News from Cinnamon Press

Cinnamon Press has a lot to celebrate this year - a fifth anniversary, publishing the winning the title in the Wales Book of the Year Award and - we have just learnt - the great news that How to Pour Madness into a Teacup by Abegail Morley has been short listed for the prestigious Forward Prize for best first collection

Abegail Morley's How to Pour Madness into a Teacup has been a winning title from the outset - first winning the Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award before going on to be rated as number one on ‘Hot Future Releases’ Amazon.co.uk

How to Pour Madness into a Teacup is a compelling first collection from a poet whose exploration of mental illness is acutely observed, wry, poignant, dark and humane. Deceptively simple poems are layered with precise observations so that meaning resonates long after reading. Lucid and accessible, this is poetry that takes risk with stunning results.



‘It has fallen to Abegail Morley to draw aside the veil suspended between the world we know and the unholy of unholies that lies beyond. We are shown the painted veil of everyday life only to have it slashed with a knife before our eyes, allowing us to glimpse the horror that lies within, sometimes frightening but always lit with a strange visionary beauty. Morley’s poems are daredevil ambassadors to a savage place.’
Hugo Williams

'...moving, sensitively written, compelling, ...well worth a read.'
Sophie Hannah

Buy your copy of this fantastic collection on the website or from www.inpressbooks.co.uk

Extracts from How to Pour Madness into a Teacup

Schedule

She dances through
the middle of days,
blends memories with oil of lavender, keeps
conversations in scrapbooks.

She papers the walls with anecdotes,
pinches her lips to hoard her thoughts,
and when asked for her opinions
plucks on her mouth like a harpist
playing on gut strings.



Counsellor

The shine of his hair
swept back by his hand

startles her. He leaves
with her words recorded

in his red This is Your Life folder
tucked under his arm.

He goes before she has finished,
so she swallows her words

and the unspoken sentence
slips down her throat.



Still celebrating I Spy Pinhole Eye winning Wales Book of the Year Award

We are thrilled that this innovative and brilliant book won the English language category of the Wales Book of the Year Award. This is a jewel of a book - a conversation in poetry by Philip Gross with Simon Denison's jewel-like pinhole photography images. Rush for your copy now - on offer on the website for only £9 plus a free poetry book with every order.


Still celebrating Cinnamon Press's fifth birthday

The Cinnamon Press birthday competition gives you the chance to win a free place on the writing course in North Wales this autumn (October 30th to November 5th). For a £12 entry fee you could win a week in a single occupancy room with a group of committed writers with daily workshops, one to one mentoring and time to write and relax. To enter, send a short story of under 2,000 words or five poems or five microfictions plus a cheque for £12 to ‘cinnamon press’ together with your details on a separate sheet to ‘Cinnamon Press Birthday competition’ by the closing date of July 31st. The winning entrant will be published in our spring 2011 anthology as well as winning a place on the autumn writing course. Two runners up will be sent 10 Cinnamon Press books each. You can enter on the website http://www.cinnamonpress.com/titles-poetry.htm

Speakeasy Home Page