Joy//Us Launch events: May

Joy//Us launches…

We just got news that we have ACE funding for these events, which is a massive relief!

join us for joyful poems that celebrate all that is best about our community/ies and lives. This is not an ‘explain it to the straights’ book, this is for us. LGBTQ+ readers can open this book at random and find a moment of poetic queer joy for themselves, however big or small. We are expecting the launch to be just as wide-ranging and joyful.

The poems in the book find joy in the simplest (or most complex) things. Love, sex, a quiet night in, dancing with friends, nurturing of and from our community, recognition from allies, a welcome from strangers, celebrating our cultural icons… the identity-affirming haircut, the right jeans, books, walking, food, flint-knapping… and political action.

JOY//US online launch 17th May 7pm, Free Tickets

featuring readings from: Abhi, Aoife Mannix, Cherry Potts, Conway Emmett, Dean Atta, Desree, Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell, Elizabeth Gibson, Garnett ‘Ratte’ Frost, Jeremy Dixon, Joshua Jones, JP Seabright, K. Angel, Laurie B., Maria Jastrzębska, Mwelwa Chilekwa, P Burton-Morgan, Robert Hamberger, Steph Morris, Tanya Erin Sheehan, Tom McLaughlin, Vron McIntyre, Zo Copeland

JOY//US London Launch: Hosted by Roundtable Books Location: Brixton Village Studios – 404-406 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton SW9 8LF Map


23rd May 7pm with readings from Abhi, Alexander Williams, Becky Brookfield, Cherry Potts, Elizabeth Gibson, JP Seabright, Jeremy Dixon, P Burton-Morgan, Rick Dove, Sophia Blackwell, Steph Morris, Tanya Erin Sheehan,Tom McLaughlin, Zo Copeland. Tickets £8 please pre-book!

JOY//US 24th May 7pm Brighton Launch The Queery 46 George St, BN2 1RJ

Abhi, Becky Brookfield, Cherry Potts, Jeremy Dixon, John McCullough, JP Seabright,
K. Angel, Elizabeth Gibson, Maria Jastrzębska, Rick Dove, Robert Hamberger, Sophia BlackwellZo Copeland. free Tickets limited number only – 25! please prebook!

and because it’s the first and I usually miss things because i don’t always turn the calendar page over in time…

JUNE

JOY//US  Welsh launch Cardiff Library The Hayes Cardiff CF10 1FL
1st June
12 noon Free Tickets


Join poets from Arachne Press to celebrate the publication of Byways: Poems and Stories on Foot, and Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy
A Saturday lunchtime treat for those not going to that London for the big match!
Byways explores places you can only get to on foot, whether it’s the shortcut to the chip shop or a day out on the hills.
Readings from Sara Louise Wheeler (in Welsh), Cath Humphris and Des Mannay
Joy//Us is an unapologetic explosion of joy from LGBTQ+ poets across the UK: what makes us happy? Everything from dancing to flint-knapping.
readings from Cherry Potts, Joshua Jones, Garnett Frost and Zo Copeland.

Joy//Us poets new to Arachne part 2

We’ve introduced you to the poets who have offered rewards, the poets we’ve published before and the debut poets, now the second half of the biggest group, experienced (indeed well-known!) poets who are new to publishing with us.

K. Angel (they/them) has been published with the Tin House Open Bar, PANK, the New Flash Fiction Review, and elsewhere. A two-time participant in the HBMG Foundation’s National Winter Playwrights Retreat and shortlisted for the Virago FURIES Competition, their projects straddle many forms and genres, with a persistent fixation on consent, desire, intentional community, and metamorphosis interruptus. They live in London, where they sometimes perform as the singing country drag king TrucK.

Lawrence Wilson’s fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in Albedo One, Cerasus, Agenda, Gramarye, One Hand Clapping, Best of British, The Darker Side of Love, on Salon.com and in other journals and collections. His collections, The April Poems, Another April, An Illustrated April, and Brick: Poems from the First Year of a Lockdown, are available on Amazon, as is his children’s novel, Mina, Etc. He is currently Facilitating Poet for the UK’s Rare Dementia Support Research Project.

Lydia Fulleylove has published three collections: Notes on Sea & Land, (HappenStance 2011) and Estuary, with artist Colin Riches, (Two Ravens 2014), Ampersand,  Valley Press 2022). Her poem Night Drive was shortlisted for the Forward Best Single Poem.  She has been published in a wide range of anthologies, magazines and other publications. She has worked extensively in community collaborative arts projects, including healthcare, prison and with young people.

Poet, editor and translator Maria Jastrzębska’s most recent collections are The True Story of Cowboy Hat and Ingénue (Cinnamon Press 2018) and Small Odysseys (Waterloo Press 2022). The Cedars of Walpole Park, her selected poems, were translated into Polish (Stowarzyszenie Żywych Poetów 2015). Filmpoems of her work can be found via www.snowqproject.com. 

Robert Hamberger has been shortlisted and highly commended for Forward prizes. His fourth collection Blue Wallpaper (Waterloo Press) was shortlisted for the 2020 Polari Prize. His prose memoir with poems A Length of Road: Finding myself in the footsteps of John Clare was published by John Murray in  2021.   

Sophia Blackwell is a performance poet with three published collections and the author of a novel. Her poetry has been anthologised by Bloodaxe, Nine Arches and The Emma Press among others.

Tom McLaughlin is a queer, Irish poet. He completed an MA in Creative Writing, with Distinction, at Royal Holloway and is now working on a practice-based PhD on queer domestic space at Surrey. His pamphlet Open Houses was published in 2021 by Marble Press. His poems have recently featured in publications such as Propel, Porridge, Alchemy Spoon and Channel, and he has work forthcoming in Broken Sleep’s anthology Masculinity.

Vron McIntyre (they/them) is a queer disabled non-binary poet, a longtime resident of Nottingham, and a member of the DIY Poets Collective. They perform frequently at online open mics, and run the Facebook group Poetry+ Events Online. Their work has been published by DIY Poets, Poetry and COVID, tattiezine, Impossible Archetype, and Wildfire Words, and in anthologies Geography is Irrelevant, The Spirit of Fire&Dust, and Dungheap Cockerel. Their debut poetry pamphlet Random Trail was published by Big White Shed in December 2021.

Zo Copeland (they/them) is a writer from South Devon. They are inspired by their lived experiences of queerness and disability, and by their magical experiences in nature. Zo writes to connect with people, evoke change, and challenge taboo subjects. When they are not writing, they’re usually found rummaging in compost or floating on water. Their work is published or forthcoming by Querencia Press, Vital Minutiae Quarterly, and Wishbone Words Magazine. You can find them on social media @zocowrites

You can support these poets by contributing to our kickstarter crowdfund which is raising funds for production and touring of Joy//Us

Joy//us poets new to Arachne Part 1

We’ve introduced you to the poets who have offered rewards, the poets we’ve published before and the debut poets, now the first half of the biggest group, experienced (indeed well-known!) poets who are new to publishing with us.

Annie Kerr is a working class lesbian writer with poetry published in journals and read live on BBC Radio 3 by Juliet Stevenson. She was selected for New Writing South’s Mentoring Programme for Working Class Writers, their Writer’s Place Poet’s Programme and selected for masterclasses with Mark Doty. She loves walking and sketching in wild places.

Aoife Mannix is the author of four collections of poetry, two pamphlets, four libretti and a novel. She has been poet in residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live.  @aoifemannix

Desree is an award-winning spoken word artist, writer and facilitator based in London and Slough. Currently Artist in Residence for poetry collective EMPOWORD, Desree explores intersectionality, justice and social commentary.  Poet In Residence for Glastonbury Festival 2022, producer, and TEDx speaker, Desree has featured across the UK and internationally, including Sofar Sounds, Royal Albert Hall and Bowery Poetry – New York. Following the sell-out of her first self-published pamphlet I Find My Strength In Simple Things (2017), Burning Eye Books published the pamphlet in May 2021.

Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell was awarded the Northern Writers’ Debut Award for Poetry in 2022. Her latest pamphlet, ‘Breaking (Out),’ was published by Selcouth Station. She  has been published in journals including Fourteen Poems, New Welsh Review, Shearsman Magazine, Strix, The Interpreter’s House, Ink Sweat and Tears, Tears in the Fence, And Other Poems and The Alchemy Spoon, has longlisted for the Leeds Poetry Prize and Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for the Ironbridge Festival Prize.

Elizabeth Gibson is a writer, performer, and workshop facilitator in Manchester. Elizabeth has been a recipient of the New North Poets Prize from The Poetry School and a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England, and has been commissioned by Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester Literature Festival, Superbia at Manchester Pride, The Portico Library, Islington Mill, Oldham Coliseum, and Yorkshire Dance.

Garnett ‘Ratte’ Frost is a dyslexic transman with an English BA from Wirral. He is also an ink and wire artist, though not at the same time. He co-facilitates the Merseyside LGBTQI+ Creative Writing group held monthly at various locations across Liverpool. Published in Writing on the Wall’s (WOW) TranScripts, Moving Foreword, Write Minds and Surface/Below anthologies.

Helen Bowie (they/she) is a queer writer, charity worker and PhD student based in Glasgow. They have published two pamphlets, Exposition Ladies with Fly On The Wall Press, and WORD/PLAY with Beir Bua Press, and featured in anthologies and magazines including Re:Creation, Magma, Under the Radar and The Book of Bad Betties.

John McCullough lives in Hove. His book of poems, Reckless Paper Birds, was published with Penned in the Margins and won the 2020 Hawthornden Prize for Literature as well as being shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. His most recent collection, Panic Response, was a Book of the Year in The Telegraph and one of The Times’ Notable New Poetry Books of 2022. It includes the long poem ‘Flower of Sulphur’, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

Joshua Jones (he/him) is a queer, autistic writer and artist from Llanelli, south Wales. He co-founded Dyddiau Du, a NeuroQueer art and literature space in Cardiff. His fiction and poetry have been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Gutter and others. He is a Literature Wales Emerging Writer, 2023, and is currently working with the British Council to connect Welsh and Vietnamese queer writers. His debut, Local Fires, was published November 2023 by Parthian Books.

You can support these poets by contributing to our kickstarter crowdfund which is raising funds for production and touring of Joy//Us

Joy//Us: the other side of the editing table

A short post from Jeremy Dixon about being a first time anthology editor.

Jeremy Dixon

One of the most unexpected joys of editing an anthology of queer joy poems has been learning the process of how you go about editing an anthology of queer joy poems! When Cherry suggested I co-edit JOY//US: Poems of Queer Joy with her I had only the vaguest idea of what it would involve as I haven’t really edited anyone else’s poetry for publication before. I feel incredibly lucky to have been given this opportunity and to have had Cherry there showing me the ropes. For a start, just the time and mental effort involved in reading the incredible number of poems uploaded to Submittable was a huge insight into the sheer volume of work editors have to do before it is even possible to make an initial selection. I also learned how many more entries than you would suppose fall at the first hurdle because they don’t follow submission guidelines. I think the part of the process I enjoyed most was spending one weekend last November at Arachne Towers sorting through the long list of poems. Gradually through discussion and comparison and emotion and cups of tea and lots of biscuits we whittled the list down into a shining and Joyous collection.

Seeing the final selection laid out in order on Cherry’s dining room table and knowing that our initial idea had paid off, that we had a fabulous queer, joyful and unique book of poetry in front of us was an unforgettable moment. I feel so privileged to have been a part of the editing of JOY//US; I’ve been given an appreciation of all the various aspects (mostly unrecognised) that go into the work of an editor. I really can’t wait for this book to be published and for you to read all the wonderful poems by so many wonderful queer and LGBTQ+ poets.

 

If you would like to contribute to our crowdfund you can do so right here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1477491501/joy-us-poems-of-queer-joy-anthology We’ve got 9 days to raise the remaining £696, so we need to average £78 a day…