We are delighted to confirm the release of the winning entry of the 2022 Three Trees Portfolio Award.
How it will happen by Lisa Blackwell was chosen from ten shortlisted entries for its compelling and memorable set of mainly prose poems that explore various formative experiences across several years.
Discussing the poems, guest editor, Roy Marshall, described how the form amplified the intensity of the narrative voice. A collection of emotionally engaging work, giving a sense of deeply felt experience, at various times shocking, brutal, darkly- funny and tender.
Turquoise swimsuit
You are almost thirteen years old. You are in the
back garden in your new turquoise swimsuit,
the material of which stretches and ripples in a new
way.
The sun flashes on the ripples of your father’s pond.
Self-built. The koi carps’ startled lips gape at the
surface. Their ghostly orange and white forms
blurred beneath.
Your father says:
Oh that’s unusual.
He pinches the material of your swimsuit and rolls it
between his thumb and index finger.
All of a sudden, he has the electric-shock realisation
that you, with your new woman body, are in the
swimsuit. He becomes self-conscious and slightly
embarrassed and retreats into the house. Mumbling
something.
You laugh at him. You feel the power of your body
but also its betrayal. This is not the body to shinny
up a tree. Or to give your brother a dead arm.
You begin to wonder if this body is more trouble
than it’s worth.
We are thrilled to release details of the poets (and photographer) who will be joining Maytree in 2023.
Thank you to everyone who submitted during our recent open submissions window. It is very humbling that writers continue to trust us with their work as we move into our fourth year. For all those who we’ve had to say no to (and everyone should have received a reply), we wish you all the best with your search for publication. Our portfolio award will open again in the spring, so please don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to avoid missing out on future opportunities.
This year, the quality of writing and ideas was particularly outstanding. Whilst it was a pleasure to read the work, it was an extremely difficult task to narrow the field down.
Here’s the list:
Spring/Summer
Elizabeth Stott – The Undoing
Pauline Rowe and A J Wilkinson – Sleeping in the Middle (a collaboration between poet and photographer)
Nick Allen – Local Universe
Autumn/Winter
Michael Brown – Right of Way
Rebecca Gethin – Snowlines
Tracy Patrick – Out of the North
Pauline Rowe – light damaged body work
Nick Allen
Nick Allen will be familiar with Maytree readers having already released two collaborative collections and edited the marvellous, Green Fields anthology. He joins Maytree in 2023 to release his new collection, Local Universe. Check out his previous release here: Between Two Rivers by Nick Allen and Myles Linley – Maytree Press
Rebecca Gethin
Rebecca Gethin has written 5 poetry publications. She was a Hawthornden Fellow and a Poetry School tutor. Vanishings was published by Palewell Press in 2020. She was a winner in the first Coast to Coast to Coast pamphlet competition with Messages. She blogs sporadically at www.rebeccagethin.wordpress.com.
Tracy Patrick
Tracy Patrick is from Paisley, Scotland. Her poetry has been published in Acumen, Poets’ Republic, The Eildon Tree, New Writing Scotland, Southlight, The Journal, and on the Glasgow Underground. She has one pamphlet, Wild Eye Fire Eye (2015), and two full collections, Portrait (2022), and, Painting San Romano (2022), all by earth love press. Tracy’s debut novel, Blushing is for Sinners (Clochoderick, 2019), was commended by the Saltire First Book of the Year awards. She has won poetry slams in Glasgow and Edinburgh, received mentorships from the Scottish Book Trust, Clydebuilt Poetry Programme, and has an MLitt in Creative Writing from Glasgow University. Her website is www.tracypatrick.org
Pauline Rowe
We are delighted to welcome Pauline back to Maytree with not one but two new books for 2023. Sleeping in the Middle is a collaboration with acclaimed photographer AJ Wilkinson which we are honoured to have the opportunity to publish. light damaged body work, due for release later in the year, is a new short collection of poems and follows Pauline’s award-winning pamphlet, The Weight of Snow and Saboteur shortlisted pamphlet, The Ghost Hospital. You can find out more here: The Ghost Hospital by Pauline Rowe – Maytree Press
Elizabeth Stott
Elizabeth Stott was born in Kent, spending time as a child in Scotland and Bahrain. She has lived in the north of England for most of her adult life, and has settled in Cumbria, where she has lived for over 25 years. A physics graduate, she worked in industry before taking time out to raise her family. As an antidote to the domestic, she started writing fiction and poetry, which has developed to include work in varied form and genre. She has published work in magazines, anthologies, spoken word events, as a Nightjar Press chapbook and a collection of fiction.
Elizabeth is fond of strong black coffee, dark chocolate, and wine. She is a member of a women’s voice choir where she sings alto. She likes to paint sometimes and grows flowers and vegetables in her unruly garden.
Michael Brown
Michael’s first collection, Where Grown Men Go, was published by Salt in 2019. In addition, his pamphlets Undersong (2014) and Locations for a Soul (2016) are available from Eyewear and Templar respectively. His work has recently been published in Poetry Salzburg, Magma, Poetry Wales, The Rialto and Poetry News. In 2017 he was awarded a Northern Writers’ Award. He is currently a Creative Writing research student at Newcastle University. His poem, Coastal Home, was selected by Imtiaz Dharker to be read at the Chancellor’s inauguration ceremony in 2022.
Look out for more news and further details about forthcoming publications coming in the new year. You can subscribe to our newsletter here: Sign Up – Maytree Press
We are delighted to announce that we will be working with the newly formed Marsden Community Poetry group to bring you an anthology that promises to be one of the most entertaining reads of 2023.
Celebrating art and poetry from the diverse and inclusive communities of Kirklees and the South Pennines, Village Voices will be an inspiring collection of poetry and art that celebrates diversity, inclusivity, and equality. This is a post-pandemic anthology – a book that gives a voice back to our communities.
It’s often said that people just don’t read poetry. Well, Marsden Community Poetry want to prove them wrong. Remember, Marsden was the place where Poetry Pubs found fame and where the windows of village shops are often adorned with posters of poetry from all age groups, so perhaps it’s not a bad idea.
And if you didn’t already know, Marsden was home to our current Poet Laureate and also happens to be where Maytree HQ is based.
The anthology will be edited by a panel of acclaimed authors and poets selected by the group – please note that Maytree are not involved with the editorial process.
So, if you are a poet or an artist and you either live in the towns or villages of the South Pennines or have been inspired by lives, landscapes and stories of the area then now is the time to be part of this amazing new collection
To submit please follow these guidelines:
The anthology is aimed at a general audience.
Your poem:
Submit one original poem. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged as the editors and publishers are all volunteers and simply do not have time to change things once your poem has been accepted. Previously published poems are welcomed so long as the author retains copyright.
Although there is no specific theme, the editors are particularly interested in poems that promote and celebrate the diverse and inclusive communities of the towns and villages of the South Pennine.
Maximum line length not including title or breaks is 25. Longer poems may be considered, please send a cover note if this applies.
Illustrations:
Black and white only – sorry but we are unable to accept colour illustrations. The illustration should be Portrait, with space around. Do not draw a border.
Please do not sign – all images will be credited to the artists separately. Please send a high-resolution JPG of the image – original work is not required.
Please contact the project team if you are unable to produce a high quality image.
Copyright:
Copyright remains with the author and/or artist.
By submitting you agree to inclusion into the anthology and its publication and the selection process.
Selection process:
Please send your best poem. All work will be considered by the Marsden Community Poetry working group with final selection by our editorial team.
By submitting your work, you agree that the Editors reserve the right to publish or arrange broadcast of selected works. The right to use any included poems to further publicise the anthology is also retained.
Deadline:
Marsden Community Poetry are looking forward to receiving your work. Submissions will not be considered after midnight Sunday 22 January 2023
Submit:
Send your work to marsdencommunitypoetry@gmail.com
We are delighted to reveal the cover for our 2022 Three Trees Portfolio Award winning entry, How it will happen by Lisa Blackwell.
Regular readers will notice the newly designed cover, still with the distinctive Three Trees black and white imagery but now with a nod to our more traditional covers.
Featuring an early photograph of the author’s mother, How it will happen will be released worldwide on the 2 December 2022.
If you’d like to be part of our story, don’t forget that our submission window is currently open and the Three Trees Portfolio Award will return again next year. Please read our submissions page before sending your work.
Look out for news coming very soon about our new subscription offer which offers entry to the Portfolio Award plus a selection of books and other gifts.
We are delighted to unveil the cover for our coming of age pamphlet, Olivia Dawson’s Unbottled.
Unbottled features the stunning artwork of Maytree favourite, Samantha Read who previously worked on Nicola Warwick’s collection, Naming the Land.
Unbottled is Olivia’s second pamphlet with Maytree and we’re absolutely delighted to be working on this thought provoking collection.
Originally titled, Spitting into Bottles after the poem, in this collection of poems we join the author on a journey of discovery as she digs beneath the truth to discover the roots of her ancestry.
Provisional release date is Friday 28 October 2022. Look out for news of launch events coming soon.
Spitting into Bottles
My mother’s mother has a lover my mother’s mother’s lover is a puzzle my mother’s mother leaves my mother in a Home for awkward silences.
A mother-to-no-one loves my mother’s dimples, takes my mother in feeds her fresh baked cinnamon swirls gives her a father-figure who whistles
but my mother searches and searches finds her blood mother who tells her nothing my mother searches and searches finds half-of-a-much-younger-sister
who isn’t silenced. My mother’s half- of-a-much-younger-sister doesn’t know there’s another half, she doesn’t know a thing. My mother’s other half, half looks
like me and my father wobbles when he spots our sameness, warns me off boys. I spit into a bottle to find my mother’s mother’s runaway lover
I spit into another bottle to find the mother of my mother’s mother’s lover, I want to discover why I’m not blessed with long slim legs and a thigh gap like no other.
About the Author
Olivia Dawson, originally from London, has also lived in France and Brazil. She divides her time between London, and the Sintra Hills near Lisbon, and is the Poetry Society Stanza rep for the Lisbon area. Recent poems have been published in 14 Magazine, Eye Flash Poetry, Iamb – poetry seen and heard, Alchemy Spoon, Magma, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Time & Tide (Arachne Press) Coast to Coast to Coast, The Poetry Village, ROAM 1 of The University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies. She has been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, shortlisted for Paper Swans Press Pamphlet Competition, and shortlisted for Poetry on the Lake Competition. Her debut pamphlet Unfolded was published by Maytree Press in 2020 and Unbottled is her second pamphlet.
