WE have moved on since I first posted this, and have now published a further three chap-books – Rosanne Wasserman, Donald Gardner and Hugo Williams. Please click on the link above for details.
Grey Suit Editions, another new arrival, place a similar emphasis on more established poets, and are produced to a high specification, on thick cream pages. The Empty Quarter showcases the Iraqi poet Fawzi Karim’s often wryly self-questioning poems, in versions by Anthony Howell: “A woman slips a foot between my feet: / ‘You want to dance?’ / I change into a ball of eagerness in her hands. / She bounces this on the ground and it never comes to rest”. Kerry-Lee Powell’s The Wreckage, from the same press, is a collection of clear-eyed, slow-burning lyrics inspired by the psychological struggle and suicide of her father, “his heart full of holes”
From a review of poetry chap-books and pamphlets in the TLS. “The Wee Malt” by Rory Waterman. Each of these “wee malts” is concentrated, complex, and has a kick – as so many of the best pamphlets tend to.
anthonyhowelljournal 