Two new poetry collections

Out in the world, and coming soon online

This week, I launched two new mini poetry zines! Written straight from my strange ol’ brain and made by my own fair hands – a process I’m naming as a new thing too: PiP PiP Press.

I sold my first copies at the Poetry Society’s Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair in London on Saturday. It’s such a special feeling to see people pick up something you’ve created – the same feeling I have when someone reads my words here online.

Image description: Photograph of the zines, nestled in side by side, ready to be taken to the poetry fair. They are titled THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF JANUARY and SPRING GIFTS. The colour covers (pale pink and eggshell, respectively) have a minimal design, showing the title at the top and my name at the bottom (both left aligned).

I’ve been learning from the best – my partner, artist Lee Shearman, who has taught me the digital skills I need (understanding InDesign) and the physical ones (how to prepare, cut, fold, and sew the book covers and pages). Thank you, Lee!

Image description: one of the pale-pink book covers waiting to be sewn – it lies next to a vintage cotton reel of mustard-gold thread (Dewhurst’s Sylko Three Shells Machine Twist thread).

It’s perhaps a little odd to be sharing the poetry zines here before the online shop is open, but this week has been so filled with thinking about them that it would be odder not to. And that’s sometimes the reality of being a small press – as Lee helps remind me when I’m stressing about something not being perfect: ‘we’re all just humans making things’.

Here are the things:

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THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF JANUARY

Feeling guilty about not keeping your New Year’s resolution? Don’t worry, I only managed mine for the first ten days. Help me feel better about it by reading this collection of consecutive poems – the result of my short-lived effort to write one every day.

10 poems
Date-stamp endpapers
Pale-pink cover and ivory pages sewn with mustard-gold thread

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SPRING GIFTS

Poems for the season. A thank you to March, April, and May.

8 poems
Earthworm endpapers
Egg-shell-colour cover and pages sewn with mustard-gold thread

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Of course, I will share the link to the online shop as soon as it’s live (and as soon as I have finished folding and sewing the book pages!)

Have a great week ahead,

Pip