Sarah Barr – Maytree Press

Welcome to 2023 at Maytree.

We can’t quite believe that we’re now beginning our fourth year of poetry publishing and preparing to launch what will be our forty second publication out into the world.

If you’ve signed up to our newsletter then you will have already received our email inspired by the colour blue featuring news of new publications for spring and details of some of the many wonderful books already available in our online store.

It’s easy to sign up and don’t worry about spam as we’re really not that sort of operation – you’ll receive a newsletter with offers and news approximately once every two months so give it a go – we look forward to welcoming you to the Maytree family.

You can sign up here – Sign Up – Maytree Press

To help celebrate the new year we thought we’d take a look back at Sarah Barr’s appropriately titled collection, January.

Sarah is a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for both children and adults. You can find out more about her work and other publications by visiting her website here – About Sarah Barr – Sarah Barr (sarah-barr.com)

About January, award winning poet, John McCullough writes:

“Sarah Barr writes subtle poems that probe the edges of uncertainties, the details of objects and landscapes gradually revealing her speakers’ unease. The disjunctions in the title piece evoke the sudden leaps of a mind actively thinking, the white spaces between stanzas inviting us to imagine what’s going on beneath the clipped surface of the language. Elsewhere, simple phrasing holds carefully nuanced images: the menace of cracking ice, a long-married couple surrounded by ‘masks / and stiff-limbed, velvet-dressed dolls.’ The writing carries on unfolding inside the reader long after their eyes have left the page.”

But don’t just take our words for it, you can also read the collection of five star reviews in our online store here – January by Sarah Barr – Maytree Press

January

This time I’m taking more notice –
the sandbags, submerged fields,
flooded crypt, the marooned town.

There’s more water than the land
can use, or the skies hold.

Perhaps it’s natural
to shiver with excitement
at this odd, reflective world.

A swan wings upward, abandons
its mirror-image on the bright lagoon.

Are there going to be two
of everything, including me?

I think about new surfaces
and new below-the-surfaces.

Earwigs are gorging on lush
peony heads

Their brittle bodies, pincers and folded wings,
remind me of childhood
and our proximity to small creatures like these
living in earth, bark and under stones
where we found their pearly eggs.

I can still hear my brother chuckling,
see his smile and smudged, rosy cheeks
as he gathers and stuffs these insects into his ears.
It made a sort of logic to a three-year-old,
experimenting,
then perhaps bewildered
as my mother shrieked and tried to shake them out.

I want to remember him outside playing
before the rules took over.

January, along with many other great titles, is available from our online store now. And don’t miss out as for the remainder of January every book order receives a free limited edition Maytree Press tote bag which is perfect for carrying your favourite books.

Visit our store here – Products – Maytree Press

It’s now two years since the first Maytree was planted and in early spring of 2019 we saw the pale green leaves of Maytree 001 in the form of Swn y Morloi by Hannah Stone reach out to the poetry community with critical acclaim.

We are delighted that over the course of the last two years, what followed Hannah’s wonderful collection has been a series of pamphlets and anthologies that we have been so proud to help bring into the world.

Included in our publications have been the award winning The Collective Nouns for Birds by the brilliant Amanda Huggins and the Saboteur Awards shortlisted, The Ghost Hospital by Pauline Rowe.

We are now delighted to reveal our coming of age publication.

January by Sarah Barr will be our 21st publication and penultimate one of 2020.

Sarah was born in London, studied English at London University, Social Sciences at Southampton University and now lives in Dorset where she writes poetry and fiction, teaches writing, mentors writers and leads a Stanza group. Her poems have twice won the Dorset Award in the Bridport Prize. She has worked as a counsellor and as an Open University tutor of social sciences and creative writing. Sarah often writes about relationships and has particular interests in psychological, social and environmental issues.

January is a deeply moving collection where the reader is transported from snow-bound English landscapes to the watery reflections of Venice where profound moments are mirrored by time and place.

The cover is another Maytree special this time featuring the wonderful original artwork of Saddleworth based artist, Richard Clare.

Maytree is the folk name for the Hawthorn Tree. Named after the month in which the tree blooms, the leaves are often the first to appear in spring signifying new life. When naming our press we felt it was the perfect name to encompass both our environmental and publishing ambitions.

However, that was then. No one could have dreamed of the world we now find ourselves part of when we celebrated those first steps into the world of publishing. Then a world of new curiosity fueled by a resurgence of independent pubs, cafes, bookshops and cultural outlets. A world where public buildings and libraries had rallied against political sabotage and been saved from extinction by local groups of like minded folk who brought craft, literature, music, theatre, dance and a sense of belonging back to the heart of communities. And now…

As Maytree is entirely self-funded (and hopes to remain that way), the last few months have been challenging. Our ambition to produce upwards of fourteen books in the last year has been tested but we have weathered the storm and continued to support our authors and contributors. We’ve had some wonderful successes along the way and we’ll be able to share news of some of some of these highs in the new year.

With the ongoing situation look set to continue we took the difficult decision to reduce our output for 2021. This was made even harder by the huge response we had during our short submissions window. The record for the earliest submission following the opening at midnight on the 01 August was at 3 minutes past midnight. In total we received 118 amazing submissions and since closing our window, continue to receive enquires. All we can say is thank you for trusting us with your work and allowing us the opportunity to publish. The list of 118 was whittled down to a shortlist of twenty which the final list was drawn from – it’s no exaggeration that, second to software issues, this was the most difficult task we’ve faced in the last two years.

Those who have read our newsletter will already be familiar with our 2021 list of featured poets – for those who aren’t signed up, here’s the news:

Pauline Rowe – The Weight of Snow
Ruth Aylett – Queen of Infinite Space
Barbara Hickson – A Kind of Silence
Sean Street – The Sound Recordist
Joe Williams – The Taking Part
Fay Kesby – Shul
Nicola Warwick – Naming the Land

We’re now busy working on the schedules for these publications which we can guarantee are all incredible. We’ll also have publications from Anne Steward and a further opportunity for one poet’s work to feature as the next Three Trees Edition.

And finally – just a reminder that all our wonderful publications are now available in our shiny new on-line shop. Your support is really appreciated. Thank you.

https://maytreepress.bigcartel.com/

Tag: Sarah Barr

Two Poems – January

Coming of Age – Maytree 21