Well, October again sees a bumper crop of Hedgehog poetry and as ever we have quite the selection of single-poet-collections and a Spooky Anthology for Halloween for you to investigate for good measure.
Over the last few months we have run our sooper and dooper promotion that means that if you buy any of these collections direct from the Poet, you are cordially invited to enter one of our competitions for FREE.
This is continuing through October and all four of the collections mentioned here are eligible…
Vexed by Z.D. Dicks
In Vexed – Z D Dicks’ electrifying new collection, a series of unexpected protagonists face dramatic challenges (a Bodhisattva learns to let go, Diogenes looks at a cynical world, Achilles hears his dead lover), and the human condition, with all it’s trials and tribulations, longings and aversions, fears and excitements are explored in a series of richly lyrical and vividly imagined poems.
Dicks takes the reader into fantastical, yet convincing worlds to explore our darkest secrets and inner conflicts – in Black Tooth Fish there is the sometimes tortuous nature of desire, death is examined in Blossom, in Buffet a disaster benefits those who aren’t the victims, in Doppelgänger – the protagonist comes to terms with the painful experience of being ghosted, Owl Rising – is an exuberant giving into to the lack of control we experience in life and The Loaded Gun details a quasi-sexual attitude to violence.
This is an unflinching and clearsighted collection, in which our most intimate concerns are explored and addressed head on, in charged, beautifully wrought and fiercely original poems.
These are poems which address the perhaps irresolvable conflicts, questions and dilemmas in our life – this is a book for anyone who has ever felt vexed.
- Title: Vexed
- ISBN: 978-1913499211
- Pages: 58
- Order from Amazon HERE
- Order signed and annotated copies direct from Apex Poetry HERE
There are still a small number of Free Tickets available for the launch event on the 14th of October HERE
The Underside of Things by Jenna Plewes
There haven’t been many things that have come out of 2020 that you could term unerringly beautiful, but Jenna Plewes’ writing in her ‘lockdown collection’ The Underside of Things is certainly one of them.
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These poems are a selection from the poems written one a day during lockdown and as we eased out. They are a diary of the poet’s inner journey; a record of the range of emotions and thoughts during those months of isolation that we can all recognise but might find hard to articulate. They run the gamut of frustration, fear, sadness, loneliness and resignation, but also the joy of being part of the natural world and the freedom to do nothing. They are shot through with hope and optimism.
- Title: The Underside of Things
- ISBN: 978-1913499440
- Pages: 52
- Order from Amazon HERE
- Order signed and annotated copies direct from Jenna Plewes HERE
Ghost Walk by Sarah Wragg
Sarah Wragg has created a collection of Spooky poetry that deserves to be on the shelf along with the classics and with Halloween fast approaching, this is one that is perfectly timed.
“Sarah Wragg’s Ghost Walk leads the reader down shifting streets, pausing in places where nothing is quite what is seems. Away from the cozy fireside, the past oozes through walls and gardens, while shopkeepers and sailors, astronauts and explorers, flicker at the edges of plain sight. Even the breaks between the lines are haunted, and both life and death become unreliable memories. Don’t look behind you!”
“From a toy shop to a space ship, these poems abound with unlikely, resonant settings, the ghosts appearing in medieval nuns’ habits or scrolling down their mobile phones. This collection is a meditation on history, the human imagination, and humanity exposed in all its greed and cruelty. It’s also political – eco-politics, gendered iniquities, animal testing – all get examined under the lens of ghostly horror. And each is a story in a nutshell, often with a powerful kick at the end, and full of a multiplicity of characters. This is one phantasmagoria you won’t want to miss!”
“Sarah Wragg has a fine eye for the no-ones that are there. The restless souls present range from highwaymen still shooting crazily into times they can’t touch, to boys with poppies of blood spreading across their hungry chests. Her gaze is wry and compassionate: she sees as much to pity in overloaded horses as in a boy who had no idea of childhood; she revives her ghosts and their hard times for our fresh consideration. Individually the poems are carefully made chronicles of misfortune, hubris and bad luck. Together they send a sharp, not-quite-familiar, shiver through the warmest room, and leave you wondering if you’ve ever really been alone.”
- Title: Ghost Walk
- ISBN: 978-1913499426
- Pages: 34
- Order from Amazon HERE
- Order signed and annotated copies direct from Sarah Wragg HERE
Vertigo To Go by Brendon Booth-Jones
Vertigo to Go is a timely and searing examination of the current state of the world, seen through the eyes of a young protagonist dealing with grief, addiction, loneliness and madness in the face of invasive technologies, vast systemic inequalities and environmental crisis. Vertigo to Go is a lyrical hymn to the power of poetry to sublimate pain and fear into art that is unafraid to confront the problems of the world.
“Vertigo to Go offers a fast-paced and arresting snapshot of adolescence, exploding at the same time any comfortably nostalgic remembrance of a youth culture haunted by a deluge of microplastics and escalating species extinction. Booth-Jones skilfully combines humour with a genuine sense of pathos about the current environmental crisis and multinational capitalism.”
– Dr. Emelia Quinn, Co-editor of Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture
“Vertigo To Go is a tender and intimate, but also visceral and thought-provoking, testament to Booth-Jones’ exquisite ability take us on a journey of growth and reflection. It will force you to confront parallels in your own lives, may even floor you with emotions you had not expected to feel, but will definitely leave you satisfied at the end.”
– Dr. Cyren Wong, Founder of NatureTalksBack
“The stage set in Vertigo to Go is NOW but the song is a timeless one. I hear my own voice in every line.”
– Charlie Calder-Potts, creator of Singing Some Endless Song
- Title: Vertigo To Go
- ISBN: 978-1913499259
- Pages: 64
- Order from Amazon HERE
- Order signed copies direct from Brendon at his web site HERE
To be clear, if you wish to enter one of our Competitions:
1. Order one of the above collections direct from the poet
2. Choose the Competition – Here are those currently running
3. Email the receipt you get when you buy the book, along with your entry to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk.
Please do put the name of the competition in the title of the email.
To take advantage of the offer, you need to buy the collection and end the competition by midnight on the 31st of October 2020.
It is as simple as that.
And speaking of Halloween, our wee anthology based on what could be going on in The House in the Forest is now available to order for just £5.99 delivered anywhere in the world.
Featuring Twenty poems from Twenty poets, this spooky collection of poetry is one that is destined to be dusted off every Halloween.
This will come with a selection of our posh postcards, a badge and a pretty bag and will be delivered to your door. Only a few left already, so be quick. (Sorry, this one doesn’t count toward the Free Competition entry.)
You can order direct from us HERE
or if you prefer Amazon, it is Over There.