Cultured Llama

Bethany W.Pope’s stunning debut poetry collection A Radiance  will be published by Cultured Llama on 18 June 2012. Pre-orders available soon from Cultured Llama. Bethany is a featured poet on Abegail Morley’s blog.

Family stories and extraordinary images glow throughout this compelling debut collection from an award-winning new author – like the disc of uranium buried in her grandfather’s backyard.

A Radiance ‘gives glimpses into a world both contemporary and deeply attuned to history – the embattled history of a family, but also of the American South where the author grew up.’ Tiffany S. Atkinson

Forthcoming titles from Cultured Llama are A Radiance by Bethany Pope and Unauthorised Person by Philip Kane.

Cultured Llama is delighted to publish Bethany Pope’s first poetry collection A Radiance. This is moving narrative poetry from an award-winning young writer, based on the extraordinary story of Pope’s grandparents, Dan and Ruth. The poet retells family stories, often standing witness to scenes from long before her birth. The family past informs the poet’s history and present. Prepare to be drawn into this world of tarpaper shacks and uranium buried in the backyard.

Unauthorised Person is a collection of poetry, drawings and photographs from a writer who has been prominent on the Medway scene for many years. The Medway river and area are the focus of this collection from Philip Kane whose interest in psycho-geography is evident in this work. A diverse and engaging collection enhanced by Kane’s illustrations, with other drawings by Wynford Vaughn Thomas.

The article ‘Strange Fruits and the Cultured Llama’ appears on Writers’ Hub.

Two new authors are in the process of having their books signed up to Cultured Llama. Exciting times indeed. More news in the near future.

Many more book submissions are arriving in the Cultured Llama inbox, all poetry at present. Where are you, short story writers? Authors are asked to follow the submission guidelines closely, and send complete proposals in a single document. For more details, see the Publishing page.

Cultured Llama will be developing new poetry, short fiction and culture titles in 2012. For more details of how to submit a book proposal, go to the Publishing page.

Cultured Llama will be adding to its list of publications in 2012, and will be seeking submissions of poetry, fiction and culture. Please contact us if you wish to be kept informed of when our submissions policy becomes available.

strange fruits has now raised £679.79 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Copies are still available using the Paypal link on this site.

There are a number of video clips from the event ‘From Page to Stage’ – the launch of strange fruits at the Avenue Theatre, Sittingbourne. These feature poetry readings, music from Swale Sings community choir, Los Salvadores, Acoustic Architects and Rachel Morris, plus gumboot dancing from Lucky Moyo. Go to the Cultured Llama You Tube channel to view them.

All profits from the evening went to Macmillan Cancer Support, bringing the fundraising total to £603. £225 of that was raised at From Page to Stage.

Alexandra Loske, The Frogmore Papers 78, writes:

‘McCarthy’s third collection of poetry is a publication in collaboration with WordAid, a collection of poets who raise money for various charities. The proceeds of this excellent collection will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. There was a very personal reason for McCarthy to choose this particular charity, as is made clear in her preface, and although she assures us that these poems and prose pieces were not specifically written for the friend she lost to cancer, an intensely personal notion runs through them, with a moving note in prose of their last day out together. As with her previous works the collection is carefully arranged, with a clear sense of structure and gentle narrative within poetry. Some of the poems are necessarily intimate, such as ‘Slipping Down’, others remarkable universal, with strong, sometimes amusing imagery. Who would have thought the burnt out ruins of of a Matalan store could be compared to a carcass / of this giant industrial bird, its curved bones / bared like half-carved turkey.’

Review in Other Poetry Series Four, no.4

‘There are many skilful poems here reflecting the particularities and virtues of loved people and places. But a powerful imagination is in action too:
Her scales tear layer from layer, and she / slithers into clothing to conceal the sheen of skin: / shimmering purples, pearl and green. // ‘My God you’re cold, / as cold as the sea. My God, My God,’ he gasps, // but God can’t save him now… (‘Survival’)’

At the Shrine of St Jude, Faversham
A kneeling bar, cushioned,
before a metal grille that shields
a statue; tealight candles, ten pence
a prayer; a pinboard of photos

of those for whom supplications
are offered – the sick, the dying –
and yellowed newspaper cuttings
of missing persons;

rosaries in plastic pots
like pill jars topped with figures
of St Jude, the near-forgotten apostle,
the patron saint of hopeless cases;

a poster for the visit of the relics
of a saint – Teresa’s thigh and foot bones
in a jacaranda casket, cased in Perspex –
like Snow White’s coffin – capable of healing.

St Teresa is on sale in the foyer,
cloak and halo iridescent on a card,
holy medal pinned above her prayer:
grant me the simplicity of a child.

© Maria McCarthy, 2010