REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
18 DECEMBER 2022
'In their foreword, Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo writes: ‘This earth is laced with love’. The poems of Re·creation are all ‘shimmer and blooming’ (Jack Biggleston) with the secret meshwork that goes on in language, to bind and let slip.
Thoughtfully assembled, there is space here for both lush burgeoning (‘my chrysanthemum bloom’ in the work of Jinhao Xie), audacious alchemy (‘gay jesus / turns water into buckfast’ according to Mae Diansangu) and hardcore techno (in Patience Agbabi’s ‘Josephine Baker Finds Herself’).
It’s a generous education in contemporary queer poetics, which also means a lesson in the slippery flesh of the (desire) line — as per the book’s namesake in Audre Lorde’s own ‘Recreation’. It means going full Aphrodite, with speech acts to call love from even its failed weaving — ‘Now / I must speak’ (Lady Red Ego).
Love here is all kinds of incarnation. I love the words and the spaces between them: how they might ‘suppose the body’ (Oluwaseun Olayiwola) in lyric proposals of scale and tense.
I’m endlessly revisiting the ‘harmonics beautiful gorging’ still in Nat Raha’s ‘elegy for callie gardner’, remembering what Callie once wrote about poetry as ‘a little naked worm’ and for the love of this burrowing, poetry could make it possible to say, in the words of Joelle Taylor, ‘everyone is still alive’.'
8 JULY 2022
'The anthology’s strength lies in its multitudinous array of styles and subjects, demonstrating that a poetry’s queerness is only a baseline from which its explorations begin.
The poems within spiral out in unexpected directions from that starting point. They do not ask specialised knowledge of their readers, or a prior interest in poetry. This is an anthology for everyone to read.
And the book’s Edinburgh hybrid launch on July 30 will be an event that everyone can take part in. Those unable to be there in person can attend virtually, and it will be British Sign Language interpreted.
There is good reason to celebrate: from its beginnings as a project threatened by what Lynch calls “a series of rejections”, Re.creation is soon to be a book we can hold in our hands.'
4 JULY 2022
'Beautifully diverse and affecting Scottish indie publishers Stewed Rhubarb Press have pulled another blinder and brought us an anthology of new work from nearly thirty poets, all from the LGBTQ+ community.'
JULY 2022 (Issue 198)
'Re·creation is a blistering new anthology by contemporary queer poets, edited by Éadaoín Lynch and Alycia Pirmohamed, published by Stewed Rhubarb Press.
The anthology features an incredible array of poets including Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan, and Courtney Conrad.
A dazzler of a launch night is planned for 30 July and will take place in Life Church on Edinburgh's Davie Street/W Richmond Street. Joelle Taylor, Dean Atta, and Harry Josephine Giles are all performing and there will be a Q&A session with the editors, Éadaoín and Alycia.'
21 JUNE 2022
'The long-awaited Re·creation anthology is launching this summer!
The Re·creation anthology contains new work from nearly 30 writers of the LGBT+ community across the UK and will be launched by Stewed Rhubarb Press.
The launch event will take place at 7.30pm on Saturday 30 July 2022 in Edinburgh, hosted by Lighthouse Books, at the Life Church, Davie Street, EH8 9EB.
It will include readings from a glittering array of the anthology poets – including Andrew McMillan, Jay Gao, Harry Josephine Giles, Nat Raha, Dean Atta, and this year’s T.S. Eliot Prizewinner Joelle Taylor – as well as Q&A with editors Éadaoín Lynch and Alycia Pirmohamed.
The event will be livestreamed and BSL interpretation will be provided.'
JUNE 2022 'The books we have excerpts from this month – Jay Gao’s Imperium, Arun Sood’s New Skin For the Old Ceremony: A Kirtan, Alycia Pirmohamed’s Another Way to Split Water, the Re·creation anthology of queer poets, and Dean Atta’s Only on the Weekends – draw upon deeply personal wellsprings of experience, of individual histories, of inner conflict, and of breakthroughs.'
'BooksfromScotland are delighted to welcome back the Scottish BPOC Writers Network to guest edit this month's issue based round the theme of Sanctuary. Here you will find poetry, fiction, children's books and essays from established and up-and-coming writers with books that will enrich and entertain.'
'We hope this issue of Books From Scotland provides a slice of sanctuary for you: a place to (re)connect, discover new writers and new ways of looking at writing, share in other communities and histories, and of course to find joy in the fantastic work put forth by some of Scotland’s many talented writers of colour.'
JANUARY 2022
'2022 is a huge year for Scottish poetry releases and here’s a selection that is just the tip of the iceberg on what to look forward to.'
'Named for the Audre Lorde poem of the same name, the collection is an anthology of poems by queer poets. The collection is bursting with brilliant contributors with ‘headliners’ including Mary Jean Chan, Dean Atta, Harry Josephine Giles, and Joelle Taylor, and contributors including Mae Diansangu, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Kira Scott, Lilidh Jack and many more.'
JUNE 2021
'This is a new venture, in partnership with Stewed Rhubarb Press, to collate an anthology of poems by queer poets. It is open to queer poets across Scotland and the UK, with a strong emphasis on intersectionality and diversity across our editorial team and contributors.'
MAY 2021
'Stewed Rhubarb got involved in something very exciting last year when Dr. Éadaoín Lynch approached them to say they wanted to create an anthology of queer writers. Together with Alycia Pirmohamed, they made an application to Creative Scotland Open Fund which was successful, and they have had lots of discussions about how to create a community and support the writers who will be taking part. Beth [Cochrane] said it is still early in the process but this is the most exciting project she has worked on as commissioning editor.'
'Andrés [N. Ordorica] mentions that he is very excited for the Stewed Rhubarb anthology, and loves anthologies as a form because it’s a great way for new writers to get their work out there.'