Everyday Annunciation
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R. M. Francis is course leader for Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. He’s an internationally published poet, fiction writer and essayist with his novels, poetry collections and academic work. Most recent are The Chain Coral Chorus (Playdead Press) and Ameles / Currents of Unmindfulness (Poe Girl Publishing). https://rmfrancis.weebly.com/
Names, Glimpsed Through Windows
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Chris Hemingway is a poet and songwriter from Gloucestershire. His most recent pamphlet ‘Tea Stains on The Reading List’ is available by email at chemingway6@gmail.com. In the day time he works as an accountant in the NHS.
Our featured publication for September and October is Tiny Bright Thorns by Jen Feroze, published by Nine Pens.
‘Tiny Bright Thorns is a love-song to the tender, fierce and ‘tar-thick’ days and nights of early motherhood, the ‘feathered cries of the new’. Rich in startling imagery, open-hearted and often movingly truthful, these poems shine – a ‘beacon’ passed from ‘mother to mother to mother’. How I wish I had read them as a new mother myself navigating those perilous, unmoored early weeks. Jen Feroze writes with grace and humanity of the ‘herbaceous bite/ of exquisite and terrifying love’ in all its forms and the power of imagination to connect us all.‘ Sarah Westcott
‘Playful, moving, tender and true; this pamphlet is a magical yet honest reflection on the wonder of motherhood. Nature, art and folklore run through these poems so deftly they continue to sing long after they’re put down. A joy.‘ Maria Ferguson
‘Dark yet tender and full of wonder, in these lyrical poems motherhood is an ocean as dangerous as it is beautiful. Feroze sculpts sleepless nights to show us each sharp shining star. A startling, stunning debut.’ Angela Readman
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Duality
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Previously published in Dust poetry magazine
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Self Portrait at 35 Weeks
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Previously published in Poetry Wales
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The Weather App Gives A 100% Chance Of Snow
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Jen Feroze lives by the sea in Essex. Her work has been featured in publications including Under the Radar, Poetry Wales, Magma, Black Iris, Berlin Lit, And Other Poems, One Hand Clapping, Okay Donkey and Butcher’s Dog. She won the Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition in 2024 and placed second in the 2022/2023 Magma Editors Prize. Her pamphlet, Tiny Bright Thorns, is out now with Nine Pens. Jen loves chunky knitwear, turquoise things and cheese you can eat with a spoon. Find Jen @jenlareine on X and @jenferoze on Instagram
Copies of Tiny Bright Thorns are available to purchase from the Nine Pens website, here. Signed copies are available to purchase directly from Jen, here.
First Time
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Ian Glass lives in Worcestershire where he works as a computer programmer. His poems have appeared in online and print publications, including Acumen, Atrium, Ink Sweat & Tears, Prole and Rialto. His pamphlet ‘About Leaving’ was published by V-Press in 2019.
a poem about heaven
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Simon Alderwick currently lives in Oxford, UK. His poetry has appeared in Magma, Berlin Lit, Poetry Salzburg, Anthropocene, Frogmore Papers, Dreich, IS&T, and elsewhere. A pamphlet, ways to say we’re not alone, is available through Broken Sleep Books.
Robot gardener too long without humans
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Sue Spiers works with Winchester Poetry Festival. Her poems appear with Atrium, The High Window, The Lake and Ink, Sweat & Tears and several print magazines. Sue won the Shepton Mallet prize 2024 and Hedgehog Press’s Little Black Book #2 competitions. Twitter/X: @spiropoetry https://www.spiropoetry.com/
This is the Day
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Roy Marshall’s books are The Sun Bathers (2013), The Great Animator (2017) and After Montale (2019). A new collection, Light Work is scheduled for publication next year.
Dog
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Lapsed parachutist Laura Fyfe suffers from a chronic low boredom threshold. Her pamphlet ‘The Truth Lies’ is available from Red Squirrel Press. She lives in river deep, mountain high Stirlingshire and is the Stirling Makar.
Reservation, Granada (The Song of Indecision)
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Paul Stephenson has three pamphlets: Those People (Smith/Doorstop, 2015), The Days that Followed Paris (HappenStance, 2016) and Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). His debut collection Hard Drive was published by Carcanet in summer 2023. Website: paulstep.com / Instagram: paulstep456 / X: @stephenson_pj
With Love
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Matthew M. C. Smith is a Welsh poet published in Poetry Wales, Arachne Press and Broken Spine. His last book was The Keeper of Aeons (2022). He collects vintage Star Wars figures and signed poetry books. Matthew edits Black Bough Poetry. Twitter: MatthewMCSmith Also on Insta and FB.
atriumpoetry.com 