominic Berry</b></p> <p align="center">‘These are words infused with empathy and wit, with colour and surprise.' - <b>Shruti Chauhan</b></p> -- <a href="http://www.leannemoden.com"><u>leannemoden.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/get-over-yourself-by-leanne-moden https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/268270055/9781911570875.jpg 65633756 new in stock 65214557 Alternate Endings by Erin Bolens Alternate Endings is a collection of poems made of worry and hope. With wit and warmth, Erin looks for the beginnings in endings as she confi des her stories of living, loving, feeling and fretting. These are poems with big hearts and wry smiles. They are hugs for the days when it’s all a bit much and energy for the days that you can change the world. “Erin’s poetry is nourishment for the soul. Being able to sit down with this collection was an absolute joy. Always heartwarming, often heartbreaking, these poems have made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my eyes. I felt like I was glowing the whole way through.” - Harry Baker “Utterly brilliant: poetry that fi zzes in your tummy and stirs your heart. I loved every page.” - Leena Norms 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/alternate-endings-by-erin-bolens https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/267086255/9781911570868.jpg 65214557 new in stock 64337603 [re:desire] by afshan d'souza-lodhi <i>longlisted for the Jhalak Prize</i> <p align="center"><i>‘This is an evocative collection of painful and beautiful multilingual poems in which silences are broken, sexuality is uncertain, and love is a bloody mess.’</i> - <b>Dean Atta</b></p> <p align="justify">Afshan D’souza-Lodhi’s debut poetry collection [re:desire] explores the yearning to love, be loved and belong from a desi (South Asian) perspective. Her work sits on the intersections of flash fiction, poetry and script, echoing the hybridity of the worlds that many young British desis find themselves occupying. Drawing on the poetry of many different languages and cultures – Urdu, English, Konkani, Islamic and Christian – this collection explores how we access our traditions from a distance.</p> <p align="justify">[re:desire] draws upon literary traditions and cultural references to flip the male gaze common in mushairas on its head. Common themes for mushairas are love, God and being drunk or intoxicated by love and God – but is usually seen from a male perspective. The pieces in re: desire are mainly told from a female perspective, and question the gender given to particular acts, objects and ideas. </p> -- <p align="center"><i>‘Afshan is without a doubt the poets voice I have been waiting for, her poems take you on a journey questioning all those places we have been and are going to; her work is witty , beautiful and poignant showing us language has no boundaries.’</i> - <b>Shobna Gulati</b></p> -- Afshan D’souza-Lodhi is an award-winning writer of plays and poetry. She has been commissioned to write and direct a short film for Channel 4 and a radio play for BBC Sounds (Chop Chop). Afshan has edited many anthologies and has an essay featured in Picador’s collection by Muslim women called <i>Its Not About The Burqa</i>. She has completed residencies at Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester Literature Festival and has worked with Eclipse Theatre, Tamasha Theatre Company and Paul Burston’s Polari. As well as her own writing, Afshan is keen to develop other younger and emerging artists and sits on the boards of Manchester Literature Festival and Pie Radio. Afshan also sits on the steering committee for Northern Police Monitoring Project, an independent campaigning and advocacy organisation that challenges police harassment and violence. -- <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1iLr1wlE1bo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/re-desire-by-afshan-d-souza-lodhi https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264561203/9781911570851.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264561494/Screen+Shot+2020-06-06+at+10.06.19.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264561497/Screen+Shot+2020-06-06+at+10.07.58.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264561500/Screen+Shot+2020-06-06+at+10.08.25.png 64337603 new in stock 64173644 Stop Trying To Be Fantastic by Molly Naylor <p align="center"><i>‘Molly makes me laugh and her poetry makes my heart grow plumper and more confident. I love her words and her honesty.’</i> - Sara Pascoe</p> -- <p align="justify">Molly Naylor is a poet, scriptwriter, performer and director. She is the co-writer of Sky One comedy After Hours. Theatre work includes Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You (writer/ performer), My Robot Heart (writer/ performer) and LIGHTS! PLANETS! PEOPLE! (writer/ director).</p> <p align="justify">She has written for a range of organisations including BBC Radio 4, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the British Film Institute.</p> Her first poetry collection <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/badminton-pre-order"><u>Badminton</u></a> was also published by Burning Eye Books. She is the co-director of True Stories Live. <a href="http://www.mollynaylor.com"><u>www.mollynaylor.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/stop-trying-to-be-fantastic-by-molly-naylor https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264100100/9781911570844.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264100673/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.08.09.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264100670/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.08.58.png 64173644 new in stock 63241730 Happiness FM by Mary Dickins <p align="justify">These playful and irreverent poems form a journey through the complexities and contradictions of modern life. Mary Dickins will introduce you to original characters and ideas with wry humour and tenderness. <i>Happiness FM</i> is a celebration of all that is sublime and ridiculous in the world. </p> -- <p align="center"><i>'Happiness FM' will take you on an exhilarating ride, travelling at breakneck speed from the everyday to the transcendental and back again. But as you read between the layers of laughs, jaunty rhythms and irresistible rhymes, you'll discover an understated pathos and a highly politicised mind at work. These poems will sing in your mind long after you've closed the pages of this determined, honest and uplifting collection.'</i> - <b>Jacqueline Saphra</b></p> -- <p align="justify">Mary wrote her first poem when she was four and writing poems has been her passion and life support system ever since. Ten years ago she began sharing her work at poetry events, street parties and slams and became a regular performer at the legendary Bang Said the Gun. She has been Poet in Residence for Open Garden Squares at various London locations and was a finalist in the Poetry Rivals National Slam 2015. Her poem “Dear Professor Brian Cox” was used to launch the popular Muddy Feet Poetry channel.</p> <p align="justify">She has been on television and radio as part of the Nationwide Building Society poetry ad campaign and continues to dish up poems all over the country as part of the Poetry Takeaway team. In 2017 she set up the “Poems not Pills” project to promote the therapeutic value of poetry for health professionals and their patients.</p> <p align="justify">Always witty and insightful Mary’s writing is a joyful and affectionate exploration of the human condition and what it means to be alive.</p> <p align="justify">As she celebrates her 71st year on this perplexing planet she is delighted to have this opportunity to share her thoughts with you.</p> -- <p align="centre"><i>'Mary Dickins debut collection Happiness FM hugs you like a warm cup of cocoa. Full of wit and charm her poetry will make you chuckle and joyfully reflect on how beautifully odd this world can be.'</i> - <b>Peter Hayhoe (Muddy Feet Poetry)</b></p> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2VP6iE81Yoc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/happiness-fm-by-mary-dickins https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/261388232/9781911570837.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264100943/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.13.09.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264100946/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.13.42.png 63241730 new in stock 61171514 Witness by Jonathan Kinsman <p align="justify"><i>witness</i> is about taking the gospel back to its radical roots in a time that has poured whitewash over it. This is a story about a man executed by the state for saying things they didn’t want to hear. This is a story about those that followed him.</p> <p align="center"><i>In a series of poems which tenderly, fiercely re-imagine the lives of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, witness confronts the fact that what was radical in first century Palestine is hardly less so here and now. Stories made smooth and prosaic from overuse have their contours and intricacies uncovered, the near-fabular figures of the disciples restored to life in all their shabbiness, in all their glory.</i> – <b>Dave Coates, poetry critic.</b></p> <p align="justify">Jonathan Kinsman is a transgender male poet from Manchester. Raised Church of England and with a background in theological study they live their life marrying their spirituality and their sexuality. As well as being Founding Editor of Riggwelter Press and Associate Editor of Three Drops From A Cauldron, they are also a slam finalist. Their debut pamphlet & was joint-winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize 2017.</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LMkwFsx4T2w" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/witness-by-jonathan-kinsman https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/255483263/9781911570820.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264101147/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.16.37.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264101144/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.17.23.png 61171514 new in stock 60352457 Biceps by Laurie Eaves <p align="justify"><i>Biceps</i> is a love story, following a relationship from first sparks one frosty Bonfire Night through day trips to windy Hull and into the stalemate of dysfunctional domesticity. <br/> <br/> It’s a story about the physical and emotional tidying we go through when we fall out of love. <br/> <br/> It’s a story that explores the small ways we learn to understand ourselves better as a result of our relationships and gain the strength to start rebuilding in the face of personal loss.</p> -- <p align="justify">Laurie Eaves is a writer and long-distance runner from the village of Yapton.<br/> He began performing raps about acrobatic animals in the late noughties in Norwich, where he headed up UEA Open Mic before playing guitar (badly) in Lyrical Ballads Cabaret.<br/><br/> In 2014, Laurie moved to London and learnt that not every poem has to be a mile-a-minute rhyming rant. He started speaking more slowly, performing regularly across the capital and beyond.<br/><br/> His work has been anthologised by Poetry Rivals, Bad Betty Press, Allographic Press, GUG Press and Spoken Word London, and featured in videos for Muddy Feet Poetry, Process Productions and Team UK Youth Cycling. <br/><br/> He works regularly with The Poetry Takeaway, writing poems for strangers across the UK from the back of a burger van.<br/><br/> Today, most of Laurie’s poems are grit-and-honey pop songs about break-ups, tidying and weightlifting. He co-hosts the Dead Darlings podcast and co-produces the Vogon Poetry Slam. <br/><br/> He’s been described as ‘organised’ by three people this year.</p> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/biceps-by-laurie-eaves https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/254227565/9781911570813.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264101882/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.28.08.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/264101885/Screen+Shot+2020-06-02+at+15.28.54.png 60352457 new in stock 60351854 All The Days We Don't Revolt by Agnes Török <p align="center"><i>we have to find ways<br> to live in the world<br> while we are<br> changing it</i></p> <p align="justify">How do you get out of bed and pay the bills and fall in love and over-water the pot plants – all while the revolt needs you? <p align="justify">With care and creativity, hope and hilarity, exhaustion and empathy, Agnes Török’s award-winning poetry speaks about queer community-making, collective change and joyful resistance. <p align="justify">This is a book about how we care for ourselves and each other, all while fighting to make the world a better place.</p> -- <p align="justify">Agnes Török is an award-winning queer and genderfluid poet, TED speaker and author. Their work moves in between art and activism. Török has produced poetry in collaboration with several large organisations and campaigns for change, as well as established cultural institutions such as Roundhouse Theatre and the BBC. <p align="justify">Török has toured on four continents and written books in two languages about mental health, gender-based violence, the rise of the extreme right, and feminist and queer resistance movements. Török lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with their communities and pot plants. Their supporters and collaborators live around the world. <i>All the Days We Don’t Revolt</i> is Agnes’ fifth book, and the one closest to their hopelessly optimistic heart.</p> See also... <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/we-need-to-talk-by-agnes-torok"><u>We Need to Talk</u></a> <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/happiness-is-an-art-form-pre-order"><u>Happiness is an Art Form</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/all-the-days-we-don-t-revolt-by-agnes-torok https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/255489290/9781911570714.jpg 60351854 new in stock 60351629 Alright, Girl? by Maria Ferguson FORWARD PRIZE 2021 HIGHLY COMMENDED <p align="center>">‘Flawless. An essential read for the 2020s.’ - <b>SALENA GODDEN</b></p> <p align="justify"><i>Alright, Girl? </i>is an extremely personal yet relatable exploration of class, gender and belonging. Ferguson reflects on her working-class heritage, her journey into womanhood and the choices she must now face in an age of austerity and gentrification. Full of heart and humour these poems chart the familiarity of East End pubs, the pangs of loss, the mercy of love and the inescapable bonds of female friendship.</p> -- <p align="justify">Maria Ferguson is a writer and performer from Romford. She has been a resident artist for Roundhouse and Battersea Arts Centre and commissioned by Royal Academy of Art, Stylist and BBC Radio 1. Her debut solo show, Fat Girls Don’t Dance, sold out performances across the country and won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show. Her second show, Essex Girl, was shortlisted for Soho Theatre’s Tony Craze Award and won Show of the Week at VAULT 2019. </p> -- 'Ferguson is a poet for the people, washing her dirty poems in public and holding your eye as she does so. We need more voices like hers, democratic and challenging. Clever, funny, frank and uncompromising. A warrior.' - <b>JOELLE TALOR</b> <a href="https://mariaferg.com/"><u>mariaferg.com</u></a> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ejcb00-2v0Y" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/alright-girl-by-maria-ferguson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/253028090/9781911570745.jpg 60351629 new in stock 59163827 Totally Cultured by Dan Simpson <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NGeyvHhjDcY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Whilst the familiar themes of science and technology are examined with the snappily-smart observations he’s known for, in his second collection Dan Simpson taps into a more personal and poignant voice. By turns robust and vulnerable, the book is shot through with the sense of humour and linguistic dexterity for which the former Canterbury Laureate has built a reputation in the world of spoken word. Unafraid to play with form and structure, the collection includes a one-vowel-only black cab journey; a music review featuring all the words first coined in 1985; and a shape poem in the shape of a poem. Featuring pieces from four full length solo shows, plus material written for residencies and commissions, <i>Totally Cultured</i> is poetry at its most engaging and contemporary. ‘Dan’s love of the form lends itself to intricacy and playfulness in equal measure. A collection as likely to elicit a wry smile as tug at your heartstrings with its tenderness.’ HARRY BAKER --- Dan’s first collection of poetry is <i>Applied Mathematics</i>, published by Burning Eye Books. A former Canterbury Laureate, he has been Poet-in-Residence at Waterloo Station, National Trust Stowe, and Canterbury Roman Museum. He has had pieces commissioned by Southbank Centre, Free Word, and the Beaney Library. Dan has performed around the world including Glastonbury Festival, Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam, Sofar Sounds Auckland, Edinburgh Fringe, and on the BBC. Dan creates pioneering work using crowdsourced and outdoor poetry for organisations such as the Royal Academy of Arts, National Museum of Scotland, and the European Commission. He is an experienced project manager, coordinating literature and performance programmes for arts organisations. He coproduces and hosts poetry versus comedy gig Stand Up & Slam, and worst-poet-wins spectacle The Anti-Slam. Often working in scientific contexts, Dan has appeared at popular science shows and talks - and is half of Dr. Illingworth and Mr. Simpson, devising interdisciplinary science communication events and projects. As an experienced educator, Dan is an enthusiastic, insightful, and adaptable workshop leader. He convenes and lectures on the ‘Writing for the Spoken Word’ module at Canterbury Christ Church University, and delivers primary and secondary school classes around the U.K. - including work for First Story, Barbican Centre, and Apples and Snakes. He also runs both creative writing and professional development sessions for adults. <a href="www.dansimpsonpoet.co.uk"><u>dansimpsonpoet.co.uk</u></ref> @dansimpsonpoet 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/totally-cultured-by-dan-simpson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/250589660/9781911570288.jpg 59163827 new in stock 58685315 ...and then she ate him by Tom Denbigh <I>“The scope and depth in this collection is astounding... magical in all senses of the word.”</I> - Keith Jarrett In his debut collection, Tom Denbigh's wickedly �beautiful writing holds up a distorted mirror to the world. �Deftly weaving the queer experience alongside tales of friends and strangers, Tom toys with myth, devilish humour and absurdity to portray the bizarre and brilliant in the mundane. Imagination is brought to life in this unique collection that is thought-provoking, insightful and startlingly joyous. -- <I>“In this luminous collection, surrealism and spirituality go hand in hand with stark poems of the body and sexuality. Denbigh has a unique ability to weave narrative and humour through expansive poems which reframe and reconsider the everyday.”</I> - Andrew Mcmillan <I>“A Tom Denbigh poem is a perfectly twisted fairytale. His precise, playful confidence, intrepid warps in language and acerbic imagination will make you realise your head and heart have been tugged into an adventure far from home.”</I> - Jasmine Gardosi <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AMETK713XxA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/and-then-she-ate-him-by-tom-denbigh https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/248045564/9781911570721.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/248045846/Screen+Shot+2019-11-06+at+13.09.36.png 58685315 new in stock 58357226 Galaxy Walk by Shareefa Energy <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u7ocQvF2tqk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> A girl glides down Galaxy Walk to her grandmother’s home. The impact of patriarchy is unravelled. The unforgivable negligence of Grenfell and unsafe housing in Britain is exposed. In these poems that are at once raw and vulnerable, Shareefa explores hauntings of love, loss, and history as a working-class Indian woman raised in the diaspora. With a voice fortified and perceptive, these writings navigate the blunt cruelties of our existence, whilst refusing to forget how to marvel at the wonders on earth. From holding governments accountable, to dealing with grief and loss, <i>Galaxy Walk</i> restores our faith in what it means to be alive and human. -- “Shareefa is somebody I’ve seen perform many times and I’ve always been moved by the obvious passion in her delivery. Getting the chance to read her words from the page has given me a new insight into just how beautiful and intricate her wordplay is and i’ve been grateful for the opportunity. In numerology, the qualities of the name Shareefa are compassionate & idealistic, I think Galaxy Walk proves that she is both of those things and so much more” - RODNEY P -- Shareefa Energy is a poet, spoken word artist, writer, and poetry and creative writing workshop facilitator. She is of Indian heritage, from working-class Highfields in Leicester. London has been her home since 2010. She is known for her impactful work in London and beyond as an activist, educator and performer, and has a BA in International Relations. Her poetry has featured on BBC’s The One Show, Channel 4 and ITV, and has been published in i-D magazine and various publications. Shareefa performed at Poetry Meets Hip Hop in Berlin and festivals including the Verve Festival and Flamenco Festival. She was headline poet for BBC Radio 1Xtra Words First 2019. She received the UK Entertainment Best Poet Award 2017 and was shortlisted for the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture & Theatre Award 2019 by the Arts Council. She has facilitated creative writing and poetry workshops internationally, from Palestine to Sierra Leone, with children in primary schools and lecturers in universities among others. She was artist in residence at North Kensington Library for the Apples and Snakes Spine Festival 2018 and 2019. -- <a href="http://www.shareefaenergy.com"><u>www.shareefaenergy.com</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/galaxy-walk-by-shareefa-energy https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/247035338/9781911570783.jpg 58357226 new in stock 58260209 Circles by Carmina Masoliver <i>Circles</i> is an epic poem inspired by Sarah Kane's <i>4.48 Psychosis</i>. Taking the point of view of a suicide victim's lover in the play post-death, the piece takes place on London's tube network and follows the fragmented views of this once-absent character. It is a piece about love, loss and the line between sanity and insanity. Whilst fictional, the emotions and experiences are also inspired by elements of the author's life, and are written with the aim to bring comfort and healing to those who can relate to its themes. --- “I speak and the only voice I want to hear is yours” This is a quote from Carmina Masoliver’s stunning epic, <i>Circles</i>. Yet, I find myself feeling this way about her voice. Carmina has a very special way of finding the smallest of cracks in your heart and filling them with visceral, yet elegant poetry. She mines the mundane; those everyday moments riding the tube, or in the shower, or sitting with a stranger on a fence, and she brings you into them so gracefully, before you know it, you are sitting on the tube with her, “holding onto her hand in a reverie.” - SABRINA BENAIM ‘This poetic dramatic monologue is at once lament, and testament to an unimaginable reality. Masoliver has created a theatrical poem that is both haunting and ethereal, where the audience experience the world though a protagonist trapped in on a train looping the central line and and her recurrent memories of a lost lover. The fragmented beautiful lyrical prose unfolds like a smashed mirror, each piece a jigsaw. <i>Circles</i> takes us effortlessly into the head of a suicide victim's lover in order to illuminate the devastating effect of her grief. She captures an elusive emptiness whilst hypnotising us with an honest lyrical epic.’ - MALIKA BOOKER -- Carmina Masoliver is a poet from south London, and founder of She Grrrowls feminist arts nights, which runs regularly at The Poetry Café and has been featured at festivals such as Edinburgh Fringe and Women of the World. Her limited-edition chapbook was published by Nasty Little Press in 2014, and she edited the She Grrrowls anthology, also from Burning Eye Books. She was long-listed for the Young Poet Laureate for London award in 2013, the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships in 2017, and for the Out-Spoken Prize in Performance Poetry 2018. Alumni of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, she has featured at nights such as Bang Said the Gun, and festivals including Latitude, Bestival and Lovebox both as a collective and individually. She performed internationally whilst living abroad, in Singapore, and in Spain. Having previously completed an art foundation diploma at Central Saint Martins prior to studying English Literature at UEA, this is her first publication including her own illustrations alongside her poetry. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RxFBz8mSdSI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/she-grrrowls-the-anthology"><u>She Grrrowls Anthology</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/circles-by-carmina-masoliver https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/246739586/9781911570790.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/246739670/Screen+Shot+2019-10-16+at+11.29.00.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/246739673/Screen+Shot+2019-10-16+at+11.29.34.png 58260209 new in stock 57940592 5000 HURTS by Adrian. B. Earle <i>2018 Pamphlet Winner</i> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hBYlmsPgF30" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> -- ‘Adrian. B. Earle names trauma in all its places; individuals, lovers, society, history, the continuous assault on black bodies. His opening poem Tinnitus gives us an understanding of the depths of trauma, how at times it has no beginning and ending, and continues to echo far after the event. Adrian Earle plays with form and white spaces like an Obeah man creating rituals and magic for couples, fatherhood and suicides. The whole collection is Kintsugi “golden joinery” for the traumas we have or may suffer in the future. <i>5000 HURTS</i> demands your attention at its highest frequency and resonates through the body long after you have finished reading.’ - <i>blurb by Roy McFarlane</i> -- ‘Adrian is a writer that jars normal conventions of poetry. Each poem shapes a new journey, at times feeling like a time warp - juxtaposing language within modern settings. <i>5000 HURTS</i> breathes as much healing as it does rage, and reflection.’ - YOMI SODE -- Adrian B Earle is a Poet, playwright and Filmmaker; Host and Producer of the Verse First Poetry Podcast, a creative writer and spoken word poet who performs under the name <b>ThinkWriteFly</b> based in Birmingham. -- <a href="https://www.thinkwritefly.com/bio"><u>www.thinkwritefly.com</u></a> <a href="https://burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/winning-debut-pamphlets-launch-this-october/"><b>BLOG: Winning Debut Pamphlets Launch This October</b></a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/5000-hurts-by-adrian-b-earle https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245762462/9781911570769.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245762522/Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+11.32.26.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245762525/Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+11.33.01.png 57940592 new in stock 57940490 Good Earth by Caroline Teague <i>2018 Pamphlet Winner</i> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/__SJHiVr_b8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> -- In this debut collection Caroline Teague addresses ideas of melancholy linked to striving for a sense of belonging and home. At the same time <i>Good Earth</i> explores reactions and reflections of grief, family and several identities that fit outside the `standard'. These poems are deeply personal explanations of feelings that travel between pain and longing to build a tender bridge of understanding and comfort between the reader and the author. -- ‘<i>Good Earth</i> brims with honesty and sweetness - the sweetness of brown sugar, and the bittersweet of reminiscing. These poems provide a captivating narrative, navigating the reader ‘through these hostile waters’ of injustice and racism (‘To Sea! To Sea!) and landing us in the delicate and unresolved territory of grief (‘January’), with the heritage of family and relationships steering the way. Throughout this journey, Caroline Teague has truly managed to 'capture something beautiful’ (‘Polaroid’), keenly observing – and celebrating – the human condition and its fleeting connections while negotiating the bitter, the salty, and the mournful. Good Earth has a poignancy and directness that will compel you to return to it again and again.’ - KEITH JARRET -- Caroline Teague is a London born and bred poet writing pieces on grief, identity and how they comes to terms with some harrowing realities of being human and being alive, in a style they call `tragic optimism' hoping that the honesty through their writing can translate into something positive and comforting for someone else. Creator of the musical project "Caroline Smiling" which blends music, spoken word and illustration to creatively communicate ideas around mental health and queer identity. Caroline was the international guest at the 2018 Portugal Slam in Lisbon in October 2018 and the poet in residence at the Stanza poetry festival in St. Andrews, Scotland in March 2019, continuing to perform their work regularly at poetry and literary events across the UK. They also curate London's only regular 3-round Slam, Genesis Poetry Slam, and is an artist-in-residence at the Vauxhall-based queer cabaret night Bar Wotever. -- <a href="http://www.carolinesmiling.co.uk/"><u>www.carolinesmiling.co.uk</u></a> <a href="https://burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/winning-debut-pamphlets-launch-this-october/"><b>BLOG: Winning Debut Pamphlets Launch This October</b></a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/good-earth-by-caroline-teague https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245761976/9781911570776.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245761994/Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+11.14.51.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245761997/Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+11.15.34.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245762000/Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+11.15.44.png 57940490 new in stock 57849758 My Body Can House Two Hearts by Hanan Issa <i>2018 Pamphlet Winner</i> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UOBFlPq37AA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <i>My Body Can House Two Hearts</i> skips across the fragile boundaries of history, culture, relationships, and language. It explores the transitory balance of belonging by tying threads between different places and ideas not often compared. Traverse the poet’s perception of her Welsh and Iraqi heritage, her positioning as a woman of colour, and the nuances of feminist action. Hanan Issa's debut is a celebration of women’s redemptive interdependency and the rejection of patriarchal power. -- 'As the opening poem reveals, Hanan Issa has a vantage point that enables her to see both near and far. It lets her draw the links betwee Hen Wlad fy Nhadau and Baghdad, Fallujah and Aberfan. Reading on from these first lines we hear how the Cymraeg and Arabic ‘ch’ chime together, and see how Edwards is Daqneesh’s brother, and how one body can house two hearts. This unique collection shows that Welsh, Arabic and English flow side by side and sometimes share the same waters. It contains verses that bring flamenco, ballet and bhangra to a common dance floor. It reminds us that ‘love’s a lake and the world is thirsty’. - MERERID HOPWOOD -- Hanan Issa is a mixed-race poet from Wales. She has performed at numerous events across the UK and her work has been featured on both ITV Wales and BBC Radio Wales. Her work has been published in Banat Collective, Hedgehog Press, Sukoon mag, Lumin, sister-hood magazine and MuslimGirl.com. Her winning monologue was performed at Bush Theatre’s Hijabi Monologues. She is the co-founder of Cardiff’s first BAME open mic series ‘Where I’m Coming From’. She is also one of the 2018 Hay Writers at Work. -- <a href="http://hananissa.com/"><u>hananissa.com</u</a> <a href="https://burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/winning-debut-pamphlets-launch-this-october/"><b>BLOG: 2018 Pamphlet Winners Launch This October</b></a> 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/my-body-can-house-two-hearts-by-hanan-issa https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/245493725/9781911570752.jpg 57849758 new in stock 57475493 Notes On Loneliness by Daniel Cockrill During the process of writing this book, the author imagined he was a butterfly dancing to the slowest and sweetest song ever played on a piano, similar to the way raindrops fall from petals in gentle rain, or like an astronaut floating through Space, travelling about the speed of the boat on a Disney World ride, the one where you get to see all the places in the world in about 15 minutes, but instead of visiting well-known landmarks, he imagined himself visiting different planets and distant stars, trying to figure out where he fitted in, whilst looking back at his family and friends on Earth, trying to remember who they were, what they looked like, and asking questions like 'does he really know them?' or `does he really need them?' or `how fast do asteroids travel?' or `why is gravity?' as he travelled away from them in Space. Here on Earth, Daniel Cockrill has a loving family, a good home life, lots of very good friends, he has everything he could possibly need and yet he still feels lonely. This book of poetry is an attempt to discover why? --- Daniel Cockrill’s words have appeared in books, newspapers, magazines, on gallery walls and have been spoken out loud on stage, radio and television. He is the Co founder of Bang Said The Gun and Page Match. He lives and works in London. <u>www.danielcockrill.com</u> <a href='https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/artist/dan-cockrill'><u>More by Daniel Cockrill</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/notes-on-loneliness-by-daniel-cockrill https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/244406702/Cockrill_Daniel_Notes+on+Loneliness_BurningEyeBooks.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/244406753/Screen+Shot+2019-09-06+at+12.47.05.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/244406756/Screen+Shot+2019-09-06+at+12.47.51.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/244406759/Screen+Shot+2019-09-06+at+12.48.11.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/244406762/Screen+Shot+2019-09-06+at+12.48.40.png 57475493 new in stock 56451506 Our Man by Jamie Thrasivoulou <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bBU_wymAtds" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <i>Our Man</i> explores aspects of masculinity, mental health, criminality, class, loss and addiction within the climate of neoliberal Britain. Thrasivoulou combines strong imagery, wordplay and a distinct Midlands vernacular to convey the world he writes about. The narrative is layered with charismatic wit, dark humour and wry observation. These poems are grounded in a harsh reality that tears through the curtain of manners to reveal the wildlife lurking behind. -- <i>'Jamie Thrasivoulou is by far one of the most exciting, arresting and socially charged voices to emerge from out the current wave of British poetry. His experiences lend themselves to a grander, wider, narrative often perceived to be demanding answers while never fully wavering from their place of origin. Jamie is a poet of the people and the equality they strive for.'</i> - Anthony Anaxagorou <i>'These poems are a beautiful blend of insight and awareness, skilful writing, and the darkness of detail. Jamie gives voice the stories that are often ignored, in a way that dares you to ignore them again, and in a way that compels you not to.'</i> - Casey Bailey Jamie Thrasivoulou is an award-winning writer, poet, lyricist and workshop facilitator from Derby. His work has appeared in The Morning Star, Burning House Press, Hand Job Zine, The Arsonist, Glove, Razur Cuts, Low Light Magazine, Paper and Ink Zine and Bluecoat Press, amongst others. His first collection, <i>The Best of a Bad Situation</i>, was released in May 2017 through Silhouette Press. In 2017 Jamie was commissioned to write the poem ‘A Privatised Map of Deprivation’ for the award-winning photographer Jim Mortram’s Small Town Inertia photography collection. The poem, along with work from Jim’s collection, was displayed in the Small Town Inertia exhibition at Side Gallery in Newcastle. Jamie is the official Derby County Football Club poet; his poem ‘We Are Derby’ is played on the big screen before every home game at Pride Park stadium. In 2018 he became the first poet to perform at the East Midlands derby between DCFC and Nottingham Forest, where he spat verse to over 31,000 people. He has since performed to over 33,000 against both Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion. ‘We Are Derby’ was played at Wembley stadium during the 2019 EFL Playoff Final. Jamie won the 2019 Saboteur award for Best Spoken Word Performer, and the project Man Up, which he collaborated on with Restoke, received the award for Best Collaborative Work. In 2018 his musical project Bloque Capitals was joint winner of the Culture Matters: Bread and Roses award for spoken word and musical collaboration. In January 2019 Jamie was part of the UNISLAM 2019 winning team with the University of Birmingham. He’s currently the writer-in-residence at HMP Foston Hall. Jamie is also a visiting lecturer at Derby University. --- <a=href"http://www.jthras.com/"><u>www.jthras.com</u></a> Cover image: 'TILNEY1' By Jim Mortram (part of the Small Town Inertia collection) <u>Content Warning</u> This collection deals with heavy and graphic depictions of abuse, drug use and violence. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/our-man-by-jamie-thrasivoulou https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241432574/9781911570684.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241444172/Screen+Shot+2019-07-15+at+16.29.41.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241444247/IMG_5575_2_.JPG,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241444298/Screen+Shot+2019-07-15+at+16.34.10.png 56451506 new in stock 56205785 Blackish by Tyrone Lewis <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OeLmWnlIGY4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> From family to relationships to race, we all have different factors that contribute to our overall identity. <i>Blackish</i> explores the complexity of identity, whether it is how one identifies oneself, or how others perceive one’s identity. Tyrone’s poetry explores the complexities of the different aspects that make up one’s self, prompting others to think on what makes them them, as well as enjoying a few film and TV references along the way. As comfortable in front of a camera as he is behind it, Tyrone is a full-time video editor. He says words to people sometimes. ‘When I think about poets who will make new people fall in love with spoken word, I think about Tyrone.’ <b>@websterpoet/@SabotageReviews</b> ‘Jedi grand master poet’ <b>@SpitTheAtom</b> ‘Vanguard of the spoken word community’ <b>@RepeatBeatPoet</b> ‘Legendary creature’ <b>@StandUpPoet</b> <a href="https://tyronelewis22.com"><u>Website</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/blackish-by-tyrone-lewis https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240715796/9781911570677_.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240715685/0010.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240715682/0011.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241444469/IMG_1202.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/241444448/Screen+Shot+2019-07-15+at+16.37.19.png 56205785 new in stock 55974215 Midnight Picnics in Tehran by Leilah Jane King <i>Midnight Picnics in Tehran</i> is Leilah Jane King’s debut collection. It is a tale of two countries, three cities and an innumerable amount of drinks being thrown in people’s faces. Leilah paints striking imagery of the bustling cities of Shiraz and Tehran, the former her mother’s birth place. She conveys a melancholic nostalgia and love for a culture still novel to her that is remembered warmly from childhood summers spent in Iran’s beautiful mountains and parks. Midnight Picnics does not only focus on Iran but talks about Leilah’s time living in Bristol and Brighton. She shares an open, honest and raw account inviting you to navigate your way through sexuality, androgyny and anger. --- Leilah is a half-Iranian queer academy level footballer and coach and stand-up poet. She is the co-founder and host of an open mic night in Bristol called 'Time of the Month Open Mic', a performance space for female/trans/nonbinary/GNC performers. Her second poetry collection, We Are Hungry for Androgyny (Polari Press, 2023), features the poem “Intimacy,” highly commended by the Forward Prizes for Poetry in 2025. --- 'An important addition to the queer canon, celebrating and detailing the wide cinema of us' <b>Joelle Taylor, poet and playwright</b> ‘Leilah is a true original. Never the same poet twice, she forges together the gentle comedy of life, the solemnity of solitude and the everyday melodies of personal relationships. You never know what’s coming next, but you really, really want to take the leap and find out. A brilliant performer and sparky poet to fall in love with.’ <b>Malaika Kegode</b> ‘Politically in-your-face, but always authentic, always original, Leilah writes with intelligence, wit and nuance in precise and vivid language. She poses questions instead of giving simplistic answers in powerful poems of exquisite lyrical beauty.' <b>Melanie Branton</b> ‘Leilah King is an unselfconscious original. She is always herself. On stage she is funny, unpredictable, self-deprecating and sometimes confrontational. In print her poems reveal something else. They are reflective and full of original images. She describes familiar things in new ways and makes what is unfamiliar come to life.’ <b>Tom Sastry</b> ‘Leilah King is a unique presence on stage, connecting with audiences instantly with touching, human and hilarious pieces. A poet’s poet.’ <b>Pascal Vine</b> 'This collection is so full and whole. Leilah honours all of her identities in ways that most people only dream of. Her poetry is a roadmap for self-acceptance, true, brutal, yet, warm and comforting' <b>Muneera Pilgrim, poet, cultural producer, writer, broadcaster and speaker</b> --- <a href"https://www.instagram.com/leilahjanekingpoet'><u> @leilahjanekingpoet</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/midnight-picnics-in-tehran-by-leilah-jane-king https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240037823/9781911570660.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240037868/Screen+Shot+2019-06-20+at+13.57.10.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/240041714/Screen+Shot+2019-06-20+at+15.35.55.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/418452567/DSC03415.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/418452591/DSCF4510.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/418452603/DAN_3528.jpg 55974215 new in stock 55806965 Singing My Mother's Song by Rebecca Tantony ‘How lucky we are to have Rebecca Tantony to sing to us, not only her own story, with its weavings of memory, history and family, but stories of the world, of displacement, love, loss, identity, beauty, poetry, confusion and connection. Her words dance across the page just as she travelled through space and time – to learn, to uncover, to commemorate and to celebrate. We are lifted by these songs, this word-music, and reminded of the power of our voices.’ - <i>Tania Hershman</i> ----- This collection started as a whisper, a quiet voice that kept asking questions. Over the years it became a coherent sound sprung from a yearning to fill in the missing parts, to understand my mother’s story. Perhaps it’s something that goes beyond what is experiential and real and moves into the memory of imagination. Perhaps it is a book of magic, of synchronicity and colliding moments in time, too strange to be logical, too concise to be chance. Ultimately, it’s a way of shifting perspective in order to move the direction of a past. It is whole generations, re-learning the song of ourselves. ----- http://rebecca-tantony.com <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/artist/rebecca-tantony"><u>More from Rebecca Tantony</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/singing-my-mother-s-song-by-rebecca-tantony https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/239550767/9781911570622.jpeg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/239550788/0004.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/239550794/0006.jpg 55806965 new in stock 55568915 Your Own Steve Larkin Poetry Adventure by Steve Larkin <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JJFdIVATO8I" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> A book that connects to a world wide web of wordly possibilities. <i>Your Own Steve Larkin Poetry Adventure</i> gives full access to a breathtaking breadth of poems, songs, and performances from this trailblazing artist through a collection of written word that links to a whole host of digital treats: from video and audio recordings of hilarious gig moments, to animated enhancements of rich poetic expression, to glorious climaxes reached from the front of a gypsy klezmer ska band, all collected and connected like a dungeons and dragons quest. Three decades of work captured in one multimedia extravaganza of a book. Want a bit of Steve Larkin? You can have it all, and in any order you want! -- Steve Larkin is a poet, singer song-writer, storyteller, theatre maker, comedic host and impresario renowned for his highly original and entertaining live work.A former International Poetry Slam Champion and Oxford Professor of Poetry nominee Steve is the founder and chief of Hammer & Tongue - the UK's leading poetry slam organisation that has led the charge of poetry back to the Royal Albert Hall. Steve is the creator of two critically acclaimed spoken word theatre shows: N.O.N.C.E. and TES, the front to ‘world-folk-punk-skiffle' band Inflatable Buddha, a musician in his own right, and a poet whose career has spanned three decades and involved performing world-over in diverse venues to diverse audiences, from convicted violent criminals in a high security prison to MPs at the Houses of Parliament. --- “Steve Larkin is a poet-philosopher disguised as a club entertainer. Lacing profundity with profanities, deep tracks with cheap gags, he weaves comedy, politics and style to leave audiences laughing thoughtful and infected.” - <b>Jim Thomas<b> "Electrifying fusion of music and the spoken word...affability and quick, biting wit with the social conscience of Pete Seeger" ***** Victoria Times Colonist "Superb spoken-word - essential viewing" ***** Fringe Guru "Prepare to be stunned and inspired by the power of Larkin’s spoken word.” ***** Edmonton Sun, Canada “Part philosophy, part hysterically funny humour” Nightshift Magazine “Steve Larkin, has the facial expressions of Vic Reeves, and often, the blunt quick-wittedness of Frankie Boyle.” Spiral Earth "Revolutionary, elocutionary genius” ***** See Magazine "The spoken word guru" Canadian Broadcasting Corporation <a href="www.stevelarkin.com">www.stevelarkin.com</a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/your-own-steve-larkin-poetry-adventure-by-steve-larkin https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/238845431/9781911570653.jpeg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/239210531/Screen+Shot+2019-06-03+at+09.14.55.png 55568915 new in stock 54931442 Little You by Rachel Nwokoro <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gv2Q6Thd44E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Orders will be sent out by 11th May! With poignance, precision and passion, Rachel takes us on a debut five-part journey through difficult topics with a unique humour that shows the resilience of her spirit and strength of heart. Rachel completed her first poem How Much? after being harassed by a pizza delivery man near her family home in London and since then, poetry has been a safe place to explore the inexpressible; those aspects of being human that tend to stick in your throat. A magical mix of writing and touching illustrations by loved ones. -- Rachel Nwokoro is a young black woman of Nigerian heritage, specifically belonging to the Indigenous people of Biafra. Earlier in her career, as she explored acting, directing and writing, she felt uncomfortable with the pressure put on her by the arts industry to choose a single path and specialise. It echoed the narrow-eyed representation she found of herself in popular culture. Rachel is dedicated to experimenting across diverse disciplines in order to discover the awkward, irregular and miraculous shapes that hide within our stories Although Rachel has been performing spoken word poetry for four years (nationally and internationally) she has been telling stories for much longer. She has worked professionally as an actor since the age of 13 after knocking on agents' doors, subsequently getting signed and then, alerting her parents after the event. Never one to take the path well-travelled, some years later, Rachel was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Scholarship for the Arts at Durham University where she read a BSc in Natural Sciences (Biology, English and French) for two years while directing multiple productions. In August 2018, Rachel directed a sell out show at Edinburgh Frige Festival and is in her final year of training with a full scholarship at acclaimed drama school ArtsEducational Schools London. In the past she has worked with the RSC, Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Actors Centre, ITV, Nationwide, Sky News, NSPCC, Nickelodeon, Birmingham Opera Company, Saatchi and Saatchi, Fortnum and Mason, Tricycle Theatre, Thames Festival Trust - Resident Poet, Roundhouse - Resident Artist, Circuito Nacional Poetry Slam MX - Resident Poet in Mexico, La Coupe du Monde - Paris, Spoken Word Paris, Stonewall UK, Sofar Sounds, Shambala Festival, Brainchild Festival and many other renowned organisations worldwide. Rachel has also won a number of awards and competitions, most notably 2016 UK Slam Poetry Champion. She wants to make help make the world better. --- https://www.rachelshapes.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/little-you-by-rachel-nwokoro https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237970571/9781911570646.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237061127/Screen+Shot+2019-05-01+at+14.57.14.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237061151/Screen+Shot+2019-05-01+at+14.57.34.png 54931442 new in stock 54672734 The English Disease by Lydia Towsey The English Disease has been coined as a term to describe everything from missed penalties and vitamin D deficiency – to no sex please, tea and rickets. Exploring contemporary world events, including the international migration crisis and the British EU Referendum, alongside the lived experience of becoming a mother in a year of celebrity death and continental fracture, this collection examines the condition afresh. With zombies, cats, Bowie, break-ups and the weather; eating disorders, buses, Beatrix Potter, queueing, nature, war and nursery rhymes. The English Disease draws upon class, colonialism and other undead matters to explore identity at a time of now… apocalypse? --- ‘Lydia Towsey takes on England in poems that are impassioned, funny, despairing, elated, direct, and full of out-loud life. They are poems to be performed but you don’t need to have been there, she’ll come to you.’ George Szirtes ‘An exuberantly inventive feast of a collection, happily ricocheting from slapstick horror ballads to deadpan haiku and shot through with a thrilling willingness to experiment with form, all of it given emotional weight and resonance by the poet’s committed articulation of her longing to make sense of what it is to live in contemporary England.’ Francesca Beard ‘She writes for a generation that must find a way. This is a brave collection and adds to the strength of new English poetry.’ Dr Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze MBE --- <a href="https://secretagentartist.wordpress.com"><u>secretagentartist.wordpress.com</u></a> <a href="http://everybodysreviewing.blogspot.com/2019/11/review-by-jonathan-taylor-of-english.html><u>Everybody's Reviewing - The English Disease</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-english-disease-by-lydia-towsey https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/236207093/9781911570547.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/236207108/promo+1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237061850/Screen+Shot+2019-05-01+at+15.09.21.png 54672734 new in stock 54190199 The Twat in the Flat by Geoff Alnutt Twat is the Flat is an anarchic reimagining of Dr Seuss's Cat in the Hat. Deploying an alternative narrative to create an uproarious illustrated book for adults. Part parody, part homage, Twat in the Flat has all the off beat humour of the original, but you will probably not be reading it to your children at bedtime! Geoff Allnutt is a long-standing writer and performer. He has been part of influential spoken word collectives such as The Speech Painter and Atomic Lip. With an impressive portfolio of material behind him ranging from the strangely comic to the deadly serious he is an electric and unmissable performer. Geoff has appeared on stages across the UK including Glastonbury Festival and has now written his first parody-poetry book Twat in the Flat. http://www.speechpainter.com/aboutme/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-twat-in-the-flat-by-geoff-alnutt https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/234825971/9781909136663.jpg 54190199 new in stock 53877125 Amuse Girl by Hannah Raymond-Cox <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GLeWBnKYwes" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Amuse Girl is a very bad pun on amuse-gueule, a free small dish sent out by the chef to awaken the diner’s palate before a posh meal. The concept of amuse-gueule is also unfairly perceived as slightly naughty because gueule is equivalent to gob. It’s been hypercorrected to amuse-bouche in Englishspeaking countries. This is hilarious because it’s still a filthy concept if your brain wants to interrogate the translation (is gob-amuser so much worse than mouth-amuser?). Despite the renaming, the unpredictable and inherently sensual nature of the amuse-gueule shines through. From an elaborate imitation of caviar that turns out to be mushroom essence to just a blob of wasabi, I’ve had more amuses than hot dinners. Which makes sense, because they’re little touches of ideas. A good poem is a little touch of a big idea. The following are poems intended to enliven the palate, satiate the mind, and make you feel like you’ve been on a weird-ass culinary journey. Please dig in! -- Hannah Raymond-Cox grew up in Hong Kong and San Francisco, and has bounced around the UK since age sixteen. She studied International Relations and Modern History at St Andrews alongside her career in poetry and her work includes original plays, slam poetry pieces, and bespoke poems. Hannah won the Stanza Slam, was a National Poetry Slam Championships Finalist for Scotland, and performed on the BBC Stage at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has gigged everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to a tiny dive bar in Hong Kong. When she is stressed she makes meringues. --- "A deftly seasoned and savagely funny repast. Hannah Raymond-Cox lays out before her guests a table filled with chewy words and sweet and stinging flavours." - Fuchsia Dunlop "one of the best poets to emerge from Scotland’s spoken word scene" - Eleanor Livingstone "one of the finer examples of spoken word storytelling - not one to miss" - Freddie Alexander https://pippaabott.wixsite.com/poetry @ChallahOutLoud 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/amuse-girl-by-hannah-raymond-cox https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/233913116/9781911570608.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237061934/Screen+Shot+2019-05-01+at+15.11.06.png,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/237061937/Screen+Shot+2019-05-01+at+15.11.25.png 53877125 new in stock 53113484 Only Air by Stephen Lightbown <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8RyAMK9ivV4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Only Air is a deeply personal collection of poems which explore what it is like to go through a life changing accident and then to re-exist in a world that is suddenly unfamiliar. It is a story of making sense of a new way of surviving and beliefs once held whilst trying to overcome barriers, prejudices and labels. Sometimes moving other times a wry humorous account of memories, this is part biographical with a healthy mix of reflection. This collection considers what it means to be part of a family, being alive when you don’t conform, and making your journey when the way you perceive yourself is often very different to the ways others observe you. At its very core, this is a discovery of what it means to be normal and to regrow. --- Stephen is a poet and disability rights champion. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. In 1996, aged 16, he experienced a life-changing accident whilst sledging in the snow and is now paralysed from below the waist. In 2016, twenty years after the accident, Stephen started writing poetry about his life as a wheelchair user. When not writing and performing poetry he spends his days working for the NHS. Stephen now lives in Bristol and has a long-held ambition to read his poems in his Northern accent in New York. Only Air is Stephen’s first full length poetry collection. --- @spokeandpencil https://www.stephenlightbown.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/only-air-by-stephen-lightbown https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/231728852/9781911570592.jpg 53113484 new in stock 51878873 That Which Can Be Heard by Shruti Chauhan 'Shruti’s work is exquisite. A still, clear voice.' – Jean Binta Breeze MBE Its title taken from the meaning of her Sanskrit name, Shruti Chauhan's debut bursts with the rich sounds and stories of her life as a British Indian woman. Lyrical, enchanting and heartfelt, That Which Can Be Heard moves between two cultures, between innocence and wisdom, between the past and the now. -- Shruti Chauhan is a British Indian poet and performer based in Leicester. She has performed both nationally and internationally, and in 2015, she toured Three the Hard Way – Part 2 with Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze MBE and Lydia Towsey. Shruti was voted Best Spoken Word Performer at the 2018 Saboteur Awards and won the National Poetry Library’s Instapoetry competition the same year. Shruti wrote the song lyrics for the BBC Four documentary, My Asian Family – The Musical (2018) as part of the BBC’s Big British Asian Summer season. That Which Can Be Heard is her debut pamphlet. -- <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eQWY4SEPiqo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://www.shrutichauhan.com/ 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/that-which-can-be-heard-by-shruti-chauhan https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/228748574/9781911570493.jpg 51878873 new in stock 51500882 Can You See Where I'm Coming From? by Melanie Branton <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PHFVxeCye34" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Spangles and Space Dust. Overboiled cabbage. Clotted cream. Placki ziemniaczane. Can You See Where I'm Coming From? examines the ingredients that have made Melanie Branton who she is, from a 1970s working-class childhood to a Dickensian boarding school, from bogus Cornishness to a stint teaching in Poland. --- Melanie Branton was born in 1968 in Exeter and has worked as a teacher of English and Drama, an assistant theatre director and a full-time carer. She began writing poetry in her forties and took up spoken word in 2014 at the age of 46. She came second in the 2014 Bristol Poetry Festival Slam, won the Bristol regional final of the 2015 Hammer and Tongue slam and has appeared as a featured artist at spoken word nights across the south west, including Rhymewarp and Pucker Poets in Plymouth, Poetry Island and Stanza Extravaganza in Torquay, Taking the Mic in Exeter and Raise the Bar, Milk, Satellite of Love and Hammer and Tongue in Bristol. She is also widely published in online and print poetry journals and her first collection of page poetry, My Cloth-Eared Heart was published by Oversteps Books in 2017. --- "A fantastic poet with a great mix of dry humour and real-life heart and emotion" Harry Baker; "Melanie Branton is an unexpected poetry slap. The kind that makes your face tingle and your eyebrows sky rocket. She is funny, clever, ironic, dry, gripping, needed and you won't see her coming until she is standing in your face" Liv Torc https://melaniebranton.wordpress.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/can-you-see-where-i-m-coming-from-by-melanie-branton https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/227164058/9781911570561.jpg 51500882 new in stock 51080275 Venus Shells by Etta Dia <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QH9-LG9LpIg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <i>This is a searing collection of poems that are brilliantly tender, Dia is beautiful in telling stories where the truth creeps up on you in a quiet and powerful way. Venus Shells has in an honest and magical way mapped my journey of motherhood in a visceral, heart-breaking, and poignant new light. I would recommend this to all mothers, to find comfort and a sense of hope, in even the most exhausting and darkest moments.</i> - Shagufta K. Iqbal <i>Venus Shells</i> is collection of poems about individual identity within a predominately Muslim community. This wonderful debut follows family, relationships and a melding of cultural ideas, mixed with rich myth and tales told in Arabic and Indonesian. -- Etta Dia (Nadiia Malik) was born and raised in south east London to a mixed Muslim, English/French/Indonesian family. As a child she studied ballet and went on to practice fine art at university. Her professions have included librarian assistant, lifeguard, life model, pole dancer, cook and Ambulance call taker. Nadia is a single mother who writes candidly about trauma; its effects and the healing process. In her writing she discusses motherhood, sexuality, femininity, otherness, religion, heritage and the connection between people and their natural environment. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/venus-shells-by-etta-dia https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/246740381/9781911570554.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/226010851/VS5.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/226010857/VS4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/226010863/VS3.jpg 51080275 new in stock 50560099 Cosmocartography by Ciarán Hodgers <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3oe9y8HO1go" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> <i>Cosmocartography</i> is the debut poetry collection from multi-awardwinning Irish poet Ciarán Hodgers. It investigates a wide range of personal experiences, challenges what it means to belong and documents the journeys we take to understand ourselves, the triumphs and trauma of the stories we carry in us. Ranging in scale from the quiet introversion of meditations on identity to the epic, cinematic movements of the universe, this poetry collection is a love letter to celebration, survival, love and resistance. --- Ciarán Hodgers is an Irish poet working and living in the UK. He is the Sean Dunne National Young Writer 2010, an International Pangaea Poetry Slam Champion 2015 and the Word War 3 Slam Champion. In 2014 he produced a spoken word EP titled The Hours and in 2015 he exhibited his experimental prose-poem 4/3 at Amsterdam’s NEU NOW festival. Having cut his teeth in Cheshire, Manchester and Salford, he’s performed at Guy Garvey’s Meltdown Festival in the Southbank Centre, Lingo Festival Dublin, the London Irish Centre, the John Rylands Library, Threshold Festival, FLARE Festival and in the Royal Albert Hall at the Hammer & Tongue National Slam Final. This is his first full collection of poetry. www.ciaranhodgers.com --- ‘Cosmocartograpy is a visceral, cinematic journey through nostalgia, chaos and stardust. It’s an education in movement and migration, through land, age and space. A necessary and beautiful collection that left me floored.’ <b>LISA LUXX</b> ‘This is a clear-sighted, inquisitive and hopeful collection, one that takes pleasure in language and finds consolation in the bonds it helps us forge, with each other and with the universe.’ <b>FRAN LOCK</b> ‘Ciarán’s poems found me when I needed them. I felt I saw the world anew because of his art. Most importantly I ask myself do I believe him? Has he changed me? The answer is yes on both counts. <b>STEPHEN JAMES SMITH</b> ‘A poetic pilgrimage that exists somewhere between a heavy night out, a voyage into outer space and a traditional Irish folk song.’ <b>SARA HIRSCH</b> <u>Shortlisted for the Rubery Book Award</u> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/cosmocartography-by-ciaran-hodgers https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/224455885/9781911570530.jpg 50560099 new in stock 50374318 The Celox and the Clot by Hafsah Aneela Bashir <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Om2UI3eB5fQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> Hafsah Aneela Bashir’s debut poetry collection is by turns tender, poignant and fierce. With searingly sharp detail, this is an exploration of the private and the public, teasing out the relationship between the two; compelling readers to stop and look again and again at what they had imagined was the familiar. Between the uncertainty and doubt of relationships under strain, to the tragedy of war and its fundamental injustices, this is a collection that unapologetically examines the human condition and the conflicts that arise within us. What does it take to be who we are? What are we prepared to ignore or accept? Her work asks uncomfortable questions, searching after uncomfortable truths. Never complacent, always conscious of many journeys each of us must make, this is a collection that travels with us. --- Hafsah Aneela Bashir is a writer and performance poet with an MA in Postcolonial Literary and Culture from the University of Leeds. Her work has been published in anthologies, When Saira Met Sarah, 80 Decibels above Sound, Elevator Fiction and Shots In The Dark by Crocus Books. Co-director of the arts collective, Outside The Frame Arts, she is passionate about platforming voices outside of mainstream arts. She works with marginalized and underrepresented communities delivering creative writing workshops centred around identity and empowerment. Also a TOAST2016 poet and one of six recipients of Manchester International Festival’s Jerwood Fellowships 2017, she recently wrote and performed a monologue based on her grandmother’s experience of the India/Pakistan 1947 partition with The Royal Exchange Theatre. She is a Leader Of Tomorrow with the Artistic Directors Leadership Programme, has performed for numerous festivals, is creating theatre work of her own exploring womanhood and faith and is still a sane mother of five. She blogs at http://hafsahaneelabashir.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @Hafsah_A_Bashir & @artsOTF. --- ‘There is a strength, humanity and vitality in her writing that I find glorious, hopeful and outstanding. A powerful debut collection, heartfelt and original, Hafsah has a voice that rips your heart out.’ SALENA GODDEN ‘This epic and moving collection from Hafsah Aneela Bashir arrives in UK literature when it is needed most - a humorous, heartbreaking and elegant examination of modern motherhood and modern warfare, politics and personal disappointments, familial negotiation and the cultural negation that post-colonialism still exerts in so many places. A beautiful book.’ SABRINA MAHFOUZ ‘This is a startling, bold debut from a voice that needs to be heard in contemporary poetry. Hafsah Aneela Bashir’s work simmers with questing, searching intelligence, brims with compassion, anger and love. These poems never settle for the ordinary, reaching for images that ruffle the surface of our everyday lives: the ‘serrated edge’ of a phone call, a house like a corpse, the ‘aubergine eye’ of a paint stain. Above all else, this is poetry which humanises its every subject - Bashir eloquently challenges complacency, calls-out hatred and fear, honours people by their names.’ HELEN MORT 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-celox-and-the-clot-by-hafsah-aneela-bashir https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/223915924/9781911570509.jpg 50374318 new in stock 50323885 The Other Woman by Sophia Blackwell Longlisted for the Polari Prize In her third collection, acclaimed performance poet Sophia Blackwell explores connections, relationships and journeys, and celebrates their importance in a divided world. From Brighton, Paris and the Edinburgh Fringe to Amsterdam, Australia and outer space, The Other Woman maps women’s journeys through time and geography, exploring identities, bloodlines, buried pasts and alternative futures, ending up somewhere new and different – the country of marriage. --- Sophia Blackwell was born in Newcastle in 1982 and read English at Oxford, where she started performing poetry with Hammer and Tongue. Her poetry has been anthologised by Bloodaxe, Nine Arches, Burning Eye, Sidekick Books and the Emma Press. She is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Into Temptation (2008) and The Fire Eater’s Lover (2016), and a novel, After My Own Heart (2012). She lives in North London with her wife. --- ‘Some of Sophia Blackwell’s poems read like Nico should be singing them to John Cale’s viola, some as if Shakespeare’s slut sister taught him all he knew, others are as new as the next dawn. Dirty, juicy, knowing, open – works for me.’ Stella Duffy ‘As soon as I fi nished this raw, addictive, affectionate poetry collection, I went back to the start and read it all again.’ Kirsty Logan on The Fire Eater’s Lover 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-other-woman-by-sophia-blackwell https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/223768135/9781911570523.jpg 50323885 new in stock 50147788 soak by Isadora Vibes Inspired by the contradictions and liquidity of human existence, soak is a surreal and sensual body of work, capturing both the darkness and the light of human experience. Mother, lover, daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend – Isadora has created a collection of searing honesty, inviting the reader to suspend reality and engage in an adult world of tender truth, accompanied by a stark yet magical realism. Isadora Vibes aka Katie Grant is a writer, theatre maker and artist. Choosing to stage her poetry in a more immersive, theatrical format, she has written and performed a number of solo and ensemble shows in Bristol, London, Edinburgh and Gothenburg. Artistic Director of the award-winning avant-garde punk guerrilla theatre company Dada For Girls, Isadora is currently developing a new show based on the poems in this book. A scratch performance will debut at the Stockholm Fringe Festival in September 2018 before being developed into a tour-ready production for 2019. Isadora lives in Bristol and has two teenage children. <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/272652307" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/soak-by-isadora-vibes https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/223260727/9781911570516.jpg 50147788 new in stock 49887061 Come Home Alive by Penny Pepper What are the real and metaphorical places we do battle in? How are the barriers of the heart and the stone challenged when you are defined as `Other'? Come Home Alive is Penny Pepper's debut poetry collection. It reflects a diversity of thought and emotion, resonating with her signature combination of compassion, wit and protest. This collection gathers together some of her most successful live pieces including the protest of London Bus, the anthemic Cripplegate Town, and the spit of outrage in Special. Penny's work has been described as euphoric melancholic, reflected in poems such as Sonnet for Blues and Rain. --- Penny Pepper is a writer, poet and established rights activist. Her life as a published poet began in the punk era of fanzines and evolved into songwriting and flourished within the early radical disability arts scene. This is her first collection. An accomplished spoken word artist, her one woman show, Lost in Spaces, premiered at the Soho Theatre, London before going on a national tour. She has also performed widely including Trafalgar Square, The Olympic Park, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and New York. She writes regularly for The Guardian and has appeared on Newsnight, BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 4's Today programme and was featured on Woman's Hour, for their 70th birthday edition. She is named in the Power 100 of Britain's most influential disabled people. Her explicit taboo-breaking book about sex and disabled people Desires Reborn, was published in 2012, and in 2013 she won a Creative Future Literary Award. Her memoir, First In The World Somewhere, is published by Unbound. Penny is finishing work on her novel, Fancy Nancy. She likes cats, is a music junkie and once won an Erotic Oscar. Website: http://www.pennypepper.co.uk Twitter: @penpep --- ‘An incredibly strong, political, sexy, candid, real and important poetry explosion. One of the best things I have read in a long time.’ Liv Torc ‘Penny Pepper’s work is a virtuoso display of invention, wit, and courage. It’s thought provoking and funny and moving and makes us see the world differently.’ Dame Margaret Drabble ‘A force of nature and a voice like no other.’ Liz Carr 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/come-home-alive-by-penny-pepper https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/222520003/9781911570486.jpg 49887061 new in stock 49886986 MILKED by Thommie Gillow and Hannah Teasdale Thommie Gillow and Hannah Teasdale have had very different experiences of motherhood but like many parents have found solace through sharing. Their collaborative collection Milked explores all aspects of motherhood, from the good, the bad, the smelly, the desperate and all-consuming nature of the role to dealing with older children who have learnt which buttons to press. A brave and honest look at; periods, miscarriages, pregnancies, abortions, postnatal depression and a mother's love, this book is separated into four sections, pre-conception, miscarriage, pregnancy and birth and then the ensuing parenthood. It draws on their own lives and the lives of those around them, and owes much to every bump they have ever known. Milked for anyone who has ever thought about being a parent: whether successfully, unsuccessfully or with absolute horror at the very idea. It may make you cry or laugh or sing - whatever you do, Hannah and Thommie won't mind, they'll blame hormones. --- Hannah's writing has been described as `heart-breaking', `raw', `knotty', `honest and brutal'. She does not shy away from exposing her truth, as uncomfortable as it is to write and sometimes read and perform. Having written poetry since she could hold a pen, it wasn't until 2009 that she found the confidence to share her words with a wider audience. The first two poetry slams she entered, she made the final and the third, she won. Having just completed a Masters in Creative Writing, she has two previously published poetry collections: `Fingerprints' by Poetry Space in 2013 and `Laid Bare' Burning Eye in 2016. She is currently working on a cross-genre short novel, `Sharp Things' that enters the mind of an exploited and confused 10 year old girl. Hannah uses her experience as a mother of 6 children, divorcee and lover to unashamedly power her work. She juggles facilitating writing workshops, editing, performing at poetry events and co-hosting Hammer and Tongue with a mixed ability of not making too much of a hash of being a mother. Life is no walk in the park, not for any of us. Thommie Gillow is the Regional Co-ordinator of Hammer and Tongue Bristol - a national poetry organisation that organises monthly events with touring guest poets. An English teacher, feminist and ex-single mum, Thommie brings her daughter and students up to question traditional values. In this book her poetry explores the often secretive aspects of pregnancy, birth and motherhood, the attempts to get pregnant, pain of loss and difficulties of becoming a mummy. Currently in her second marriage, Thommie has suffered many miscarriages, survived an ectopic pregnancy, dealt with post-natal depression and learnt to share her nine-year old daughter with a man who is not her father. She writes about it, teaches, talks to her daughter, watches some Netflix, then writes about it again. Thommie lectures Creative Writing in the South West, runs poetry workshops for Domestic Violence charities and has recently completed a series of commissions for the National Science Festival writing about `Women on the Moon'. She has a Masters in Creative Writing and Education and her first collection `My Stepmother Tried to Kill Me' was published by Burning Eye books in 2014. --- "Intense, subtle, joyful, difficult, specific and open to all - these are poems that stay with you and tug you to return. Sitting on the train, I smiled with recognition. Later, in a cafe I fought back tears. These are open poems, frank and generous. Be careful where you read them. Thank you Thommie and Hannah for writing them down."  Lydia Towsey A collection for anyone who has a child, thinks about having a child, or once was a child, this book births an honest, raw and celebratory story of parenting. From the empty space of miscarriage to the crammed full with eight kids between them, both Thommie and Hannah marry the entirety of their experiences and offer a genuine, funny and beautiful instruction manual for life.’ Rebecca Tantony – Poetry Lecturer Bath Spa To see the true beauty of motherhood we have to talk about the dark as well as the light and that's just what Milked does. Thommie and Hannah's raw and honest stories of their journeys show all routes it can take, it made me cry, smile and not feel alone.  Pippa Strachan - perinatal educator at the Daisy foundation WSM 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/milked-by-thommie-gillow-and-hannah-teasdale https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/222519817/9781911570271.jpg 49886986 new in stock 49613953 The Book of Hours by Lucy English The Book of Hours is a contemporary reimagining of a medieval book of hours. These were collections of exquisitely hand-illustrated religious readings. They were created in a handy size so they could be carried by the owner and read on a daily basis. This book of hours is secular, but the general mood is contemplative and reflective. The poems can be read individually or as a story of growth and change throughout a year. These are the poems from the poetry film project http://thebookofhours.org, which has been made in collaboration with an international community of filmmakers.  -- Lucy  English is a spoken word poet. She has toured widely in the UK, Europe and the US. With the South West Collective she co-wrote Flash, a multi media spoken word show, which toured the UK in 2010-11 and also Count Me In, which toured from 2014-5. Both tours were sponsored by the Arts Council. In 2005-7 she ran a series of performances and workshops for the British Council in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Taiwan for their Animating Literature Programme. She is the co-organiser of the Mix Digital conferences at Bath Spa University and the co-organiser of Liberated Words, which curates, screens and creates poetry films. http://liberatedwords.com - Lucy English is a Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.  -- ‘The work that Lucy English has done on The Book of Hours, exploring and expanding the emerging genre of the poetry film, is inspiring. She is pushing the boundaries of what poetry can do while bringing the medieval tradition of the book of hours into the twenty-first century.’ - Dr Kate Pullinger, Director of the Centre for Culture and Creative Industries, Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media, Co-Investigator, Ambient Literature ‘The Book of Hours is a hugely ambitious and important experiment in collaborative poetry filmmaking, raising the bar for other poets interested in moving beyond the page and the stage, and demonstrating the unique appeal of film series and video anthologies in a lyrical, non-narrative mode.’ - Dave Bonta, publisher of Moving Poems movingpoems.com ‘The thing I really like about The Book of Hours is its almost endless hospitality to new and different inputs. It’s a brilliant ‘frame’ into which very different inputs can ‘flow’.’ -Philip Gross, poet & winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EWOGm-qRlAQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-book-of-hours-by-lucy-english https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/221768179/9781911570370.jpg 49613953 new in stock 49255252 Hydra's Heads by Nora Gomringer Burning Eye's first poetry in translation - translated by Annie Rutherford. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hqw4F-CNYBo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Nora Gomringer is here translated into English for the first time by Scottish poet and editor Annie Rutherford. Experimental yet accessible, Nora Gomringer has demonstrated an almost unique ability to stride seamlessly from stage to page to film to literature festival and to be at home simultaneously in all zones of the poetry world. Drawing on a number of Nora’s books Hydra’s Heads is comprised of poems which defy categorisation, and show Nora interweaving the best of German page and spoken word poetry to create something entirely her own. These are poems which laugh, howl, stamp their lines. They are candid, wry, compassionate. There are poems about the darker times of Germany’s modern history, reworkings of myths and fairy tales and a 3-page-long ode to sex against a wall. ----- Nora Gomringer is one of Germany's best known and loved contemporary poets. In the early 2000s she was a prominent voice in Germany's young slam scene, and her background in performance continues to inform her work. Her writing blurs the boundaries between performance and page poetry, as well as often intersecting with other art forms, from film to music and visual art. She's won a number of awards for her writing, from the Jacob Grimm German Language Prize in 2011 to the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Award in 2015. Annie Rutherford makes things with words, and champions poetry and translated literature in all its guises. She has divided her working life between Germany and Scotland, and is now programme co-ordinator for StAnza, Scotland's international poetry festival, as well as a freelance translator. She co-founded Goettingen's Poetree festival, edited the literary magazine Far Off Places and makes comics with illustrator Beth Barnett. ------ Annie Rutherford's translation of Nora Gomringer's poetry/prose/performance work is a Very Good Thing for English-language audiences. This work is determinedly offkilter, revelling in body discomfort, twisting to peer at lovers and history with a microscopic, often sardonic, gaze. There is a gritted effort to dissect the tongue, in more ways than one, and a hauling of national history and complicity into the present tense. She is not interested in comforting the reader and yet, for all that, there is unsentimental tenderness here, a sardonic-but-never-cynical, deeply felt joy. Rachel McCrum; Beautifully translated into the sort of English that feels utterly natural and rhythmically complete while managing to preserve the mouthfeel of Nora's inventive, electrifying German, Hydra's Heads delights with constructions such as `waterfeet' and `chimneying', `Youyouyours' and `Imemine'. In little poems and long poems, words are breathed into life so they become more than tool or musical instrument but letter flesh that pulses up and out from the page. The Holocaust hunkers near the heart of the book, not shied away from but acknowledged in simple, felt language as inherited nightmare and reminder of our human weakness. Love also blushes through the pages; sweet exhalations on a mirror or train window, the self dreaming the other in a moment which cannot be caught but is, and is. JL Williams ------- https://nora-gomringer.de/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/hydra-s-heads-by-nora-gomringer https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/220775689/171215_HYDRA_COVER_final-01.jpg 49255252 new in stock 48985411 Honest by Scott Tyrrell Honest features all of Scott's warmth, wit and frank openness delivered with the bittersweet edge of a middle-aged creative who may be having a mid-life crisis or an existential revelation. With dad jokes and badgers. And buttons. ---- Scott has been a poet and performer since the turn of the century. An award-winning comedian, creative director and multiple slam-winning pet (including the BBC Slam and UK Anti- Slam), he has performed his work at Glastonbury, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Prague Fringe, Kendal Calling, WOMAD, Larmer Tree and the Cheltenham Literature Festival. He has written for TV, radio and performed for Radio 4, Radio 3’s the Verb, Sky Atlantic, ITV, BBC4 and BBC Arts. He lives in Newcastle with his wife, son, a goldfish, a one-eyed cat and a small fluffy dog. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FSEgPIaaepc" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/honest-by-scott-tyrrell https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/220034653/9781911570455i.jpg 48985411 new in stock 48869113 A Self Help Guide to Being In Love with Jeremy Corbyn by Jess Green <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3L5B9Qi7Lzs" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> When Jess Green joined the Labour Party at university she doubled the number of members who met weekly in the Liverpool Philharmonic pub. Since then she’s stuck by them through the downfall of Tony Blair, the disappointment of Gordon Brown and the monolith of Ed Miliband. After a decade of keeping her membership card firmly at the back of her wallet she’s suddenly, like most frustrated lefty activists, fallen head over heels in love with Jeremy Corbyn and his raw Communist sex appeal. --- ‘Jess Green’s writing never fails to stir hope, humour and righteous anger, often all at the same time. She articulates brilliantly the loves and losses every embattled Labour supporter will be familiar with, but the humanity and wit that shines through all of her work is universal, making this collection for the many, not the few.’ - Grace Petrie ‘Some misogynist Conservative accountants may find these verses upsetting. I’d urge everyone else to buy a copy.’ - Elvis McGonagall Jess Green is a performance poet and playwright who has performed at Glastonbury, Latitude, Bestival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Her first collection, Burning Books, published by Burning Eye Books was shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award and as a poetry and music show received 5* reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and on its national tour. A poem from this show, Dear Mr Gove received viral attention on Youtube in 2014 and has now received over 300,000 views. The theatre adaptation of Burning Books was longlisted for the Bread & Roses Theatre Award 2016 and performed to sell-out audiences at Curve Theatre in Leicester. Burning Books tours nationally Autumn 2018. Her second poetry and music show, A Self Help Guide To Being In Love With Jeremy Corbyn based around her second collection of the same name and performed with her band, The Mischief Thieves goes to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018. Jess has written for Channel 4 and the BBC and runs Leicester poetry night, Find The Right Words which was shortlisted for Best Regular UK Poetry Event in the Saboteur Awards. http://jessgreenpoet.com 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/a-self-help-guide-to-being-in-love-with-jeremy-corbyn-by-jess-green https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/219718330/9781911570479.jpg 48869113 new in stock 48851191 How To Be Held by Maddie Godfrey To be held is to be embraced. Not only by the bodies or cities around you, but also by yourself. Maddie Godfrey’s debut poetry collection is an ode to resilience, vulnerability and tenderness. Using personal experiences the author explores gender politics, body positivity, trauma and self-preservation. How To Be Held aches with an intimate familiarity, like a diary entry which you cannot remember writing but still recognise yourself within. These poems are strong in the softest way. ---- “This book is daring, delicate defiance, an intimate ascension, an ode to survival. Poetry that crawls into your innermost thoughts and makes itself comfortable.” Sara Hirsch “Godfrey treats her language as a duvet she wraps around the reader, drawing them into a sanctuary of sorts.” Scott-Patrick Mitchell <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ON5s2N4A4AM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> Maddie Godfrey is an Australian-bred performance poet, writer, theatre maker and spoken word educator. Her writing aims to facilitate compassionate conversations about social issues. At twenty-two she has performed at the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, TEDxWomen and Glastonbury Festival. In 2017 Maddie was a writer-in-residence at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. She has won poetry slam competitions in Australia, London, Oxford, Cambridge and online. Maddie competed in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in New York (2016) and Texas (2017). Maddie’s writing has been internationally published in anthologies, magazines and literary journals, on posters, and by viral YouTube channels ‘Button Poetry’ and ‘Write About Now’. Her poetry was also used as a close reading text in the Western Australian curriculum’s 2016 English literature exam. Maddie is not a morning person. More information available at: www.maddiegodfrey.com www.facebook.com/maddiegodfreypoet 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/how-to-be-held-by-maddie-godfrey https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/219668500/9781911570431.jpg 48851191 new in stock 48520123 Some Things by Panya Banjoko An adversary of oppression and discrimination worldwide and a critic of the current political landscape, Banjoko speaks candidly in this collection about the world we live in, highlighting the many different roles of those who hold power and how they use it. Her poems consider the view of the voiceless and the contrasts within the various modes of discourse. Despite the often bleak images portrayed, there is a belief that the good will eventually out the bad without sullying their hands. As one of the first generation of Caribbean immigrants to be born in Britain, her work not only reflects the uneasy interactions between immigrants and the dominant culture but is also heavily influenced by being an outsider. Despite the gloom of injustice there is the hope of redemption and the quest for truth, equality and peace continues. -- Panya Banjoko is a UK-based writer and poet. She has toured internationally, coordinates a writers’ and artists’ network and is patron for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. Her work has featured in numerous anthologies including the award-winning Dawn of the Unread series published by LeftLion magazine in 2016. In 2017 her poem ‘One of a Kind’ was commended in the Writing East Midlands Aurora poetry competition and her poem ‘They and Them’ was featured in an exhibition by artist, academic and critic Keith Piper at the Beaconsfield Gallery, London. She received the Women in the Arts Poetry Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2008 and the Black Achievers Culture, Music and Arts Award for her work as a poet in 2017. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eond_g1vB2s" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/some-things-by-panya-banjoko https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/218749255/9781911570424.jpg 48520123 new in stock 48275809 Sakura by Myriam San Marco Within the pages of ‘Sakura’, Myriam San Marco builds a world of unease bound in that fragile scrabble called love. Her conversation of poetic prose has a palpable intensity where perspectives draw you in deeper than expected to eavesdrop on shadows, to witness in stark light and to unpack the baggage of secrets. The rich text and emotive imagery balance on a knife edge with unflinching precision. --- 'Myriam sometimes calls herself Word Maker, but it is her word-choosing that impresses me most. In Sakura, Myriam's word-choices, sharply-focused as laser-pointers, are shone straight into the eyes of the dark beasts that gnaw away at the foundations of us and our relationships, threatening to turn the world wobbly. Her word-choices make reading this poetry an uncomfortable experience at times; an exhilarating and beautiful and sexy one at others. But always rewarding. This little book is the result of meeting the world head on in all it's ugly glory and finding a way to distill that experience; to turn it into potent shots that both burn and warm the heart in equal measure. It is a little book, yes, but it is also a great victory. Myriam has lived and loved and somehow survived and look! Here she is, stronger than ever and mouth blazing, holding Sakura aloft like a hard-won scalp. ' - Jonny Fluffypunk 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/sakura-by-myriam-san-marco https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/218073574/9781911570417.jpg 48275809 new in stock 48254449 Chokey by Rosy Carrick Poems for revelling in passion and perversity, for the inspection of violence and pain, for tampering with truth, for always getting your fingers wet, for making lame pigs everywhere powerful. --- Rosy Carrick is a writer and performer based in Brighton. She has a PhD on the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and has released two books of his work in translation: Volodya: Selected Works of Vladimir Mayakovsky (Enitharmon, 2015) and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Smokestack, 2017). Chokey is her first poetry collection. http://www.rosycarrick.com/ <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3KFCkHNj7Rk" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/chokey-by-rosy-carrick https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/218015446/9781911570394LR.jpg 48254449 new in stock 47844796 SPLIT by Amani Saeed <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fwu09-b-Vic" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> This book is split into two. One half is about what it means to be a constant other, what it means to be perceived as both a foreigner and a westerner, a Muslim who is ‘not Muslim enough’. The other half is about abuse and the aftermath: trauma, healing, and learning how to love differently. Both halves are about coming to terms with a patchwork self that is forever being split and stitched back together. --- ‘Amani Saeed has grown a new tongue to replace that which was surgically removed by institutional racism, loss and womanhood. That tongue will become a voice for the lost, the dispossessed and the furious dreamers of a displaced generation. Striking, strong and loud.’ - Joelle Taylor ‘Amani Saeed examines that liminal space between being feminist and Muslim, Muslim and American, British and Indian, and the space between racism and privilege. She is not making this space weak, slippery or infirm, but instead makes it as strong as a plinth from which to call out bullshit on both sides. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do as poets, call out bullshit when we see it whatever side it’s on? A brave and essential debut.’ - Roger Robinson ‘Amani’s work gives her reader a home, a place to rest and seek comfort. In her work you can find beauty in even the ugliest of places; she deftly demonstrates that there are no real binaries and her work reflects vividly how we live in a world that is as complex, painful and as wonderful as her imagination.’ - Shagufta Igbal 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/split-by-amani-saeed https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/216865726/9781911570387.jpg 47844796 new in stock 47824465 My Other Poems are Funnier by Beryl the Feral A book for humans. Especially the ones who aren’t always impeccable. A poetry collection in homage to every valiant sensitive, who despite their sore places and complicated bits, will show up in spite of it all. Those who reach their limits and then stretch more; to embrace challenges, forgive fears, risk difference, and own the excruciating marvel of imperfection. Expect a tour through the treacherous terrain of Beryl the Feral’s mind, where self-esteem battles the sirens of shame and sabotage daily. Tipping her hat with cheerful accuracy at some intimate and awkward places along the way, Beryl brings keen observations of her own inner dialogue and dysfunction, and gets her own back by exposing her neuroses as entertainment so we can all have a good laugh. ‘The poet I would most trust with my heart breaks and hen nights.’ - Liv Torc. --- Blessed with the misfortune of being a rebel who loves rules, and a chronic introvert who deeply loves people; Beryl the feral is a Playsmith and felice-ilitator, who lives to encourage authentic creative expression. A list-making, rule-breaking, emotional-percolating poet; with a tendency for excessive thought and an overactive capacity to care. When she is not hiding, Beryl brings her own ragged-elegance and wild-intelligence to a variety of roles, including coordinating her own Spoken Word festival stage, and co-delivering `performance-poetry on prescription' workshops through the NHS. An animated performer; her on-stage accolades include involvement in the formation of the Wonder mentalist Cabaret, several two-woman poetry gameshows, and projects at diverse venues including Ways With Words festival, Whitstable Biannale, WOMAD, and the West country Storytelling festival. She has been previously been in print through Transition Towns, Bloomsbury, and Rosa Rot, as well as selling many copies of her popular self-published collections, and she likes it when you buy her book. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sEcFJmCgj20" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/my-other-poems-are-funnier-by-beryl-the-feral https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/216810229/9781911570363.jpg 47824465 new in stock 47824408 Broken Compass by Carys Hannah <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ED0mEJdnNrM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> How do you navigate your own path when you have no sense of direction? What do you do when your gap year becomes a gap decade? ‘Broken Compass’ is a collection of poems, vignettes, and journal entries accumulated over a ten year period. Carys shares snapshots and stories about muddling through adulthood. Themes include complex relationships, mental health, social issues, and travel. ____ Carys Hannah (formerly known as Carys 'Matic' Jones) is a Birmingham-based poet, musician, and educator. She has headlined numerous spoken word events and performed at several festivals in the UK and South Korea, including Evidently, Wordsmiths, Mouths Wide Shut, Howl, Shambala, Boomtown, and the Gwangju World Music Festival, and has written for the publications Blues and Soul Magazine, Culture M, Eloquence, and Groove Korea. Her work has been showcased on BBC Introducing, OHTV, and The Word is Bond. In 2015, Carys took her autobiographical one-woman show Professional Nomad to the Edinburgh Fringe festival where she won the Hammer and Tongue slam and progressed to the national finals at the Royal Albert Hall. Carys is the founder and former host of Lyrically Minded, an open mic based in Seoul. She has also released an experimental hip hop album, and plans to record more music in the future. Her poetry has been described as ‘rhythmic’, ‘magnetic’, and ‘courageous’. 'The compassion in Hannah's eye falls on intimate learning opportunities in everyday life that remind us what it means to be human, and her heart documents them in rhyme and vivid image to bring the sentiment home. But this is not a sentimental collection - the edgy mc flow in her poems transports you through the 'story of the moment' in unexpected and satisfying ways.' – Zena Edwards. ‘The pieces I like best are the uplifting dragon and graffiti stories, the short 'Sheets' poem, and the last practical musing upon being in the present, which I found to be a grounding reminder about self-appreciation.’ – John Hegley 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/broken-compass-by-carys-hannah https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/216810022/9781911570349.jpg 47824408 new in stock 47154700 Broken People by Katrine Solvaag <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SQ2Rlk-euOw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Broken People is a tale of breaking and healing. In her debut collection Katrine Lynn Solvaag merges elements of page and performance poetry to explore how words can convey experiences, inspired by the rush of modern day life. The collection stands as a fractured mirror reflecting how the good and bad in life often comes hand-in-hand. Within are poems voicing her struggle with depression, attempts to keep in touch with her Norwegian roots, the loss of her grandfather to cancer, adventures with new friends, and the ecstasy of falling in love closely followed by the hurt it causes when it all goes wrong. Katrine Lynn Solvaag is a Norwegian performance poet based in Canterbury where she is currently completing her MA in Creative Writing. She has performed at an array of festivals, including Brighton Fringe and Wise Words, and is currently the founder and editor-in-chief of Dissonance Magazine. During her bachelor’s degree, Katrine undertook a high volume of volunteer work as society president and festival organiser. In 2017 the university rewarded her dedication with the Kent Student Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts and Culture. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/broken-people-by-katrine-solvaag https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/214924891/9781911570325.jpg 47154700 new in stock 46990096 Nerd Punk by Henry Raby When you grow up they tell you to straighten up. Stop playing games. Stop listening to that music. Stop trying to change the world. Nerd Punk is Henry Raby’s ode to friendship, community, solidarity and dinosaurs. From protest and politics to comics and cartoons, Henry Raby’s anarchic verse explores the many ways we can rebel, remember and grow. ‘Nerd Punk is a book that will change how you feel about men, not all men, but men like Henry who write honestly about being a man in the 21st Century. Bridget Hart ‘He smashes it every time I see him.’ Mark Grist ‘Part of a new generation of spoken word’ Attila the stockbroker 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/nerd-punk-by-henry-raby https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/214461133/9781911570318.jpg 46990096 new in stock 46089799 Advice to a Young Skydiver by Joshua Seigal Joshua Seigal is renowned as a children's poet and performer. In this, his first collection for adults, he tackles growing up and dumbing down. Tender poems about childhood and family mingle with highly irreverent performance pieces honed on the spoken word and stand up comedy circuits. Seigal's poetry conveys an infatuation with the intricacy and possibility of words, and issues of Love and Loathing are dealt with in equal measure. BIO: Joshua Seigal is a London-based poet, performer and workshop leader. His children's books are published by Bloomsbury and Flying Eye, and he has performed all over the world. He has taken his poetry to the Edinburgh Fringe, the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Bath Children's Literature Festival. Joshua is an official National Poetry Day Ambassador, and has held residencies at numerous schools. He is also highly active on the grown-up spoken word and comedy circuits, and has been described as "very imaginative and wonderful" by the Sunday Times. **** (Broadway Baby), **** (Three Weeks). www.joshuaseigal.co.uk 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/advice-to-a-young-skydiver-by-joshua-seigal https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/211954339/9781911570257.jpg 46089799 new in stock 45988714 Real Grown Up Women by Samantha Boarer Samantha Boarer writes about what it is to become a ‘real grown-up woman’ in the twenty-first century. Each poem is a reckless navigation through the obstacle course of a modern twenty-something female with hurdles including dating, cancelling plans and the vagina’s varying pH levels. A mix of sex and social inabilities, Samantha Boarer’s poetry will woo you, make you feel uncomfortable, but will never leave you feeling unsatisfied. Presenting self-deprecating humour, this collection turns serious situations on their heads to reveal the absurdity of it all. An incredibly honest account of what it’s like to be a grown-up single woman. “The hottest thing to come out of Newton Abbot since the A380.” Robert Garnham "Hilarious, poignant and deliciously filthy." Melanie Branton Available 1st March 2018 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/real-grown-up-women-by-samantha-boarer https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/211675111/9781911570240.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212886355/RGWpoem.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212886370/Hands_book.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212909203/SB_12_urban_poster_mockup.jpg 45988714 new in stock 45048358 Everything Wrong with You is Beautiful by Tina Sederholm Everything Wrong with You is Beautiful is a celebration of the foul-ups, losses and ridiculousnesses encountered while attempting to live a worthwhile life. Tina finds profundity in profanity, freedom through debt, wisdom in a cup of tea. She explodes the big things that don’t matter, seeks out the tiny secrets that do. She is equally seduced by both eight-foot gods and cupcakes via awkward sex talks and debt, the result is Radio 4 with the shackles off. Part cry for freedom, part recipe for survival, you have picked this book up for a reason. Now open it up and work out what that reason is. Tina Sederholm is an award-winning poet, writer and raconteur who has journeyed along that little known career path from international event rider to performance poet. No-one saw this coming, least of all her. From a concerned little girl doing her best to follow the rules and her dream to win Badminton Horse Trials, she has turned into an acerbic, big-hearted sweary, insatiably curious woman who uses poetry to pry open paradoxes such as the positives of failure, the richness in debt and the quixotic nature of love.  A multiple slam winner, she has performed at festivals and gigs all over the country for the last fifteen years, including the Royal Albert Hall and the Edinburgh Fringe, where her three solo shows have been awarded four and five star reviews. This is her third collection. ‘Tina’s poetry is honest, unafraid, open and human, and it’s great to see that work between covers, pinned down and displayed for those who never get the chance to see her live, as well as a treasured reminder for those of us who have been lucky enough to watch her work.’ A.F. Harrold ‘She makes me laugh so much that I don’t notice till later that she’s also made me think. Wit, warmth and a whipcrack turn of phrase.’ Anna Freeman ‘Tina Sederholm has risen in stage and page acumen for many years. This collection skillfully blends her practices and some of her greatest hits, deftly illuminating self and social awareness with excellently crafted truth, beauty, warts and all, everything you would expect from such a diligent, honest writer.’ Steve Larkin 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/everything-wrong-with-you-is-beautiful-by-tina-sederholm https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/209005024/9781911570011.jpg 45048358 new in stock 44651653 A Recipe for Sorcery by Vanessa Kisuule Commended poems featured in the Forward Anthology 2018. Vanessa Kisuule’s second release is a poetry collection with a difference. It is a recipe book for personhood that changes with the whim of the seasons and the political climate. It is a cathartic explosion, an unspooling of long-harboured resentment and a delving into ugly truths. It is a feverish fistful of musings, a comedy of errors, an instruction manual, a broken compass and an overheard conversation in the ladies’ loo. It is at once a celebration of things to come and a mourning of things lost. It is a redefinition of what it is to be magical and otherworldly. Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer, burlesque artist and general empress of blag based in Bristol. She also goes under the moniker Shonda Rhymez when she does rap battles and Nina Nunchucks when she graces burlesque stages. She has won over ten slam titles including The Roundhouse Slam 2014, Hammer and Tongue National Slam 2014 and the Nuoryican Poetry Slam. She has been featured on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1, and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, The Guardian, Blue Peter, Sky TV, Don't Flop and TEDx. She has performed up and down the country and internationally at Glastonbury, Vienna, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Germany, Bangladesh and New York. Her debut poetry collection 'Joyriding The Storm' was published in 2014. She was the recipient of The Jerwood Micro Arts Bursary in 2017 and the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship as part of the Bristol Old Vic Ferment programme. She was Bristol City Poet for 2019-20. https://www.vanessakisuule.com/ 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/a-recipe-for-sorcery-by-vanessa-kisuule https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/207862936/9781911570196.jpg 44651653 new in stock 44624689 Hysterical by Keshia Starrett 2016 Poetry Rivals Winner Keshia Starrett's debut pamphlet negotiates the difficulties of her upbringing in poems that delight in taking ordinary phrases and placing them in unsettling contexts. There is anger, power, and compassion in how the poems address parenthood, addiction, and blame. `Keshia's work is intelligent and strong. She writes about love and loss with such coolness. This book has all the strength and guts of being human. The kind of book to read in the bath with a big glass of red wine.' - Laurie Bolger `These poems are seeds, they bury into your heart, into your head and bloom there. They insist on getting under your skin. Keshia acknowledges the pain of learning and growing with a bewitching clarity. A stunning debut. It feels alive - if you listen closely you can almost hear it breathe.' - Malaika Kegode `These poems know the difference absolution and erasure and Hysterical registers situations which the poet can neither absolve nor erase. Family dramas are spliced with historical allusions and a surreal imaginative ability. It all makes for a memorable debut.' - John McAuliffe Keshia Starrett is 23 and is from Derry, Ireland. She now lives in Leeds where she is creating a series of conceptual poems about mental health for her PhD. She received her MA from the University of Manchester. Her poetry has been published in a variety of magazines and journals, and she performs at open mic nights and other events around England and Ireland. In 2016 Keshia won Poetry Rivals and has been awarded a publishing deal with Burning Eye Books. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/hysterical-by-keshia-starrett https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/207785407/9781911570226.jpg 44624689 new in stock 44489800 We Need to Talk by Agnes Török If I could write just one poem about sexual violence it would be this: Always. Believe. The victim. We Need To Talk is a poetry collection on sexual violence, survivorship and solidarity. We Need To Talk instead looks at gender-based violence structurally, taking Agnes's own experiences as a starting point to discuss the normalization of sexual violence in contemporary society. Agnes pulls no punches in this frank and honest collection, and she is right. We do need to talk about this. <p align="justify">Agnes Török is an award-winning queer and genderfluid poet, TED speaker and author. Their work moves in between art and activism. Török has produced poetry in collaboration with several large organisations and campaigns for change, as well as established cultural institutions such as Roundhouse Theatre and the BBC. <p align="justify">Török has toured on four continents and written books in two languages about mental health, gender-based violence, the rise of the extreme right, and feminist and queer resistance movements. Török lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with their communities and pot plants. Their supporters and collaborators live around the world. 10% of book sales go to Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support https://www.sarsas.org.uk/ agnestorok.org 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/we-need-to-talk-by-agnes-torok https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/207390226/9781911570189.jpg 44489800 new in stock 44428055 Zebra by Robert Garnham These are suburban poems describing places we go to all the time. But they creep beneath the surface of reality and find a deeper truth, some colour beyond the monochrome. From supermarkets to trains and buses, libraries to pubs, and then further afield from the Amazon to the Arctic, this collection finds that one magic spark which unites us all. By turns laugh out loud funny and life affirming, celebratory and campaigning, this book shows that we all have more in common than we think. Cranked out of an old Olivetti typewriter, Zebra is a work of depth from the Professor of Whimsy, comedy spoken word artist Robert Garnham. Robert Garnham is a comedy spoken word artist from Devon. Although light in tone, his work deals with LGBT issues and social representation and has an undercurrent of seriousness. His shorter pieces are fast-paced, delivered in a stand-up style, with a slightly surrealist edge and often a humorous punchline. His tone is off-beat, high energy and often somewhat deadpan. Over the years Robert has headlined at the top spoken word nights in the UK such as Bang Said the Gun in London, Evidently in Manchester, Hammer and Tongue in both Bristol and Brighton. He has won or been placed second at slams in Exeter, Wolverhampton, Edinburgh, Swindon and London. He has recently headlined at the Duplex in New York and the King Kong Klub in Berlin. He often appears at comedy nights and has supported John Hegley and Arthur Smith. Robert has appeared at festivals such as Womad and London gay pride, and his one hour show Static recently featured at festivals in Bath, Guildford and the Edinburgh Fringe, where he has performed for the last three years. His first collection was published in 2016 by Burning Eye Books, and he was long listed for the Saboteur Awards in the category Spoken Word Artist of the Year. He is currently working with the musical jazz improvisation group Croydon Tourist Office, and has narrated and appeared in a short film, 'Professor in the Bathroom'. Robert provides workshops for adults and sixth form students in comedy poetry, and has been Poet in Residence at the Artizan Gallery in Torquay, and on the LGBT radio magazine show 'Listen Out' in Exeter. Lately he has been appearing on adverts for the Nationwide Building Society. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/zebra-by-robert-garnham https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/207206336/9781911570165.jpg 44428055 new in stock 43874186 Citizen of Nowhere by Emma Joliffe Where do you call home? Wherever we live, we all weave stories into places, draw ghost-maps of memories that we overlay on them, thick as cobwebs, light as air. Everyone’s maps are different. This collection starts with poems of place, firmly pinned to the map, and then widens out, until we have poems that have no place at all, and are themselves citizens of nowhere. This is a collection for anyone who’s ever felt a sense of being home, amongst the singing sirens of the city or in the calm of a quiet place. It is also for anyone who has felt stateless: able to transcend the lines on a map, the borders and barbed wire, and connect to other humans everywhere. “These poems contain razor sharp observation, both funny and dark at once, this is a startling debut and Joliffe is one to watch." - Salena Godden 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/citizen-of-nowhere-by-emma-joliffe https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/205561439/CitizenOfNowhere_FINAL.jpg 43874186 new in stock 43690856 Through your blood by Toby Campion Commended poems featured in the Forward Anthology 2018. <i>Through your blood</i> talks us along a deeply personal yet undeniably relatable journey, through a turbulent adolescence into adulthood. Refreshingly frank, perceptive and funny, these poems are psalms of identity, broken tradition and desperation sung from the back lanes of a Midlands city. Born and raised in the Midlands, Toby Campion is a UK National Poetry Slam Champion and a World Poetry Slam finalist. Recipient of the Silver Wyvern Award and First Place in the Poetry on the Lake Prizes 2017, awarded by Carol Ann Duffy, Toby has performed his poetry on stages across the UK, from Glastonbury Festival to London’s Royal Albert Hall, and in countries around the world, including America, Italy, Spain, Albania and South Korea. His debut play, WRECK, won the Fifth Word Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright 2015. Toby’s poetry has been selected to represent the UK at numerous international conferences and events including Capturing Fire: International Queer Poetry Summit, the 18th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, the Paris Poetry World Cup and Next Generation Speaks. Director of UniSlam and Resident Artist at Camden’s prestigious Roundhouse, Toby was one of the first resident poets of the River Thames. “These are poems with an easy intimacy; Campion speaks to the reader about childhood, discovery of sexuality, place and young adulthood with striking humour, wit and honesty” - Andrew McMillan “Toby Campion’s poetry is smart, witty and brilliantly delivered” - Jonathan Ross “The voice of a generation” - BBC Sunday Politics 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/through-your-blood-by-toby-campion https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/205010837/9781911570127.jpg 43690856 new in stock 43346858 The BEST Poetry Book in the World edited by Bridget Hart and Clive Birnie To celebrate the 5th year of Burning Eye Books, The Best Poetry Book in the World brings together all the anthems, the foot stompers, finger clickers, belly laughing crowd-pleasers that we've published (plus a few exciting extras) under one cover. Prepare yourselves. “They are not afraid to take risks and push the boundaries beyond conventions” “Incredible, varied and, most importantly, daring publications.” “Consistently cool.” FEATURING: Dan Cockrill * Raymond Antrobus * Jack Dean Anna Freeman * Megan Beech * Emily Harrison Sally Jenkinson * Kirsten Luckins * Keith Jarrett Paula Varjack * Hannah M. Teasdale * Jeremy Toombs Liv Torc * Joelle Taylor * Agnes Török Sophia Walker * Thommie Gillow * Rosy Carrick Tina Sederholm * Crysse Morrison * Lucy Lepchani Salena Godden * Jenn Hart * Sam Boarer A. F. Harrold * Harry Baker * Robert Garnham Matt Panesh * Ash Dickinson * Johnny Fluffypunk Rob Auton * Joe Hakim * Selina Nwulu * Hollie McNish Toby Campion * Andrew Graves * Amani Saeed James Bunting * Lucy English * Emma Joliffe Laurie Bolger * Penny Pepper * Kate Fox Jemima Foxtrot * Molly Case * Elvis McGonagall Jess Green * Mark Grist * Nasser Hussain Molly Naylor * Dan Simpson * Sophia Blackwell Amy McAllister * Stef Mo * Sara Hirsch Fergus McGonigal * Keshia Starrett * Tony Walsh Shruti Chauhan * Hannah Chutzpah * Jamal Mehmood Shagufta K Iqbal * Vanessa Kisuule * Michelle Madsen Deanna Rodger * Mairi Campbell-Jack * Lydia Towsey Malaika Kegode * Rebecca Tantony * Chris Redmond Pete Bearder * Henry Raby * Scott Tyrrell 12.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-best-poetry-book-in-the-world-edited-by-jenn-hart-and-clive-birnie https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/361107049/9781911570158.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212083060/9781911570158-Contents.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212083066/9781911570158-Contents2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212083072/9781911570158-Introduction.jpg 43346858 new in stock 43175363 She Grrrowls - The Anthology Since 2013, She Grrrowls has been bringing live shows of talented women in comedy, music, poetry (and everything in between) to stages across London. In this anthology, Carmina Masoliver -founder, poet and feminist - has selected and commissioned new work from ten poets who have featured at the event over the years. Featuring: Bridget Minamore, Joelle Taylor, Sabrina Mahfouz, Selina Nwulu, Rachel Long, Natalie Cooper, Aisling Fahey, Sophie Fenella, Jasmine Cooray, Esther Poyer, Belinda Zhawi and Rowena Knight. "There was a feeling of 'yes-I-want-to-change-the-world' in the air and it's hard to imagine anyone left feeling angry or depressed about social injustice, since the performers conveyed their social agenda with just the right amount of optimism and hopefulness." Irina Jauhianinen, Sabotage Reviews "She Grrrowls is a ravishing, fierce and funny showcase of the some of the best mouths in town." Amber Tamblyn 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/she-grrrowls-the-anthology https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/203480981/9781911570141.jpg 43175363 new in stock 42965783 Everyone Is Now Unhappy by Fergus McGonigal Fergus McGonigal’s new collection contains humour, wordplay, plenty of love poetry, a rich seam of surrealism, a dash of nonsense, and just the right amount of heavy stuff to balance it all out. Much of it rhymes, most of it scans, and all of it makes sense, so whatever you do: don’t tell the Poetry Police. After surveying the mess that everybody always seems to be in, himself included, Fergus McGonigal thought it was time for somebody to point out the glaringly obvious: Everyone is Now Unhappy. Except, of course, when they come across a poetry book like this one. Educated somewhere in between school lessons up north and university lectures down south, Fergus McGonigal decided to compromise by moving to the Midlands (although people who know him well often say that he’s all over the place). Having left teaching several years ago, Fergus has spent his time building up the poetry CV; if you want to find out what he gets up to, then take a trip to fergusthepoet.com, where you can also hear some of this book. Everyone Is Now Unhappy is his third collection of poetry. He is no longer Worcestershire Poet Laureate, though, so please stop curtsying. ‘Fergus McGonigal reaches the parts which other poets cannot reach.’ CHELTENHAM POETRY FESTIVAL ‘Bold, brash and brilliant!’ WORCESTER LITFEST AND FRINGE ‘Vibrant, wild and funny, and that’s just his hair. Fergus McGonigal is a poet and performer of verve, energy and pizzaz. Shame he can’t spell his name properly.’ ELVIS MCGONAGALL 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/everyone-is-now-unhappy https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/202848092/9781911570110.jpg 42965783 new in stock 42648844 Take Hair by Rob Auton Take Hair is the third collection of writing and drawing from award winning writer and performer Rob Auton. Take Hair houses the ideas that Rob wants to exist. The ideas that came to him that he got enough from to want to record them and share them with others to see if they get anything from them too. Rob Auton is an expatriate Yorkshireman living in the alien environment of London. He performs regularly all over the UK and is part of London's Bang Said The Gun stand up poetry collective. He has taken six one man shows to the Edinburgh Fringe and hit the headlines in August 2013 when a throw away gag won the Dave Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh fringe award. 'A genuine original' (Guardian). 'I haven’t seen anything else quite like it, or him' (Stage). 'One of my absolute favourites' (Daniel Kitson). 'His absurd brand of stand-up and poetry is exactly what the country needs right now' (Huffington Post). ‘Charming, eccentric and uplifting, Auton is a talent to watch’ (Independent). 'Limited entertainment value or indeed point' (Chortle.co.uk). 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/take-hair-by-rob-auton https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/201915274/9781911570066.jpg 42648844 new in stock 42648791 I Did It Too by Deanna Rodger This much anticipated debut collection from Deanna Rodger demonstrates a remarkable ability to craft timeless poems. I Did It Too collects poems written over a decade that embody the politics of state and person, the city to the universe. Featuring commissions from St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and Guardian News and well known poems such as Cog and Being British and the startlingly abrupt Nowadays. I Did It Too is a public admittance, a powerful statement at a dramatic moment of history. Deanna Rodger is an international writer, performer and facilitator. She co-curates two leading spoken word events: Chill Pill and Come Rhyme With Me and is on the board of Safe Ground. Accolades include: ELLE UK’s '30 inspirational women under 30', The Female Lead’s '20intheir20s', Cosmopolitan’s 'No.1 trailblazing woman', youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion (Farrago 2007/8) Previous international performances and workshops include: San Miguel Poetry festival (Mexico), Canada (British Council/Shakespeare lives), Beirut (Roundhouse), South Africa (Connect ZA and Roundhouse), Zimbabwe and Sudan (both British Council). She teaches the Writing Poetry for Performance module with Benjamin Zephaniah at Brunel University and is a tutor at School of Communication Arts ('The most successful ad school in the world'). Currently in development with EARTH: The Show (written with Gemma Rogers). Check out her creative experiment Matter - www.thisismatter.com 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/i-did-it-too-by-deanna-rodger https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/201915065/9781911570233.jpg 42648791 new in stock 42648758 You Sad Feminist by Megan Beech How do you feel empowered when depression leaves you powerless? How do you promote self-esteem when your internal critic always shouts the loudest? How do you change the world when you can't get out of bed? In the second collection by the performance poet heralded by Laura Bates of Everyday Sexism as 'one of the powerful voices of young feminism today', Megan Beech chronicles her experiences as a young feminist dealing with mental illness. This follow up to Beech's feisty feminist debut When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard probes the power and vulnerability that comes from being a depressed, aspirant, intelligent and flawed young woman in 21st Century Tory Britain. Megan Beech is a performance poet. She was the winner of the Poetry Society's SLAMbassadors national youth slam in 2011. She has performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Parliament, the Southbank Centre, Glastonbury Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival. Her debut collection 'When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard' was published in 2013, chronicling her experience as a young feminist and the fight for female voices to be presented in mainstream media. She was featured in The Guardian lists of 'inspiring young feminists in 2014' and 'Must Read Books of the Year 2014' and the Evening Standard's list of 'Ten 21st Century feminist icons'. She made a film with the BBC for the iPlayer series 'Women Who Spit' which was the most viewed arts content from the BBC in 2015. Her work has been profiled in publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Evening Standard and Grazia magazine. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/you-sad-feminist-by-megan-beech-1 https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/201915047/9781911570103.jpg 42648758 new in stock 42385565 Chronotopia by Kate Fox These poems come from a variety of residencies and random thoughts over the past few years; from the Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run, from a Cheshire mill and a Muslim girl's school in Bradford. From a homeless project, a newspaper column, two Radio 4 comedy series and a stand-up PhD. Mostly though they come from in between- where most writers and performers live. Between classes and places and genres and times. Kate Fox is a stand-up poet who gets about a bit. She's serious about being funny and funny about being serious. She's from the North of England - which is both a place and a time. She thinks it's the present and wonders what the future will bring. A powerhouse? A poorhouse? A breakaway republic? 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/chronotopia-by-kate-fox https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/201140069/9781911570097.jpg 42385565 new in stock 42042044 In The Beginning Was The Word, Then A Drawing, Then More Words, Another Drawing, And So On And So On 'In The Beginning Was The Word, Then A Drawing, Then More Words, Another Drawing, And So On, And So On' is a sequential chain that alternates from poet to illustrator, a creative game of ping pong that takes each artist on a path they would not have discovered on their own. Responding to each others original and sometimes witty thoughts, they explore the darkness and the light, ask 'why are we doing this?' and 'where is all this leading?' as they take us on a journey from the beginning of time and through unexplored space to find an unknown destination in an uncertain and peculiar world. Daniel Cockrill's words have appeared in books, newspapers, magazines, on gallery walls and have been spoken out loud on stage, radio and television. He is the Co-founder of Bang Said The Gun and Page Match and is published by Burning Eye. He lives and works in London. About Damien Weighill Born in the North East of England and now living and working in London. Damien Weighill creates illustrations full of ideas (of both the smart and the joyfully stupid kind) for a host of international clients. His comic strips are published weekly in The Sunday Times Magazine. “Like a good gin and tonic.” Lemn Sissay “Moving, amusing, revealing and compelling.” Jonathan Ross “Dan Cockrill is a poet of nuance, whispers and extraordinary beauty, who holds his pen as though it were the pointer on a compass. These poems navigate between worlds and map the distance between them, drawing them together. These are impossible poems, small things which contain the universe. Each poem is a response to a picture, each picture drawn in response to a poem. This is a book of circles. Own it.” Joelle Taylor “Cor, I love this book, such a lovely turn of phrase and sensitivity and humour. This book is playful and profound, surreal and laugh out loud funny. There is a wonderful comedy and romance in here, a beautiful collaboration and a colourful celebration of the now.” Salena Godden “Damien Weighill draws pictures that feed words into your head. Daniel Cockrill writes words that feed pictures into your head. By the time I got to the end of this book I had a casserole of life in my head and I’m still eating it now.” Rob Auton “Dan Cockrill is a very human human and, as both poet and person, he approaches this mad, sad, beautiful world with the perfect combination of playfulness and betrayed disappointment. What I love about his writings is what I love about life: One moment it has you giggling at the daftness of it all; the next it just breaks your heart.” Jonny Fluffypunk 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/in-the-beginning-was-the-word-then-a-drawing-then-more-words-another-drawing-and-so-on-and-so-on https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/200144984/9781911570073.jpg 42042044 new in stock 41798336 Requite by Malaika Kegode This is a love letter to the testament of humanity and the patchwork of people that make up our lives. “Attuned to the rhythms of life, looking for them through language, looking for how they might heal us, Malaika Kegode speaks herself powerfully on to the page, and on to the stage, and in doing so reminds us how important it is to live in hope and to love well. This much anticipated debut from one of the brightest lights of performance poetry is a timely book of love and adage, a celebration of community and spirit.” Rachael Boast 'Devastatingly beautiful, I urgently drank every word of this up and now I feel more full. A collection that speaks of what it is to be a young woman finding her way amongst the people and promise that surrounds us all. Be it shooting whiskey shots, from growing up in a sleepy village to being spat into the big city. From addiction to heartbreak, from music to race. It speaks of realism, of the relatable and raw. It speaks with an honest tenderness, unafraid and explorative. It speaks of hope…I want more words, more feelings, more poetry please from the glorious Malaika Kegode.'  Rebecca Tantony https://soundcloud.com/malkegode 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/requite-by-malaika-kegode https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/199427405/9781911570042.jpg 41798336 new in stock 41725573 Jam is for Girls by Shagufta K Iqbal 'Jam is for Girls' is Shagufta K's fiercely honest debut collection. Her work lays witness to the immigrant experience and gives voice to the women who made journeys into unknown lands through the eyes of their daughters. This is not a collection that struggles between two conflicting cultures, but is an unashamed and unapologetic confirmation of the third generation identity carving itself a space in an increasingly Islamaphobic world. She deftly balances passion and tenderness in her poems, exploring the personal and the political through gender inequality, racism and injustice that is present in the modern world. Leaving audiences with thought provoking poems that are rich and vivid in imagery. Shagufta K is a Bristol based artist working mostly with spoken word, theatre and film. She has been described as one of the most talked about performers in the region. She has performed at Glastonbury, Plymouth Literature Festival, Bloomsbury Literature Festival, Bristol Poetry Festival, Birmingham MAC and Bristol Old Vic. She has been performing and leading workshops for several years, and has studied English Literature and Creative Studies at Bath Spa University, and has a masters in Gender Studies. She is interested in bringing poetry to a wider audience, particularly through the use of spoken word, and live theatre. Keen to merge activism with art, she is a powerful and brave voice. A prime example of this is her 2015 poetry film 'Borders', with director Elizabeth Mizon, which has been screened at London Short Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival, and Tongues on Fire- London Asian Film Festival. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/jam-is-for-girls-by-shagufta-k-iqbal https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/199216786/9781911570004.jpg 41725573 new in stock 41533154 Permeable by Hannah Chutzpah 'Permeable' is a warm, funny and nuanced collection from a dynamic and seasoned wordsmith. Covering everything from the difficulties of love to mental health and Tetris, Chutzpah paints powerful pictures about the instability and insecurity of 'millennial' life. Taking a winding route via hoarding, pet crematoriums and lunar photography, 'Permeable' is a guide for trying to get by as best you can without being an arse. Hannah Chutzpah is a performance poet, activist, and smartass. Born and raised in London, she studied at UEA and has performed everywhere from Occupy protests to the Royal Albert Hall. Her one-woman Edinburgh Fringe shows have received five star reviews and made people cry. Apparently in a good way. Hannah has been described as 'fine' by three therapists, as 'of good character' by a high court judge and as 'a potential maggot-thrower' by the Metropolitan Police. This is her third collection. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/permeable-by-hannah-chutzpah https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/198648536/9781911570035.jpg 41533154 new in stock 41379197 Selah by Keith Jarrett The Hebrew-derived word Selah appears as a musical interlude in the Psalms, often meaning ‘stop and consider’, and is used in other contexts, religious and secular. This collection brings together poems that combine musical intrigue with history and desire, from organ recitals (‘Resonances’ and ‘When the Roll is Called’) to teenage gospel hip-hop (‘Hip-hop Salvation’). Humour and sex punctuate social commentary (‘Gay Poem’ and ‘No Timewasters’) throughout. Above all, Selah asks the reader to stop and consider, pausing at the fault lines in relationships and intimacy (‘Making Light’) and transgression (‘Transfiguration’), asking difficult questions and holding them to the light. In Selah, Jarrett interrogates what is lost when one seeks to shape something new – namely his Black British Identity - from disparate ingredients such as migrant parents, a religious upbringing and living in inner city London. His poetry dances an awkward shuffle as he negotiates and seeks to reconcile what he inherits from his Caribbean roots, what he has lost and who he is becoming on this British Island. The poems are all fraught with relationships shaped by a severe severing that creates a limbo state where Jarrett states: My body is a boulder, I try to sound out my new / national anthem: I am forever blowing bubbles – I remain stateless. Here the poems are songs that testify, praise, lament and pray, drawing heavily on biblical imagery, mythology and language to score the relevant notes for his compositions. His elegiac pieces are epigraphic whether written for a diabetic dying grandfather or about the breakdown of a long-term relationship. This new Black British voice is relevant and necessary. - Malika Booker 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/selah-by-keith-jarrett https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/198197633/9781909136960.jpg 41379197 new in stock 41255951 Viva Loch Lomond! by Elvis McGonagall Viva Loch Lomond! collects the greatest hits of stand-up poet, comedian and broadcaster Elvis McGonagall in one volume for the first time. Witty, satirical but not afraid to be plain daft, Elvis McGonagall’s work takes aim at our septic isle of zero-hourscontracts, food banks and cup-cakery. From Scottish independence to the “war on terror” via turbo-capitalist greed; from Blair and Bush to Dave and Boris via the death of Thatcher; from William Wallace’s taste for cheese to the Queen’s love of gangsta rap VIA BREXIT AND TRUMPERY, Elvis kicks against the injustices of austerity Britain but still finds time to wax lyrical about the joys of whisky, Greek islands and life in a godforsaken rural idyll. Viva Loch Lomond! lays bare the workings of his befuddled mind as he scribbled these poems from the dubious comfort of his revolting armchair at the Graceland Caravan Park. ‘Brilliantly anarchic, verbally agile, always a treat’ JOAN BAKEWELL ‘Righteous ire, directed at very deserving targets McGonagall’s verses are shot through with a moral umbrage and rhetorical power’ BRIAN LOGAN, THE GUARDIAN ‘Funny, angry and tightly written, McGonagall combines anger, polish and carefully crafted verse in a way which recalls John Cooper ClarkE. If the word ‘poetry’ is putting you off, get over it’ SUSAN MANSFIELD, THE SCOTSMAN 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/viva-loch-lamond-by-elvis-mcgonagall https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/197836760/9781909136915.jpg 41255951 new in stock 41034110 GOD SAVE THE TEEN by Andrew Graves God Save The Teen takes us through the side streets of modern Britain, finding love and loss within the fractured estates and beleaguered communities and pays homage to the likes of Johnny Cash, Alan Moore and Nottingham’s own Brian Clough in a slide tackling style of poetry, which is all the writers own. There is an honesty here, a heart on sleeve, soul searching rhythm which is never more apparent than in his acclaimed one person show, which sits at the centre of this brutal, sometimes funny, always emotional collection. Partly hopeful, partly nostalgic it’s a gritty, chaotic and curious rhetoric, perfectly in keeping with the post-Brexit, uneasy atmosphere of an increasingly out of control, faltering modernity. ‘Poems writ on the cover of ‘That’s Entertainment’, Airfix painted onto the back of a parka, tattooed with biro ink whilst bunking off. All of this and less and more.’ Tim Wells 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/god-save-the-teen-by-andrew-graves https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/197176088/9781911570028.jpg 41034110 new in stock 40615777 Better Watch Your Mouth by Bridget Hart The debut pamphlet of poems by DIY punk poet Bridget Hart is made up of defiance, declarations of love and war and portraits of dead women. Better Watch Your Mouth is a strong, unyielding testament to the power of female relationships, past and present, fictional and real. 'Here is a collection of poems which whispers, growls, mumbles and shouts about female experiences. Powerful, and everyday. Real, and imagined. Richly fictional, and bravely autobiographical. Jenn's voice is smart and surprising, and she drags us by the hand through all the things she knows about what it can mean to be young (and especially to be a young woman), without a cliche in sight.' - Sally Jenkinson 'Beautiful, deftly constructed with strength at its heart. This is a gorgeous chapbook' – Megan Beech Jenn Hart’s poetry is like a ferret. It can be your best friend, or bite your face off. - Henry Raby Jenn Hart is a poet and musician who speaks for herself. Her poetry is sharp and witty as she rips apart the stigmas of mental health, feminism and growing up in a punk scene, far from perfect. In 2013 Jenn released a zine of poems Scraped Knees and Sob Stories and it was so good someone got the cover art tattooed in their leg. She set off on a DIY spoken word tour (Riot Nrrrds) with fellow punk poet Henry Raby in 2014 and has performed at festivals, community centres, squats, caravans, kitchens and back rooms all over the country. She has had work published with She Grrrowls, The Riot Grrrl Project and CHAPESS Zine. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/better-watch-your-mouth-by-jenn-hart https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/196095181/9781909136991.jpg 40615777 new in stock 39875338 Who Knows? by Jeremy Toombs I’m off to Nashville, up here at 10,000 feet I can see on the other shore. The imprint on mind lasts longer. What could I do now but carry on? Present in any form, tuned into Billy Joe Shaver. There’s nothing at all I can do about any of it. Chicken, a biscuit, and mashed potatoes. Sun slips down the street through autumn leaves. At least, we’re in it together. No problem. We’re animals. What? Shakespeare going in his brain. What happened? Is this good? Is this bad? GET TO THE MOUNTAIN Buddhist monks. Mind is home. Just gone. All day long. Big Belly Buddha Rock Monk beyond the ten thousand rocks, The Heart Sutra floating through my head. That’s what you get for thinking. Mountain water in my belly, wishing I had me just one good friend here. A flash of blue flies through. How do I feel? I’d like to know what you think. ‘Shut up. Listen.’ Finding secret paths empty, easy. Seeing people is always good. What the hell? (in the end, we are like burritos: full of beans, wrapped together.) In the Chelsea for a pint, did you feel lost? We lock eyes. Let me tell you something, still quick, sometimes still a lonely child. Breathe in. Breathe out. “Freedom”, he said. It’s hard tellin’, not knowin’. ¿Who knows? 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/who-knows https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/194040610/9781909136977.jpg 39875338 new in stock 39502441 All The Journeys I Never Took by Rebecca Tantony All The Journeys I Never Took offers a personal account of what it’s like to leave behind the middle man – lover, father, priest – and discover our place in the world. A place which echoes with unravelling journeys, first dates, break-ups, family and confidences. At turns both confessional and political, this collection explores what a contemporary definition of home might be: something physical, a person, a concept best left behind or a destination to keep heading towards. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/all-the-journeys-i-never-took-by-rebecca-tantony https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/193012111/9781909136984.jpg 39502441 new in stock 38232092 Little Boy Blue by Jamal Mehmood Poetry Rivals 2015 Winner Little Boy Blue - taking its name from the Nina Simone song/album is a debut collection of poetry that is both personal and political, and throughout the book, both. The musical reference to Nina is just one example of many, with poems peppered with musical references that will be apparent to many readers. Themes in the collection range from family, identity, nostalgia, the current state of the world and where the writer fits within it as a young British, Pakistani Muslim. The book begins with family, nostalgia and personal issues and then blends into commentary on social pain, and towards the end of the book, combines the two in the title poem. Stylistically there is a mixture of pieces. It is clear some are written for the stage, and others work just as well on the page. There is rhyme, abstraction, narratives and humour contained within this collection which gives it an eclectic feel when one reaches the end. Just like the song. Jamal Mehmood is a writer born and raised in Kent, England. He was the school Poet Laureate and has been writing for 6 years. He studied Economics at the University of Southampton, and now works in London. As well as poetry, he also writes articles and is working on two film projects, one a documentary on immigration, and one a feature film. He has also worked for human rights charity Restless Beings for 5 years and continues in his role in events and the arts. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/little-boy-blue-by-jamal-mehmood https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/189610946/9781911570059.jpg 38232092 new in stock 37362272 Crumbs From a Spinning World by Crysse Morrison This book is about being human and resilient and transgressive, and how you don't need to have a personality lobotomy when you pass 60. I think it is the book GB Shaw had in mind when he wrote "Life does not stop being funny when people die any more than it stops being serious when people laugh." Crysse Morrison has written in various genres: her fiction has been published and broadcast and her stage plays produced but she maintains a perverse determination to write poetry and performs at various venues in the southwest, occasionally winning local slams. A self-styled crone, she makes it her mission to give voice and visibility to the elderly, regarding dressing with inappropriate zest as a political act. Crysse intends to continue to bemuse and amuse audiences mostly much younger than herself for as long as she remembers her words. "Crysse Morrison is an artist in words. She uses a painter's palette of colour in her work which fizzes into brilliant and subtle performance."- James Nash "Crysse Morrison is sharper than a serpent's tooth and a hell of a lot funnier." - Luke Wright 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/crumbs-from-a-spinning-world-by-crysse-morrison https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/187276085/9781909136922.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599940/Crumbs_SAMPLE-7.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599943/Crumbs_SAMPLE-8.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599946/Crumbs_SAMPLE-9.jpg 37362272 new in stock 37362167 Numbered Boxes by Pete (the Temp) Bearder Numbered Boxes is a journey through the stanzas of school days, family, work addiction, heartbreak and back into school as a teacher. Much of the book was written while Pete was teaching full-time in an East London secondary school as part of a world-first pilot project, the Spoken Word Education Programme. The book opens the lid on containers built by institutions, and those harder to unpack, the ones built by ourselves. The final section of the book breaks free from the shadows of these confines and escapes into the debauchery of mid-summer, drawing on a body of work written while Pete was Glastonbury poet in residence in 2015. Numbered boxes channels the energy and wit of his stage performance, into a body of lyric, narrative and comically surreal poetry, crafted to deliver on the page. Pete the Temp is a poet, educator and musician. His work has been featured on BBC radio and TV and in 2009 he became the National Poetry Slam Champion. Pete has toured theatres across England with his one man show Pete (the Temp) vs Climate Change. In 2015 he completed the MA Writer / Teacher Programme at Goldsmiths University. This led him to become one of the world’s first full-time spoken word educators to be embedded in a secondary school. He later went on to pilot the same work in a primary school. He was subsequently invited to deliver a TED Talk on the subject Why Every School Should Have a Spoken Word Educator. Pete has toured all over Europe with his art and now works as a poet and street performer. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/numbered-boxes-by-pete-the-temp-bearder https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/187275920/9781909136908.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599631/Numbered_Boxes_SAMPLE-6.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599634/Numbered_Boxes_SAMPLE-7.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188599637/Numbered_Boxes_SAMPLE-8.jpg 37362167 new in stock 37189247 The Letters I Never Sent You by Paula Varjack LETTERS I NEVER SENT TO YOU Poetry & Prose 2007 - 20016 Have you ever felt like it’s easier to open up to strangers than to your friends? Have you ever written a letter you never sent? What would you say if you did? LETTERS I NEVER SENT TO YOU is a collection of impressions and encounters; of people briefly met and of places passed through and lived in. It explores the sometimes slippery nature of the word “home”, and how love and heartbreak can be felt just as strongly for a place as for a person. It explores connection and disconnection with places, people and the spaces in which we encounter them. From Washington D.C. to London, from Accra to Paris and onwards to Berlin, LETTERS I NEVER SENT TO YOU tells stories of a life split between places, identities, languages, nationalities, sexualities and of running away and running into yourself, of love lost and found again. Having created work for stage, film, page and performance Paula Varjack has been writing to you for nearly a decade with no expectations of ever hearing your reactions. Can you write yourself into existence? Paula did, and she wants to open up to you, even though (and perhaps especially because) you might not have ever met. What would you share with someone you would never see again? Paula Varjack is a writer, filmmaker and theatre maker. Her work explores identity, the unsaid, and making the invisible visible. She makes work across disciplines; performance, theatre, documentary and spoken word. Her most recent show “ Show Me The Money” - explores the reality of making a living in the artist in the U.K. based on interviews with artists across the country. She has performed at numerous arts festivals and cultural spaces including: Glastonbury Festival, Berlin International Literature Festival, Tate Modern, Chelsea Theatre, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The ICA, Richmix, Wiltons Music Hall, Battersea Arts Centre, The Southbank Centre, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Musicbox Lisbon, Es Balluard Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Photographer’s Gallery. She is the creator of the Anti-Slam a satirical take on Poetry Slams where the lowest score wins. In addition to performing and producing events, she facilitates workshops with a wide range of age groups, using writing prompts and drama games to unblock creativity. Born in Washington D.C. to a Ghanaian mother and a British father, out of they many places she has lived she considers east London to be “home”. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-letters-i-never-sent-you-by-paula-varjack https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/186919955/9781909136885.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/186799664/LINSTY_Sample_1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/186799667/LINSTYSAMPLE-5.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/186799670/LINSTYSAMPLE-7.jpg 37189247 new in stock 36739787 Conkers by James Bunting Conkers is a collection with Bristol at its heart. A love for the city pervades every word and you can hear it whispering through the houses, streets and harbour of the town that grew each syllable and sentence. ‘Conkers’ is a journey through loving and living, wrestling with an innocence and a world-wise weariness seemingly completely opposed. It is a collection that pulls you close and spins you across the page, setting you down gently with an ache in your heart and a longing for whatever city you call home. At its close, Conkers is about a girl. A story that will remain in just those few words. James Bunting was born and raised in Bristol. He started writing aged 13 and doing nothing with his poems until, at 18, a chance encounter with three American performance poets introduced him to a style of poetry that proved the jump-start for his writing. Since that night, James has performed extensively throughout the UK, including at literature festivals, music festivals and slams alongside some inspirational poets. His writing has been described as powerful and emotive, and his performances regularly leave audiences in awed silence. Conkers is his debut collection and features many of the poems that have taken him across the country over the past eight years. James now lives in London and works in PR. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/conkers-by-james-bunting https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/185579450/9781909136892.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188598704/Conkers_SAMPLE-3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/188598707/Conkers_SAMPLE-4.jpg 36739787 new in stock 36445986 All Damn Day by Jemima Foxtrot All Damn Day is a 24-hour dance through a woodland of strange and brilliant images, snatches of song, drunken jaunts, female friendships, blazing or boring sexual encounters, conflicting desires and musical introspection. Foxtrot's nimble, capering insight shows you anew the life you know you're living and the life you don't. Jemima Foxtrot is a poet, musician, theatre-maker and performer from Hebden Bridge, currently living in London. She performs extensively and has had work commissioned by the BBC, the Tate Britain and Latitude Festival. Jemima was shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Spoken Word Fellowship in 2015 and her debut poetry play Melody was well received at Edinburgh 2015. She has performed in the Barbican main hall alongside Beck, Thurston Moore and some of the UK's leading poets including Simon Armitage and Don Paterson. “Jemima Foxtrot is best thing to happen to spoken word in years. I love to listen to her, I love to read her. Chances are, you will too.” Luke Wright "Jemima Foxtrot’s All Damn Day is a tumbling circus of word and song, a jukebox of emotions –now glad, now thoughtful but never embittered. This story will stay with you – an earworm for the heart." Jo Bell 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/all-damn-day-by-jemima-foxtrot https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/184790349/9781909136809.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/185649662/All_Damn_Day_SAMPLE-6.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/185649665/All_Damn_Day_SAMPLE-8.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/185649668/All_Damn_Day_SAMPLE-10.jpg 36445986 new in stock 36177412 Badminton by Molly Naylor Molly Naylor writes poems that speak frankly and boldly about learning how to live. Part confession, part manifesto; Badminton is a book that manages to celebrate humanity whilst despairing of its ugly bits. Molly Naylor is the co-writer and creator of Sky One sitcom After Hours. She has been commissioned by the BBC, the RSC, the BFI, Battersea Arts Centre and many more organisations. She adapted her critically acclaimed solo show Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You for BBC Radio 4. She has performed her stories and poems at festivals and events all over the world. ‘Like all the best writers Molly Naylor makes it look easy. Here, in language as clear as a glass of water, are poems so intimately confessional we feel like intruders, and yet so generous, giving and warm we are honoured guests. Filled with hilarious observations on the minutiae of life, each revealing deep and personal truths, Badminton is a collection to return to over and over – and to share, share, share.’ Nathan Filer ‘Brave, funny, tough and beautiful writing’ The Guardian (on Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You) 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/badminton-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/184065346/9781909136878.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/184470867/Badminton_Sample-5.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/184470870/Badminton_Sample-7.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/184470873/Badminton_Sample-8.jpg 36177412 new in stock 35517869 Happiness is an Art Form by Agnes Török Award-winning poet and TED speaker Agnes Török spent a year living according to current happiness research, and then wrote a poetry collection about what she had learnt. This is a personal book. A political book. A book about human experiences. Happiness Is An Art Form is a reflection on what makes our lives good and how we can best equip ourselves to get through difficulty – trauma, mental ill health, illness, you name it. Török speaks about them all, with joy, clarity, and humour. This is a book about you. It is an invitation to think about your life – your good times and your bad, your joys and your challenges. To think about if there is anything you could do, big or small, that could add more joy to your life. Anything that could make the challenges a bit more manageable. Don’t worry, you’ll have a whole book to help you make up your mind. It is time to buy the book and start. “Happiness Is An Art Form takes nothing for granted. It's a rare thing for a contemporary poetrycollection to consider its audience so generously, to seriously question why writing matters without fearand without compromise. It remembers that poetry has work to do besides the merely aesthetic; it asserts that, in the face of austerity and hate-speech, learning how to live gracefully is a radical act.” DAVE COATES Award-winning poetry critic “Agnes Török employs a sharp blade to dissect happiness in these poems. Humour and pain trip lightly along lines which ache with recognisable truths, and the warmth and wit which has delighted audiences shines through.” ELEANOR LIVINGSTONE StAnza International Poetry Festival 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/happiness-is-an-art-form-pre-order https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/182295236/9781909136861.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/183698548/happiness_is_2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/183698551/Happiness_is_4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/183698557/Happiness_is_s.jpg 35517869 new in stock 35516846 Poundland Rimbaud by Jonny Fluffypunk Jonny Fluffypunk’s ‘difficult second volume’. Poetry, flash fiction and threadbare philosophy fused together into something that is part memoir, part suburban escapism and part lavishly illustrated cry for help. Includes the transcript of the author’s extensively-toured no-fi solo stand-up spoken word theatre show Man Up, Jonny Fluffypunk: One Man’s Struggle With Late-Onset Responsibility – fully annotated to enable the reader to recreate the thrills of live performance in the comfort of their own bedroom. Or bath. An economic refugee from the Home Counties, Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the poetry, comedy and alternative cabaret circuits for over 15 years. A multiple slam champion who hates competition in the arts almost as much as hypocrisy, Jonny blends bittersweet autobiography, disillusionment and wonder in an act which has established him as a firm favourite at festivals, arts centres and housing benefit offices across the UK. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/poundland-rimbaud https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/212654320/9781909136601.jpg 35516846 new in stock 34821743 Still Falling by Sara Hirsch From ex lovers to total strangers, no one is spared in this deeply moving, life affirming descent into death, dreams and determination, that laughs in the face of an easy life. We all stumble at some point. With her boundless optimism and inspired wordplay, Sara Hirsch invites you to join her in enjoying the fall. Sara Hirsch is a London based performance poet with punch. As a trained actress with a terrible writing habit, she finally put two and two together in late 2013 and embarked on a career in spoken word. Soon after, Sara was crowned UK Slam Champion and subsequently came third in the World Slam Championships in 2014. She now runs London's only regular three round slam as well as Hammer & Tongue's newest addition in Waterloo. Sara has recently returned from a tour of New Zealand, has headlined across the UK including Bristol, Edinburgh, Cambridge, London, Brighton, Oxford and Manchester, has performed at Glastonbury and Latitude and has had her work featured on BBC Radio 2. After premiering her debut, award winning solo show How Was It For You? at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015, Sara embarked on an MA in Spoken Word Education at Goldsmiths University and currently works in schools and communities, inspiring and educating through poetry and performance. Sara is known for her deeply personal, witty and heartfelt poetry, for her powerful performances and for her penchant for haikus, normally involving an awful pun. In a desperate attempt at self promotion, Sara is trying to get more Twitter followers. Let her know what you think of her ridiculous handle @sarsbars89 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/still-falling https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/181930004/9781909136854.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/181935467/Still_Falling_sample-3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/181935473/Still_Falling_sample-4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/181935476/Still_Falling_sample-5.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/181935479/Still_Falling_sample-6.jpg 34821743 new in stock 34820648 Box Rooms by Laurie Bolger Laurie Bolger's <b>Box Rooms</b> shows that poetry can be your friend. With extraordinary warmth, the poems build into a conversation of friendship, communities, vegetables, pubs, tea, love and the meanings we find in these and in each other. This is a joyful exploration of self and community, of the ordinary and the extraordinary. <a href="http://lauriebolger.com"><u>http://lauriebolger.com/</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/box-rooms https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/180402071/9781909136786.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/180403073/Box_Rooms-3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/180403076/Box_Rooms-4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/180403079/Box_Rooms-5.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/180403082/Box_Rooms-7.jpg 34820648 new in stock 33431909 Laid Bare by Hannah Teasdale Whilst I was in the process of editing this collection on the train en route to a gig in Birmingham, the woman sat next to me asked me what I was writing about. She had one eye on the flashing cursor between the words, metaphor and naked. She said she had 'never really got along with poetry at school' but a friend at AA is 'well into it' and reckons it would be good for her. With both eyes now fixed on my screen, she began to tell me how she had been married for a very long time, (probably with hindsight, way too young), and that although she had been happy and fulfilled with her 'lot', over time there had been something restless growing ever larger inside her. She wonders now if it was just boredom; the inevitability and monotony of a young family, sleeping with the same man every night, cooking, cleaning, washing, paying the bills. Normal life stuff. She met up with an ex-boyfriend from where she'd grown up and life began to feel exciting again. He took her back to feeling like a teenager - skipping round old haunts, making love in the park, smoking weed and discovering spirituality. Everything but the normal life stuff of a middle-aged mother. But then it all unravelled; she lost her husband and it turned out the ex-boyfriend should only ever have remained an ex. She's on her own now and wonders everyday what might have been if she had only wrestled a little harder with the restful something that had grown inside her. We turned and looked at one another, the silence sucking us in to one. I took her address and told her I'd send her a copy when it was finished. I thought she might get a lot out of it. Hannah Teasdale is a Bristol-based spoken word artist who has performed at numerous festivals stages around the South West. She is an integral voice in the vibrant scenes of Bristol and Bath, where her bittersweet realist point of view invites her audiences to slip her shoes on and go for a walk. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/laid-bare https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/176607974/9781909136779.jpg 33431909 new in stock 32531557 Panic! by Stef Mo The world is a confusing, terrifying, exciting, sexy, smelly place that makes simultaneously more and less sense the more time you spend in it. This collection of poems, poem-shaped rants, rant-shaped monologues, whimsical asides, imagined conversations, mutated anecdotes and existentially terrified howls at the moon is about as pure a manifestation of Stef Mo's (Stefan Mohamed) relationship with the world as you could hope to experience, short of piloting a miniaturised submarine directly into his brain. This, incidentally, will be the delivery mechanism for his second collection, except he'll be in the submarine and it'll be your brain. Stef Mo is the performing poetry and miscellaneous noise version of writer Stefan Mohamed, like when you get Batman action figures in special situation-specific armour, like Underwater Ambush Batman or Parisian Subterfuge Batman, except with words. He was born in London but he's from Mid Wales, and now he lives in Bristol. He has performed poetry in a pub, in a field, in a yurt, in someone's living room and at London's Roundhouse. His first novel, Bitter Sixteen, was published in 2015 by Salt Publishing and was the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for new writers. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/panic https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/174156661/9781909136748.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179341913/SAMPLE_1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179341916/SAMPLE_2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179341919/SAMPLE_3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179341922/SAMPLE_4.jpg 32531557 new in stock 32531446 Boys by Sally Jenkinson Growing up with boys, living with boys, fighting with boys, grieving for boys... Boys is a collection in two parts that wrestles with heartbreak, grief, sexual exploration, casual relationships and day to day observations. It is a journey through encounters, good, bad, loving, violent, life-affirming and challenging, with boys (and men). Boys is a tender, raw, celebratory and unflinching collection of poems with a socio-political undercurrent from a poet who is staking a claim to be an important and distinctive poetic-voice of her generation Sally Jenkinson is a regular performer at poetry and literature events, and music festivals around the UK. In 2014 she toured Australia and the UK with her show 'Folly', co-written and performed with the musician Nuala Honan. She runs creative writing workshops for children and young people, as well as adults with a learning disability, and has worked on large-scale projects with organisations such as Apples and Snakes, Take Art, Poetry Can and Boom Satsuma. She is co-producer of Wandering Word, which has programmes and runs the Spoken Word stage at festivals such as Shambala and Boom Town for the last 5 years. Her debut pamphlet, Sweat-borne Secrets, was published by Burning Eye in 2012. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/boys https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/178499687/9781909136731.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179673629/BOYS_SAMPLE-3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179673635/BOYS_SAMPLE-4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/179673638/BOYS_SAMPLE-5.jpg 32531446 new in stock 32531422 The Fire Eater's Lover by Sophia Blackwell The Fire-Eater’s Lover is about performance of all kinds.  Whether it is the rituals of seduction, the trials and triumphs of squeezing into a red vintage dress or the adrenalin of putting a microphone to your lips, these poems are filled with the joy of performing. The Fire-Eater’s Lover conjures together scraps of everything from classic recipes to job rejection letters, marriage proposals and medical questionnaires, and whips them into a circus of illicit sex, love lost and found, bittersweet memories and moments of illumination. ‘Searing, sexy and profound. Sophia Blackwell is a stone genius poet. Laurie Penny ‘Some of Sophia Blackwell’s poems read like Nico should be singing them to John Cale’s viola, some as if Shakespeare’s slut sister taught him all he knew, others are as new as the next dawn. Dirty, juicy, knowing, open – works for me.’ Stella Duffy ‘Exceptionally talented… magic radiates from her performances, which are captivating, moving and often hilarious, too.’ DIVA Magazine Sophia Blackwell was born in Newcastle. She read English at Oxford, where she started performing poetry with Hammer and Tongue. Her poetry has been anthologised by Bloodaxe, Nine Arches, The Emma Press and Sidekick Books, and her other writing has been published in Trespass, Time Out and Diva. She is the author of one other collection of poetry, Into Temptation (2009) and a novel, After My Own Heart (2012). She lives in London where she is Head of Marketing at the Bookseller. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-fire-eater-s-lover https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/177406259/9781909136724.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/177790478/TFL1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/177790481/TFL2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/177790484/TFL3.jpg 32531422 new in stock 32531404 Strange Keys by Ash Dickinson Mama Cass overdoses on pork. A shower gel's compassionate talk. Revenge best served by time machine or octopus as a hat. Star Wars told in three minutes flat. Misogyny in rap, sexism at the Oscars. The running of the bullfinches. Scottish independence. Heckling Miley Cyrus. Midlife dating/midlife crisis. Syria and political satirists. Life through the lens of a food photographer. New persona after new persona. Tattoos and stalkers. Swindon is the new Disneyland. The last knockings of rock and roll. Video games and gun control. Boxing snow. Kipling and poetry karaoke. Man in the 21st century. The Smiths and electricity wastage. A three day New Year's Eve. Love, art, death. The ways of a coffee addict. And Britain's foremost method poet...This can only be a new book from everyone's favourite comic surrealist Ash Dickinson. Ash Dickinson is a writer, poet and comedy performer. A multiple slam champion, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham and BBC Radio. Ash has performed in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Jordan and Germany and has headlined countless shows and festivals throughout the UK. His popular poetry workshops for secondary schools, which run in a never-ending annual programme with location-matched gigs, underpin his popularity. Ash is permanently on tour and arguably wrote the rulebook on how to be a professional poet. His debut collection, Slinky Espadrilles (2012) was the first book published by Burning Eye and remains one of our top selling titles. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/strange-keys https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/174156304/9781909136700.jpg 32531404 new in stock 32531296 I Can't Sleep Sleep 'Cause My Bed's On Fire by Emily Harrison Can't Sleep 'Cause My Bed's On Fire confronts a search for love against the stark, yet humanising backdrop of the psychiatric institution. Gutsy and honest, Emily Harrison's poetry is simultaneously cynical and optimistic. In her verse she suggests that coming to terms with her mental health and falling in love are equally challenging, and depicts the consequences - both heartbreaking and hilarious - when the two collide. Emily Harrison combines precise writing and bold performance, both of which are underpinned by an unflinching honesty. A former member of The Barbican Young Poets, Emily performs regularly in London and across the UK both as a member of The Burn After Reading Collective and as a solo performer. In 2010, Emily won Oxford University's Christopher Tower Poetry Prize. She has been published in Popshot, Rising and was one of eight poets to have their work on the theme of London showcased at Boxpark, Shoreditch. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/i-can-t-sleep-sleep-cause-my-bed-s-on-fire https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175698566/9781909136717.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175705976/emily_harrison_txt_1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175705985/emily_harrison_txt_2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175705991/emily_harrison_txt_3.jpg 32531296 new in stock 32531248 Let The Pig Out by Chris Redmond Let the Pig Out is the first collection from Chris Redmond - spoken word poet and front man of Tongue Fu - one of the UK's leading spoken word shows. It is a fusion of performance writing and page poems, mixing story forms with internal rhymes and rhythms, comic dialogue and sparser, more condensed imagery. Fox racing, fatherhood, rainbows and road kill are some of the topics candidly explored with a playful heart, a political head and a compulsion to explore the friction between cynicism and idealism. Let the Pig Out is a note to self and/or a call to arms, to embrace life in all it's mess and discord with a wild sense of curiosity and wonder. Chris Redmond is a writer, performer and musician whose work often focuses on cross-media collaboration. A regular at UK music and literature festivals, he has performed on BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Four, Sky Arts, BBC Scotland's Culture Show and Scroobius Pip's XFM show The Beatdown. Chris is the creator and host of Tongue Fu - one of the UK's leading spoken word and music shows, where poets, comedians and storytellers perform with improvised music and films. Animal (Are you a Proper Person?) a spoken word musical comedy co-written by Chris, author/poet Anna Freeman and the Tongue Fu band (developed with support from Bristol Old Vic's Ferment and Arts Council England) will tour throughout 2016. Several poems from the book feature in the show, including the title poem, Let the Pig Out. As an educator, Chris leads workshops in writing, performing and musicianship. Clients include the British Council (Spain, South Africa, Brazil), BBC, BAC, National Theatre, The Roundhouse, Forward Foundation and St Mary's University, Twickenham, where he leads a module called Political Cabaret on the Applied Theatre degree. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/let-the-pig-out https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/174941596/9781909136694.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175330363/let_the_pig_out3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175330366/letthepigout1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/175330369/letthepigout2.jpg 32531248 new in stock 26985757 Show Me Life by Liv Torc It doesn't matter how successful you are, or how many times you have dyed your hair purple and walked out onto the stage of a local folk festival holding a notebook and a banjolele. It makes no odds how many pairs of boots you own, or sex you have had with strangers. It doesn't even matter how many times you have scooped up the smashed up porridge of your heart and poured it back into the jelly mould of your ribs.What matters is that we keep moving forward, despite ourselves, despite everyone else...that we remember that life is not a hamster wheel but an ocean, a road, a dirt track, an adventure that takes you on, on, on.Show Me Life peers into dark corners of sexuality and strolls along Italian city streets. It free-falls into love and then tests that love over and over. It gets sad and thoughtful, pregnant and angry. It splinters into a billion pieces and becomes something quite different. Something with a lot more to lose. Liv Torc is a razor blade skating performance poet and comedian, who plunges the vast caverns and dormant volcanoes of the human condition, armed with a box of matches and a sense of lyrical wonder.An experienced and popular performer, compere and workshop leader, Liv was the South West winner of the last National Radio 4 Poetry Slam, the Bard of Exeter and she runs a successful spoken word stage at WOMAD festival. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/show-me-life-by-liv-torc https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159207190/9781909136540.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159606937/LivImage1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159606952/LivImage2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159606958/LivImage3.jpg 26985757 new in stock 26960659 The Venus Papers by Lydia Towsey The title sequence of The Venus Papers takes as it's starting point Botticelli's 15th Century painting, 'Birth of Venus' where Venus is depicted arriving on a shell at a Cypriot beach. Transported to the 21st century UK; Lydia explores how Venus would respond to what she would find and what would she do next? In the sequence's connecting poems, Venus's progression from innocence to experience is mirrored across numerous arrivals, departures, journeys and landscapes; from a dancing mother to a psychopathic Barbie, murderous mozzarella and a road trip across the Spanish Badlands. By viewing Venus as everywoman, outsider, traveller and immigrant Lydia explores how women in particular are viewed and affected by cultural, political pressures in contemporary Britain and beyond. Lydia Towsey is a poet exploring her Hungarian, Welsh/British heritage and her experience of growing up in the multicultural city of Leicester. She draws on her experience as an artist's life model to challenge the idea of the 'passive nude' and discuss the way we look at ourselves, the world and each other. Lydia has won a Decibel commission and been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize. She has spoken at the House of Lords and presented at Plymouth University's Zombie Symposium. .<a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/the-english-disease-by-lydia-towsey"><u>More by Lydia Towsey</u> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-venus-papers-by-lydia-towsey https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164336281/9781909136588.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164449195/VenusPapers1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164449204/VenusPapers2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164449207/VenusPapers3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164449210/VenusPapers4.jpg 26960659 new in stock 26960644 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London by Nathan Penlington & Sarah Lester One weekend in the middle of October 1974 the French writer Georges Perec set himself a challenge – to describe everything that happened in place Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Not a record of the buildings or history of the square, but a record of ‘that which is not noticed, that which has no importance: what happens when nothing happens’. 40 years later writers Nathan Penlington and Sarah Lester replicated Perec’s experiment - with a few important similarities and a few significant changes, most notably relocating to a square in London, a small insignificant square in the North East borough of Hackney. In a major departure from the original protocol this is more than the work of one writer, a collaboration between two observers with differing sensibilities and styles - the overlaps and deviations of the simultaneous accounts underlining the impossibility and futility of the task. Part documentary, part poetry, part catalogue – An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London is more than a homage, it is a surprisingly witty, tender exploration of urban life. Nathan Penlington is a writer and performer. He has featured on BBC Radio 1, 3, 4 and 6 Music, and appears in The Journal of Experimental Literature and the acclaimed anthology Adventures in Form. Sarah Lester is a writer and former assistant editor at the Journal of Wild Culture. She earned an MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics at Goldsmiths and is currently working as a Researcher at UCL. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/an-attempt-at-exhausting-a-place-in-london-by-nathan-penlington-sarah-lester https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/167569894/9781909136595.jpg 26960644 new in stock 26960581 Things You Find in a Poet's Beard by A.F. Harrold Things You Find in a Poet’s Beard is a collection of poems that have been shouted at children from schools to church halls. They are a curation of silly tales that have been illustrated and bound into a book. Perhaps you’ll want to annoy your family by reading them out; perhaps you’ll want to chuckle at them under the covers with a torch; perhaps you’ll want to stare at the drawings drawn by Mr Chris Riddell or maybe you’ll want to shout them aloud to capture the spirit of A.F. Harrold himself. A.F. Harrold is an English poet and performer who writes for both children and adults. His many volumes of poetry are published by Two Rivers Press and Burning Eye Books. His children’s books, including the very funny Fizzlebert Stump series (illustrated by Sarah Horne) and the slightly scary novel The Imaginary (illustrated by Emily Gravett) are published by Bloomsbury. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/things-you-find-in-a-poet-s-beard-by-a-f-harrold https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/165669037/51nOLm-A0HL.jpg 26960581 new in stock 26960554 Burning Books by Jess Green The first collection by poet Jess Green is taken from her spoken word show set in an inner city secondary school suffering the cuts and blows of the Coalition government. Burning Books champions the underdogs; the unnoticed and unheard stories bearing the gritty reality of the UK’s education system. Jess Green hit the headlines when her poem ‘Dear Mr Gove’ went viral with over 290,000 views in the first week of its release on YouTube. Since then she has won critical acclaim for her shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and has performed at festivals including Glastonbury. Her poetry resonates with audiences from school halls to festival tents. Jess has a solemn wit which seeks to bring social and political issues to the forefront of her personal stories. <a href="https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/a-self-help-guide-to-being-in-love-with-jeremy-corbyn-by-jess-green"><u>More by Jess Green</u></a> 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/burning-books-by-jess-green https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/165194419/9781909136625.jpg 26960554 new in stock 26960545 Underneath the Roses Where I Remembered Everything by Molly Case Underneath the Roses Where I Remembered Everything is a collection of exposed and vulnerable moments from the perspective of a nurse. It explores the importance of memories and things that slip away as life goes on. These poems contain both the blood and bile from first kisses to the last breath of lives beyond hospital walls. Molly Case is a multiple slam poetry winner who achieved a national profile after her poem ‘Nursing The Nation’ received over 300,000 YouTube in the first week of its release. She has since performed at festivals including Glastonbury and was named in the Heath Service Journal’s Inspirational Women’s List. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/underneath-the-roses-where-i-remembered-everything https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/167581648/9781909136632s.jpg 26960545 new in stock 24545533 Rogue Teacher by Mark Grist (illustrated by Guy Larsen) Rogue Teacher is the debut poetry collection from hugely popular Spoken Word artist Mark Grist. It contains his most popular performance pieces including work from his live shows – Dead Poetry and Rogue Teacher, as well as material from his new Spoken Word shows Dead Poets’ Deathmatch, and Grave Invaders (both set to tour in 2015 and 2016). The collection contains his popular poem Girl Who Reads, a piece which has been viewed over 3 million times on YouTube. Seen in every country in the world, the film was honoured with two Webby awards for ‘best solo performance’ and ‘best viral video.’ “The English teacher you wish you had” Fest Magazine “It's a pleasure to spend an evening in his company” The Guardian Cover photography by Richard. A. Jephcote http://richardjephcote.co.uk 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/rogue-teacher-by-mark-grist https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/152621752/9781909136533.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164450584/RogueTeacher1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/164450593/RogueTeacher2.jpg 24545533 new in stock 24545395 Talk You Round Till Dusk by Rebecca Tantony - with illustrations by Anna Higgie Every one of us is a complex and beautifully woven fabric of stories, and whether we tell them or not, there are no measuring tapes or weighing scales to speak of their worth. Talk You Round Till Dusk is a collection of tiny stories and big ideas celebrating the wonder of the moment. It’s about those journeys in a car driving across a desert, or walking from the bedroom to the kitchen, where we discover that what we have is enough. Stories so small they fit in the palm of a hand, yet carry the weight of the world with them. Talk You Round Till Dusk is a collaboration between spoken word artist Rebecca Tantony and illustrator Anna Higgie. In a mix of flash-non-fiction, short stories, poetry and 16 full page colour illustrations, Rebecca and Anna take us on on a philosophical road trip from Bristol to Andalucía, Nicosia, India, San Francisco, Death Valley and Mexico. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/talk-you-round-till-dusk-by-rebecca-tantony-with-illustrations-by-anna-higgie https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/153023509/9781909136519.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607966/TantonyImage1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607984/TantonyImage2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607990/TantonyImage3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159608002/TantonyImage4.jpg 24545395 new in stock 24230392 Cherry Pie by Hollie McNish Cherry Pie is the an illustrated collection from Arts Foundation Award and Ted Hughes Prize winner Hollie McNish inspired by her grandparents’ advice on newspapers, war, sex and tinned cherries. The poems collected in Cherry Pie hold personal meaning for Hollie and are also those which have been most requested by audiences in theatres, pubs, festival tents, schools and youth clubs up and down the UK. The book is illustrated by some of Hollie’s favourite artists and illustrators. Cherry Pie includes Hollie’s poem Mathematics (1.9 million hits on YouTube) as well as Bungalows and Biscuits which was shortlisted for Best Factual New Media Content About Older People’s Issues in the Older People in Media Awards. Her poetry has received over 3.5 million YouTube views; more than David Cameron’s speeches, less than a cat dancing to 80’s pop music. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/cherry-pie-by-hollie-mcnish-pre-order-released-april-15 https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/234297353/9781909136557.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607741/HollieImage1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607771/HollieImage2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/159607780/HollieImage3.jpg 24230392 new in stock 23113522 The Sunshine Kid by Harry Baker Harry Baker combines the nerdiness of being a mathematician with the hopefulness of being a human. His first collection follows the narrative of his 5-Star Edinburgh Fringe shows, Harry Baker's Super-Amazing Mega-Awesome Gap Year Adventures: Birth of a Champion and Proper Pop-Up Purple Paper People. It details the journey from performing Jay Z-Maths parodies in school competitions to representing his country in Paris and becoming the youngest ever World Poetry Slam Champion. The Sunshine Kid contains the raw honesty, tongue-in-cheek humour and blistering wordplay that have characterised his live performances and won the hearts and minds of audiences all across the globe. "It's tight, clever and intricate writing that has made Harry Baker a show stealer every time I've had him at my spoken word nights, whether he's a last minute stand in or a fully billed headliner." Scroobius Pip "Simply put - Greatest performer on earth." Scott Mills Show, BBC Radio 1 "He's a champion." Ed Sheeran Harry was always good at science at school so they told him to study medicine. Somewhere along the line he realised poetry was a more fun way of saving lives and so switched courses to study mathematics. It made sense at the time. Since then he has rocked all imaginable stages nationally and internationally, from the UK festival circuit to German opera houses. Once he finishes trying to not fail his maths degree he will be working on finding some new words to play with and some new places to play with them. Maybe you should come along and see what happens. Maybe you already have. Maybe that's where you picked up this. Thanks, by the way. Harry also does TED Talks and Rap battles on the internet; you should check them out. 10.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-sunshine-kid-by-harry-baker-pre-order-for-shipping-before-xmas https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/149322127/9781909136281.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/149541913/281_Sunshine_Kid_by_Harry_Baker_Text-125.jpg 23113522 new in stock 22942933 PETROL HONEY by ROB AUTON Rob Auton follows the success of In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh with a deeper darker, richer collection of his trademark micro stories and poems from the other side. PETROL HONEY features work from the Edinburgh fringe shows (the Yellow Show and the Sky Show) that have earned him cult status and a growing army of fans. PETROL HONEY explores the deeper meaning of the colour yellow, whether Lurpack is available in Heaven, and what happens in a Supermarket when the lights go out. PETROL HONEY introduces us to Nigel who runs the weather and will teach you to sing the Normal Song on the bus. You will never look at the world in the same way again once Rob Auton has taught you how to throw stones into the future. About the author: Rob Auton is an expatriate Yorkshireman living in the alien environment of Walthamstow. He performs regularly all over the UK and is part of London's Bang Said The Gun stand up poetry collective. He has taken two one man shows to the Edinburgh Fringe and hit the headlines in August 2013 when a throw away gag won the Dave Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh fringe award. He'll was back in Edinburgh in 2014 for another successful run with the Face show. He is the future of British comic poetry. You heard it here first. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/petrol-honey-by-rob-auton-a https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/148379761/9781909136311.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/148379776/Petrol_Honey_by_Rob_Auton_SAMPLE-4.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/148379803/Petrol_Honey_by_Rob_Auton_SAMPLE-7.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/148379836/Petrol_Honey_by_Rob_Auton_SAMPLE-11.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/148379851/Petrol_Honey_by_Rob_Auton_SAMPLE-8.jpg 22942933 new in stock 22773805 Lies My Mother Never Told Me by A.F.Harrold A.F. Harrold's comic genius is very much to the fore in this collection of poetry. Mr Harrold (or A.F. To his friends) utilises his considerable poetic dexterity to beguile, charm, dazzle and amuse as he introduces the reader to thirteen ways to be related to The Beatles, Uncle Billy, The dedicated Nudist and many other of his rather odd relatives. Mr Harrold details his extensive collection of literary memorabilia, muses on life, love and the absurdity of cardboard boxes, and warns of the dangers of precariously balanced pianos. Be warned this book will cause serial outbreaks of mirth, but do not underestimate the calibre of the poetic talent that rather cleverly delivers that laughter. A.F. Harrold is an English poet (1975 - present). He writes and performs for adults and children, in cabaret and in schools, in bars and in basements, in fields and indoors. He was Glastonbury Festival Website's Poet-In-Residence in 2008, and Poet-In-Residence at Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2010. He won the Cheltenham All Stars Slam Championship in 2007 and has had his work on BBC Radio 4, Radio 3 and BBC7. He is active in schools work, running workshops and slams and doing performances at ungodly hours of the morning, and has published several collections of poetry. He is the owner of many books, a handful of hats, a few good ideas and one beard. He is the author of the Bloomsbury published Fizzlebert Stump books for children and most recently The Imaginary. “There is a poem for every occasion here, so if you’re planning on speaking at a wedding or teaching an English class or sending a birthday or valentine card or in existing in the world as a human in anyway whatsoever, then why not make your life a lot easier and just buy this book already.” Byron Vincent “Reads like being invited over for tea on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, then having your host serve good conversation, fine wit, a tall tale and a selection of rather unusual cakes.” Professor Elemental “I read one of A.F. Harrold’s poems to my two year old son and it disturbed him greatly.” Daniel Cockrill 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/lies-my-mother-never-told-me-by-a-f-harrold https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/147920695/9781909136458.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/147921517/AFH_1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/147921544/AFH_2.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/147921565/AFH_3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/147921577/AFH_4.jpg 22773805 new in stock 22133188 The Woman Who Was Not There by Joelle Taylor Joelle Taylor is a poet, spoken word artist, playwright and novelist. She is a former UK slam champion and founder and artistic director of the Poetry Society’s national solo youth slam SLAMbassadors UK. She has produced four plays for theatre as well as several texts on performance practice. This is her second poetry collection. "Joelle observes the reality of modern-day life, pinpoints the absurdities and the injustices, and then reminds us that we are human, and that sometimes the best way to make sense of it is through poetry. The thing I have always liked about Joelle’s poetry is that it has guts, it has rhythm, and it has attitude. The thing I like about this collection is that it continues that tradition. In these times of austerity, hypocrisy, political corruption, and mindless reality television, we need poetry like this. Joelle Taylor does not mess about. Her poetry is fearless. It gets right to the point. Her poetry has purpose." Benjamin Zephaniah "A city gritty heart-beaten tattoo." John Hegley "Joelle Taylor continues to propel poetry in not only innovative but in very crucial ways. Her work launches itself from a world that has been lived in a thousand hapless times, managing to unearth within the reader the deepest sense of tragedy, love and hope." Anthony Anaxagorou "The title misleads us, as these are the tumultuously heart-rending words of a woman who is actually very much here, there, everywhere. Joelle Taylor has written an epic collection of raw emotion distilled into a distinctly unique style of language. Put this in your bag, on your tongue, in your chest." Sabrina Mahfouz "Joelle Taylor’s a shape-shifter, myth-maker, linguistic risk-taker; poetical activist, surrealist with a raised fist. She knows how to handle a pen. Razor sharp, tattooed or AWOL, her women are the best dressed men. Her material – fractured glass and human skin; the effect – a maze, a mosaic, a hall of mirrors. She redefines the dispossessed, the caged in and gives them a way out." Patience Agbabi 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-woman-who-was-not-there-by-joelle-taylor https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/146164642/9781909136397.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/146165254/1_Joelle_Taylor_.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/146165269/2_Joelle_Taylor_.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/146165272/3_Joelle_Taylor_.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/146165281/4_Joelle_Taylor_.jpg 22133188 new in stock 20655277 Applied Mathematics by Dan Simpson Maths, science, retro arcade games, and what it feels like to be stood up in a restaurant by an entire poetry society. Dan Simpson considers them all and more in his first collection. Unlike many a debut poet, Dan has given this collection a thorough stress test on the live circuit, and many of these poems have been commissioned for public projects. Dan is a poet who likes to play around with form. He likes to deconstruct and get a bit meta with the mental algorithms that sit beneath a poem. The result is an accessible and enjoyable collection of poems for geeks, nerds, and anyone who likes playing with words. “Quantum poetry at its most precise and powerful” Joelle Taylor “Dan Simpson is brilliantly funny and super smart. He’s the kind of guy you take home to your mother. If your mum is really into excellent poetry.” Anna Freeman Dan Simpson is a spoken word poet, compère, live literature projects and events organiser, and workshop facilitator. He was Canterbury’s Laureate 2013-14, Poet in Residence at Waterloo Station for Transport for London, Bexley’s poet for Southbank Centre’s London Lines project, and Canterbury’s Roman Museum Poet in Residence. Dan has performed at both a hen party and a death metal gig, as well as at major festivals, events, and venues around the UK. Appearances include: Glastonbury Festival, The National Theatre, Southbank Centre, Roundhouse, BBC Radio, BBC Edinburgh Slam, Bang Said the Gun, Tongue Fu, Literary Death Match, Hit the Ode, Utter!, and Festival of the Spoken Nerd. He was Larmer Tree Festival’s Lyrical Laureate in 2014. He co-produces and co-hosts regular spoken word events Stand Up & Slam and The Anti-Slam, and is resident host of The Word House. His poetry has featured on the BBC and London Underground, and in publications from Sidekick Books and Inc. Magazine. Dan regularly delivers workshops for both adults and young people, working as a Poet Coach on Apples and Snakes’ poetry in education project Spoke ‘n’ Word. He also creates pioneering work with crowdsourced and outdoor poetry, and has done so for organisations such at the Royal Academy of Arts, European Commission, and Beaney Art Museum and Library. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/applied-mathematics-by-dan-simpson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/142275874/9781909136373.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/142276255/Dan_Simpson_sci_fi.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/142276270/Dan_Simpson_Haiku.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/142276276/Dan_Simpson_2.jpg 20655277 new in stock 18488020 Fishing in the Aftermath - Poems 1994-2014 by Salena Godden How often is it that a poet with the name recognition factor and critical standing of Salena Godden publishes their first collection 20 years into their career? Perhaps it is simply that no publisher has had the courage to commit themselves to the task of reflecting the force of nature that is Salena Godden to the page... until Burning Eye came along! Be clear, Fishing in the Aftermath is more that a sweeping up exercise, more than a greatest hits retrospective, more than a gathering up of old work. Salena takes us on a hair-raising ride through the process of a writer, the highs, the lows, the drinks, the lovers, the fights, the sex (especially the sex) that she has embraced like a method actor in search of a character, and shared with audiences over twenty years. Like a 21st Century female Bukowski Godden delivers her message straight and full strength. Not for the weak-kneed or faint-hearted, Salena is a hurricane of personality and energy, and the full force of the considerable talent that has made her a hit at literary festivals the world over is delivered here in all its frank glory. Salena Godden is one of Britain's foremost spoken word artists. A regular performer at literary festivals in the UK and around the world in a career than is now entering its third decade. Salena tops the bill at literary events and festivals nationally and internationally. She can be heard on the BBC as a guest on Woman’s Hour, Click, From Fact To Fiction, The Verb and as a resident poet on R4’s Saturday Live. She currently works alongside award-winning radio producer Rebecca Maxted with their most recent production Try A Little Tenderness – The Lost Legacy of Little Miss Cornshucks aired on BBC R4 in May 2014. This follows the success of their last collaboration Stir it Up! –50 Years of Writing Jamaica also for BBC R4. Fishing In The Aftermath – Poems 1994-2014 marks twenty years of poetry and performance and the majority of the work included here is previously unpublished in book form. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/fishing-in-the-aftermath-poems-1994-2014-by-salena-godden https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/136738108/9781909136366.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/138512380/NYPD___THe_Model.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/138512392/Cervical_Smear.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/138512401/Air_Stewardess.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/138512419/Viva_Las_Vegas.jpg 18488020 new in stock 17070786 Prayer to Imperfection - Poems 1996-2014 by Lucy English Unusually for a poet of her stature and with near on two decades of work to her name this is the first book of Lucy English's poetry to be published. As such it is a significant retrospective of an English poet with an international reputation. Lucy's poetry explores the complexities of modern life, and the way that we try to find comfort wherever we can. It explores life lived in urban spaces with many of her poems rooted in the landscape of Bristol, the city she has made her home. With influences as diverse as Wittgenstein and Andy Warhol, Lucy's poetry is direct, uses everyday language in often complex ways and yet remains accessible, vibrant and packed with sensuality, sensitivity and humour. "The hippy chick love mother sex goddess." The List “A sense of place, a subtle sensitivity of the nuances of people and places – these are rare gifts.” Alastair Sawday "Lucy is a leader in her field; gracefully straddling the gap between page and stage, poetry and prose. Her work, both written and performed is insightful, sexy, thoughtful, confrontational - in fact everything that you could ask for in a contemporary live-lit practitioner." Glenn Carmichael ISBN 9781909136274 - 204 pages 11.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/pre-order-prayer-to-imperfection-poems-1996-2014-by-lucy-english https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/133150650/9781909136274.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/133150887/Language_Lucy_English.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/133151157/Lucy_English_Telephone_Box.jpg 17070786 new in stock 16026708 Slinky Espadrilles by Ash Dickinson Honed over a decade of live shows, this collection from serial slam champion Ash Dickinson marks him out as one of the outstanding poets of his generation. Weird, wonderful and unpretentious, Ash is not afraid of using humour to deliver his point of view. His off-kilter imagination skips with dexterity from the throwaway to the profound and poignant. Rich with vivid surrealism, this is poetry that holds up a mirror to our world and makes us look long and hard, and not be afraid to laugh. This is poetry polished in the spotlight of the stage, poetry that tears up the rule that says performance poetry does not transfer to the page. In the tradition of Adrian Mitchell and The Liverpool poets, Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough, this is poetry that is consistently accessible and entertaining. Although written primarily for the live experience of performance, this is an accomplished collection that demands a place on your bookshelf. “A Performance Poet for the Lost Generation. If you haven’t seen him, you haven’t seen performance poetry” Federation Of Writers (Scotland) “A very cool combination of rap, rhyme, repetition and wry wit… not only an incredibly gifted poet, but also a great comedian with a sharp eye for social commentary” Winnipeg Free Press “Accessible and engaging… frequently self-effacing… a personable and easygoing performer… he tackles the big subjects like love, identity, and nature, and handles it all with skill and finesse” CBC Radio, Canada “Impressive wordplay” The Times 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/slinky-espadrilles-by-ash-dickinson https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/130549686/9781909136007.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/131459997/Slinky_back.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/131460108/Slinky3.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/138997330/AD_State_of_the_Game.jpg 16026708 new in stock 16026654 The Sustainable Nihilist's Handbook by Jonny Fluffypunk Achieving a state of Sustainable Nihilism has not been easy for Jonny Fluffypunk. The Genesis of this Revolutionary has involved an up-bringing of scientific exactness, complemented by experimental cross-dressing, existential fist-fights and being possessed by the spirit of a relentlessly swearing 17th Century Ranter. Nourished by fermented mysticism and the Devil’s Music, Jonny takes us along for the coffee fuelled bicycle ride as he searches for the best poem in the world; beset by complex towel hierarchies, the guilt of a trout sacrificed on the altar of innocence, and numerous erotic encounters. “This is more than just a book of pithy poems, it’s evocative, nostalgic, moving and most importantly funny. Jonny has triumphed where swathes before him have failed, he’s written a book of comic verse that will actually make you laugh.” Byron Vincent “Whether choosing the correct towel, wearing his Mother’s underwear, or reciting an ode to a dead trout, Jonny does it with a sublime mix of grace, verve, clean green jittery wit and a touch of punk rock pizzazz. The man is a genius!” Dan Cockrill, Bang Said The Gun 7.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/the-sustainable-nihilist-s-handbook-by-jonny-fluffypunk https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/130549509/9781909136021.jpg https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/131581704/The_Sustainable_Nihilists_Handbook_1.jpg,https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/131581755/The_Sustainable_Nihilists_Handbook_2.jpg 16026654 new in stock 16026489 Sex & Love & Rock&Roll by Tony Walsh Standing two metres tall,Tony Walsh is often billed as a “giant” of the UK poetry scene. As Longfella he has a long-legged logo, but it is his remarkable poetry, rather than his notable height, which stands him out from the crowd. His trademark mix of intimacy and controversy, comedy and tragedy has been stunning audiences from grass-roots poetry gigs to international literature festivals since 2004. Sex & Love & Rock&Roll, his eagerly-awaited first collection, takes us on an extraordinary journey through ordinary lives; proudly flying the flag for the exciting new poetry which is packing out venues and festival tents around the UK. Make no mistake, these are accessible, musical poems; influenced by the songs which soundtrack our lives; brimming with northern warmth and humour; propelled by passion and compassion as their bassline and their beat. Sex & Love & Rock&Roll is a book to unite and inspire us. It is all about coming together and changing the world. ‘Fabulous stuff…’ Irvine Welsh “‘Too much poetry speaks to too few people’, but Tony Walsh’s poetry speaks to the many. In SEX & LOVE & ROCK&ROLL, words leap off the page: urgent and immediate, like his poetry performances. They tell us how it feels when the needle goes in, / when the bass, when the bass, when the bass, when the bass…” Helen Mort ‘Tony Walsh’s poetry picks you up by the scruff of the neck and shakes you until your teeth rattle. Brilliant stuff!’ Felix Dennis – poet, publisher, Oz trial defendant. 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/sex-love-rock-roll-by-tony-walsh https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/130549203/9781909136168.jpg 16026489 new in stock 16026318 In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh by Rob Auton In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh is the debut collection of poems, stories and illustrations from York born writer and comedian Rob Auton. This book is the result of a person having ideas who finds the world a magical/beautiful/ridiculous/horrific place to live. There is a poem about a grey cat in it, so if you like grey cats you might like that one. There is a short story about going round to Hitler’s house at Christmas, so if you did that then this could bring the memories flooding back. Dust, the sky, jury service, a rollerball pen, the devil, a Satsuma, tarmac and David Attenborough also feature. It also includes the acclaimed A Footballer’s Life For Me which was filmed by Bang Said The Gun and broadcast as part of Channel 4′s Random Acts series. “Charming, eccentric and uplifting, Auton is a talent to watch” The Independent “Surreal and Fantastic.” Poejazzi “A strange and magical experience.” BroadwayBaby 9.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/in-heaven-the-onions-make-you-laugh-by-rob-auton https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/130548840/9781909136137.jpg 16026318 new in stock 15657210 When I Grow Up I Want To Be Mary Beard by Megan Beech Burning Eye seeks to break down some of the barriers that are put up between young poets and publishers to make it more accessible for poets to put work out early in their career. This chapbook from Megan Beech is the third example of Burning Eye working with a young poet in this way. Although still in her second year at University Megan has already caught attention with her infectious reeling wordplay, but, as is already evident in When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard, she is quickly moving on into more complex writing. Megan is not afraid of speaking her mind and grappling with political themes with a confidence missing in many older poets. When I Grow Up To Be Mary Beard captures the sound of a resurgent feminism that demands to be heard and marks Megan out as a name to watch. Megan Beech was the winner of the SLAMbassadors national youth slam 2011, and the Poetry Rivals UK under 18 slam 2011. She has performed at venues including the Southbank Centre, Glastonbury, Latitude and Larmer Tree Festivals as well as for institutions including The British Museum, Keats House, UCL and the University of Cambridge. She has recorded her poetry with actress Fiona Shaw CBE for the cultural Olympiad project,’Peace Camp’ and is currently an undergraduate in English at King’s College London. 6.99 GBP https://www.burningeye.co.uk/product/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-mary-beard-by-megan-beech https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/129637236/9781909136267.jpg 15657210 new in stock