Böcker utgivna av Broken Sleep Books

In their new pamphlet, Jaydn DeWald offers a haunting meditation on love and loss-a series of grief-induced sketches 'where drums pound // the whispers' and 'a horn wails / [t]he darkness.' What is the difference, asks DeWald, between an incantation and a poem, a ritual and a song? Engaging well-known poets and heretofore unknown forms, Then Darkness embodies the restorative, if not the resurrectional, powers of apostrophe.

In the sequence of poems that forms the spine of this debut collection, Luke Palmer casts 16th Century alchemist Paracelsus as an eccentric single father, giving voice to his Homunculus; a preformationist child and the secret to eternal life. By turns playful and profane, the arcane bleeds into the everyday, untethered from history - a walk in the woods is an encounter with an angry god, a potty training accident becomes a metaphysical exploration. Elsewhere, Palmer addresses masculinities from both sides of the 'father tug', roving between the concrete and ephemeral, asking questions of language, the wants of an aging body, and what it means to live forever.

The Broken Sleep Books Anthology showcases the best writing from the press in 2023, featuring extracts from every publication, covering poetry, non-fiction and short fiction. An essential purchase for anyone interested in new writing, or curious about the work of a vibrant, dynamic and award-winning independent press.

Iktsuarpok is an extraordinary first collection with careful, precise poems that remind us of the delicacy of the world we live in, but also the beauty in small things. Nora Nadjarian's surprising mixture of emotionally resonant language and surreal imagery make this collection a strange and haunting look at our world. These razor-sharp and richly evocative poems make us look differently at human isolation, rethink our relationship with climate and nature, and observe the absurdity of contemporary life in a moving and lucid way.

Small Plates is a fine dining, poetic experience, challenging conventional conception on what food is and how we interact with it. Here, Chris Cambell and Jem Henderson present food as medicine, food as home, food as a global shared experience in myriad forms. They examine the role food plays in a fine dining establishment far removed from home cooking and the liminal spaces between different socioeconomic classes, the different stages of their lives, and the differences in each others' experiences. This is a beautiful, unnerving, and exciting show, as tender and poignant as it is innovative and unabashedly experimental.

jade king's poems remind us that there's magic in the mess and that even within the shadows of pain and despair, there's a world waiting to be birthed into being. A work of immense bravery and skill, this is a collection of deep vulnerability, and as such, a dazzling act of unapologetic resilience. Sucker Punch is a debut as thrilling and powerful as its title, a necessary and profoundly beautiful meditation on survival, strength and perseverance.

Alicia Byrne Keane's Pretend Cartoon Strength is a meditation on coastlines, migration, spatial theory, and desire among apocalyptic times. Meandering through confined communal living spaces and ethereal winter shores, these poems are both unnerving and poignant, and bear witness to the quiet terrors of being alive. Byrne Keane presents a restless and evolving consciousness fixated on the uncertainties of modern existence, while also referencing Dublin's housing woes, Nokia games, and 2016 makeup trends. This is a book that asks for a place in our homes and our bodies, and one that offers many.

In The Persimmon is an Event Mike Corrao explores the yet-to-be-created field of Ovidian Dynamics (a study of the body's metamorphic potentials) as the reader / subject undergoes a series of unwieldy changes.

eighty two is a collection length sequence of poetry spanning the life of a woman from 1984 to 2065. Each poem in the sequence offers a snapshot of one year. eighty two explores themes of environmental disaster, the body, alienation, and precarity. Talia Randall's poems present a slanted view of world events - both real and imagined - through the prism of strange, tender and intimate fragments of one woman's life. Above all, eighty two is an attempt to re-evaluate the personal, by asking: how do we make sense of the complex, chaotic and unpredictable lives we lead in a post-industrial culture?

J. R. Carpenter's poems have an eye for detail and an ear for the sounds of York in both past and present, inviting the reader to experience the city for the first time, regardless of whether they've ever been. City of Marvels is a poetic geography and Carpenter has given us both the route and the compass.

Sun Step Black Lake is a remarkable book which showcases the art of collaboration, and artistic dialogue. The beautiful, abstract images, from John Welson, provide a platform for Allan Graubard's sublime words to wander through the terrain laid ¿¿ by Welson. But, then, in the true spirit of artistic friendship, Welson's images return the favour and work their way through Graubard's words. This is not only a delightful book of art and words, but also a testament to the brilliance of Allan Graubard & John Welson.

Branfoot revivifies Middle English language and alliterative verse through the prism of contemporary experimental poetics with themes of land access, ecology, and class prevail.

Brimming with humor, wistfulness and awe, Really Not Really invites the reader to reconsider everything they thought they understood about the ordinary: to see, if only for a moment, what we're missing.

Unspecified Spaces, the third volume of poetry by Iestyn Tyne, is a collection of sonnets. They are poems that unsettle and excite; tender, angry reflections on the poets community, locality and world.Casgliad o sonedau yw stafelloedd amhenodol, y drydedd gyfrol o farddoniaeth gan Iestyn Tyne. Mae'n nhw'n gerddi sy'n aflonyddu ac yn cyffroi, yn fyfyrdodau tyner, chwyrn ar gyflwr cymuned, cynefin a byd.

Aqueous Red explores the hidden aspects of water and love, through Kit Ingram's spellbinding poetic exorcism of violence, intimacy, dreams, and illicit liaisons which surface in fragments of interconnected lives. A boy watches his father pour scalding water onto his brother's hands, and later rescues a doll, promising to protect it with a kiss. A priest blesses a prostitute with holy water while a son drowns in a painful memory. In the sequence 'Red', a married man falls in love with a drag queen, and they play out fantasies of violence in a theatrical blaze that threatens their destruction. Intimate and voyeuristic, this collection plumbs the unseen moments that bind us all.

Using pliant forms and frugal, elusive acts of transformation, Marie-Pascale Hardy's writing intricately sculpts radiance from rock, elegantly crossing the threshold into the unyielding, yet bequeathing readers with a fresh dialect and an indelible encounter. They merge fundamental sincerity with entertained reality, culminating in an audacious openness and technical brilliance. humilis captures the essence of life with its mournful bitterness and unforeseen gleams of optimism.

Through Nicholas Hogg's evocative language and emotional resonance, Missing Person weaves a narrative that intertwines the themes of violence and history, reflecting on how the past influences and shapes the present, reminding readers of the interconnections between generations and the collective experiences that define a community. These poems delve into the economy of labour and loss and the emotional toll of shattered dreams, unrealized potential, and broken spirits. Hogg skillfully balances moments of vulnerability with displays of resilience, strength, and beauty, ensuring that Missing Person is a testament to the power of poetry in capturing the human experience.

In Seriously Jack Solloway hopscotches the delicate boundary between comedy and catastrophe, inviting an exploration of the slapstick connection between the poetic persona and the unfortunate man-hole they inevitably stumble through. This pamphlet boldly plays with various poetic forms, from sestinas, mirror writing, and anagrams to dialogue, concrete poetry, and illustrated verses. Some poems bear the weight of their ambitious design, such as a twelve-line sonnet missing its couplet in 'Queen Mab', or the flighty ballad in 'Fible-fable', which playfully leads readers astray into nonsense. Throughout, Solloway's poems reside in intriguing grey areas, aiming to engage readers and implicate them in various ways, juggling elements of his own life experiences while maintaining the sense of irony and hypocrisy they entail. Seriously will seriously captivate you with its imaginative interplay of comedy and misfortune as Solloway pushes the boundaries of poetic expression with both daring experimentation and personal introspection.

On her shelves Penelope Shuttle found several Old English dictionaries belonging to her late husband Peter Redgrove, which she studied until their strange and mysterious vocabulary found its way into a sequence of poetry. Here Shuttle's writing of animals, based upon a reading of a medieval mystery play about Noah and The Deluge, is connected and intertwined with current environmental concerns. The magic and richness of biblical stories is present as mythology rather than theology, and Noah sees Penelope Shuttle utilise the title character as a critique of patriarchal attitudes, particularly in regard to Emzara, Noah's wife. This is a remarkable work that brings the past into the present, and reimagines a better future.

In Open Your Mouth Jasmine Gray mixes the elegance of Joan Didion with the inventive spirit of Anne Carson. Gray moves with fluidity and style around her chosen subjects: Amy Winehouse, the Catholic Church, feminism, creeps. Open Your Mouth is a pamphlet full of vivid, intense and sensuous poetry, every phrase sparkles with the gleam of a newly minted coin. Jasmine Gray is a brilliant young writer, who wishes to be "delighted by what enters [her] mouth, and what leaves it."

In his first book in over a decade, Instead of an Alibi proves that Geoff Hattersley has lost none of the sharp wit and incisiveness that has defined his brilliant and unique poems to date. Instead of an Alibi is a sharp and vital poetics of the lives of working-class Britain in a post-industrial, post-capitalist landscape.

Natalie Sorrell Charlesworth's Fleet Salvage is an irresistible debut pamphlet immersed in history, her poems explore ancient invasions, the first complete census, the lions kept in the Tower of London and other fascinating historical moments. Her interest in genealogy shines through as she delves into the chasm between the human world and the animal kingdom. Fleet Salvage is a pamphlet of incredible dexterity, accomplishment and great heart.

Child is a luminous, nostalgic and compelling collection of poetry translated from the Hebrew of Amir Or into English by Seth Michelson. These are lyrical, contemplative poems that pick at the mythical surfaces lurking under the sandpit and dream of the days when: "the world was made of love; the light lit up the darkness."

Energy Crisis explores a personal health crisis within an examination of the energy production issues affecting North Wales and Anglesey. It is set over the space of a single summer, and framed by an attempt to try rock climbing. Within this structure, Philippa Holloway deftly address Solar Power, Wind Power, Tidal Power, Nuclear Power, and Fossil Fuels by weaving them into a deeply personal narrative of her own diagnosis with an illness that depletes her energy.

Lives of British Shrews is an formally innovative poem designed to reflect the daily activity cycles of the three species of British shrew - Common, Pygmy and Water. Anchored in soricine ecology, the poem nevertheless roams wildly, with its exploration of the fierce and implacable eros of shrews providing portals into other themes and content, including human nature, autobiography, capitalism, the Anthropocene and war.

Rosenthalis writes with the care of the maker of the universe, turning everything over from the world's tallest mountains to the smallest pebble on the beach, always landing on the exact word.

An Aviary of Common Birds is Lalah-Simone Springer's first collection of poetry. It is an emotionally raw work built on the poet's deep wells of inner strength and heart-warming sensitivity.

Jack Bennett's Lunette is an unsettling and mysterious series ekphrastic prose-poems which feature themes of displacement, flux and purgatory. The poems were written as the lockdown eased and the world returned to normal. Bennet's influences are drawn mostly from the surrealist tradition, Mallarmé, Rimbaud and Roy Fisher are all prominent, with a hint of something intangible floating alongside the moonlight, reeds and jellyfish.