Cinnamon Press: small miracles from distinctive voices
Thank you to everyone who sent entries for the mini competition on the theme of 'elements'. We had some wonderfully inventive takes on the theme and a range of excellent poems. As might be expected, many poems centred on climate degradation and the increasing frequency of natural disasters and many of these poems were conceived with great subtlety and skill.
This year's literature award was the most extraordinary competition we’ve run in 15 years, with the largest postbag on record.
The competition to win free mentoring or a bursary place ended at the end of September. We're grateful to everyone who entered the competition. Supporting the competitions helps us to keep publishing amazing writers and it also brings wonderful new writers to our attention.
We had a great time launching Tracey Iceton's stomping new book, Rock God Complex: the Mickey Hunter Story. Along side two great readings from Tracey, we were lucky to include footage from the amazing Alex Fawcett — no mean axe hero himself — performing covers from the Band the World Forgot, Crown & Kingdom.
Neil MacDonald won a year's mentoring from Cinnamon's Adam Craig in 2018 for his literary thriller The Tears of Boabdil. The book was published on 28 September, 2020.
We had great fun with our first online launch last Thursday (7 May). Bringing together Omar Sabbagh (debuting his latest, But It Was an Important Failure) from his sitting room Dubai, Edward Ragg (presenting his third collection, Exploring Rights) from a sunny hallway in the North-east of England, and Ian Gregson (launching his new and selected, The Slasher and the Vampire as Role Models) from somewhere in Oxford, we merrily threw unities of time and place in the bin. With a lively audience, also spread around the globe, it was great to hear good poetry and intense discussion.
Many, many thanks to everyone who took part in this year's Poetry Pamphlet Prize. There was an extraordinary range of entries, and a great many of them too — as you'll see by taking a look at the long list. It took a lot of thought to get our post bag down to the five finalists:
We had a great response to the this year's theme. It caught a lot of imaginations and brought in an interesting array of entries, sometimes drawing inspiration from the tree/letter meanings originated by Robert Graves, sometimes taking a side-on approach to each prompt.
It was tougher than usual coming up with a winner for this Literature Prize. The quality of writing in the long list made it almost impossible to draw up a short list and from there choosing the best entry was harder still. This was a big field and it was wonderful to see the range of voices and serious commitment to writing. Many of the manuscripts that didn’t quite make it to the long list were from writers we hope to see future work from, people whose work might have made it further in a less competitive field.
by Adnan Mahmutović
We're very happy to announce the results of this year's competition to get a free slot on our Cinnamon Pencil mentoring scheme. We had a tremendous number of very strong entries, so the sifting and choosing was quite a task.
Gail Ashton's autobiography, Not the Sky finds a unique way through memory and family history. In this article, she talks a little about the book.
It's survival is a story of collaboration and generosity from so many people. We run on shoestring budgets, assisted by the fabulous Books Council of Wales, the amazing support and marketing services of Inpress Books and because we've learnt that improvisation is a skill that doesn't only apply to theatre.
August is traditionally our time for stocking taking — many boxes piled in the living room and hallways, books counted (and sometimes re-counted) and titles rearranged on the shelves. It's a time to assess how we're doing and who we are. Taking stock in many ways.
For the last three months I've been lecturing at the University of the West of England, teaching copy writing and professional practice. It's been as much a journey for me as my students, and a tonic, in the twilight of my career, to feel I have something to offer. But more than that, it's been a period of self reflection, for if I've learned one thing about teaching undergraduates, it's that it requires looking as deeply into your own practice as theirs.
When writing poetry, I try to capture meaning, whether it is in joy, wonder or melancholy. I think that a good poem is often understated, allowing the reader space for their imagination to interpret the poem in their own way.
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