Arachne Press

10th Anniversary

Catalogue Spring 2023

Arachne Press is a small, independent publisher of award-winning short fiction, poetry and (very) select non-fiction, for adults and children. Our first ever YA title was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. In 2022 we have been Regional Finalists for Small Publisher of the Year, had books short-listed for the Saboteur awards, and we had books win in their categories for Wales Book of the Year 2022 and the Holyer An Gof Award 2022.

We are committed to showcasing talented writing, and treating writers as they would wish to be treated. This includes our approach to inclusive publishing (and events), with BSL interpretation and translation; working with Welsh language poets, moving into Audiobooks, and actively seeking out as wide a range of authors and poets as possible, including those living in geographically isolated areas. We have a particular interest in writing from LGBT and disabled authors and poets.

We are continuing our ambitious publishing plans for our tenth year, September 2022-23, with four new books for the spring, three more audiobooks, and live and online workshops, readings and panel discussions.

Readers: order via our webshop https://arachnepress.com

All our books are available as print* and ebooks, and some are available as audiobooks.

We or our distributors, IPS, will post books direct to you.

If you prefer eBooks (ePub) or audiobooks we now sell them direct at https://arachnepress.com/audio-and-ebook-store/

Bookshops: our sales partners are Inpress, our distributors are IPS, and our books are available through Gardners.

We are back doing live events and want to hear from anyone who would like to host us, but can also offer online readings and Q&As tailored especially for you.

Authors:

Submit poetry or short fiction to one of our anthology submission calls so we can get to know each other and for an opportunity to be invited to submit further. Current open call is for UK based LGBTQ+ poets only, via https://arachnepress.submittable.com/submit

*except Hiatus which is currently eBook only

New Poetry for 2023 February

Saved to Cloud Kate Foley

ISBN 978-1-913665-76-0 £9.99 POETRY/LGBT

Kate Foley looks back on almost nine decades of life – a life characterised by curiosity, resistance and a strong connection with the natural world.

Appreciationandconcernfortheplanetruns through this frank and moving collection, which muses on the notions of faith and belief, ultimately rejecting both Whitehall politicsandtraditionalreligionasinadequate todealwithenvironmentalcrisis.

Simultaneously nostalgic and highly concerned with the future, Kate Foley ask us to consider life’s big questions: What’s it all for? How will we be remembered?

March

More Patina than Gleam Jane Aldous

ISBN 978-1-913665-78-4 £9.99 POETRY/LGBT

In her 70th year, Jane Aldous decided to write 70 poems, exploring a fictionalised version of a life she almost lived. These poems, based in post war Edinburgh, tell the story of Linda, fleeing with her daughter from England and an abusive relationship. In hiding in one of the city’s suburbs, mother and daughter settle into their new life and encounter a variety of characterswhowillchangetheirlivesforever. More Patina than Gleam celebrates outsiders getting by in hard times – the day to day grindof cleaning,periods,prejudice,ageing, sexuality and falling in and out of love.

From Saved to Cloud, Kate Foley

Repeating Patterns

Will it build again, our earth?

Will it be nest with rambling, seeded stems and breast curved feathers –or den?

Will the first new atom know who to marry?

Will creatures glide, elide through air or water?

Will they click and pick on legs or fins or flick their way on wings?

Will there be eyes and ears and tongues when memories lie millennia below the fears we’d long forgotten before we let them happen?

From Unmothered, A J Akoto

Gorgon Certain things should be approached side-on, with a darting gaze, as you look at a bright goddess from the corner of your eye.

My mother is a gure ablaze at the edge of sight; I cannot bear her head on. I need a sickled blade. I need a shield, mirror-bright.

New Poetry for 2023

April

The Arctic Diaries Melissa Davies

ISBN 978-1-913665-74-6 £9.99 POETRY

When the fisherman dies Fleinvær stories spill out silver strings, like guts from a spring catch. But between these pages they survive.

The Arctic Diaries chart generations of thecharacters,mythsandmisremembered details that make up the oral traditions of a windswept archipelago in Norway’s far north. Created over a single arctic winter, using stories gathered from the last surviving fisherman of Langholmen, this collection of poems are part history, part field notes, exploring what role the outsiderplaysinpreservingtheexperience of another.

May

Unmothered A J Akoto

ISBN 978-1-913665-74-6 £9.99 POETRY

When does a mother stray from myth into monster?

In an intimate and unflinching collection, A J Akoto tracks the complex bind of mother-daughter relationships. Through separationandattemptstomend,longing, and the fluidity of myth/story-telling in defining histories and identities, she collapsestheelisionbetweenwomanhood andmotherhood/daughterhood,bringing totheforefrontthatwhichusuallyremains unspoken.

New Audio Books for JUNE 2023

Paper Crusade Michelle Penn

ISBN 978-1-91366583-8 POETRY £10

Read bySophie Aldred, NigelPilkington and Saul Reichlin

A bold reinvention of Shakespeare’s play, e Tempest.

On a wasted island in perpetual sun, the Father practices magic, laments his lost kingdom and commands a ragtag army of three: the passionate and damaged Daughter, the winged Spirit and an indigenous being known only as C.

In the Blood Anna Fodorova

ISBN 978-1-913665-84-5 NOVEL £15

Read by Lisa Rose

Agata lives in London with her husband and daughter, but she grew up in Prague and she believes that her mother is the only one of her family who survived the Holocaust. Against a background of revolutions in Eastern Europe, Agata discovers that not everyone died. Her subsequent search for her lost family, threatens to tear apart not only the family she already has, but her own identity.

Routes Rhiya Pau

ISBN 978-1-913665-85-2 POETRY £10 read by Farhana Khalique

Poetry exploring the routes taken by Rhiya

Pau’sparentsandgrandparentsacrossmultiple countries, to arrive in the UK. Speci cally linked to the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Ugandan Asian in the UK.

Recent Poetry

Our best seller!

A470 Poems for the Road Cerddi’r Ffordd

ISBN 978-1-913665-55-5 £9.99 POETRY

A fully bilingual collection of original poems by Welsh poets,all written in response to the 186 mile road which runsthelengthofWales–fromshoretoshoreandnorth to south.

Mae A470: Cerddi’r Ffordd, a fydd yn cael ei gyhoeddi fel llyfr clawr meddal ac fel e-lyfr, yn gasgliad o gerddi gwreiddiol gan feirdd o Gymru, pob un ohonynt yn ymatebi’r ffordd186milltir ohydaredardraws Cymru o arfordir y gogledd i arfordir y de.

ISBN 978-1-913665-67-8 £9.99 POETRY

A bold reinvention of Shakespeare’s play, eTempest. Ona wastedisland inperpetualsun,the Father practices magic,lamentshislostkingdomandcommandsaragtag army of three: the passionate and damaged Daughter, the winged Spirit and an indigenous being known only as C. Behind their uniforms the soldiers seethe with rebellion.

A Pocketful of Chalk Claire Booker

ISBN 978-1-913665-69-2 £9.99 POETRY

e South Downs lie at the heart of this collection –the sunsets and huge skies, cliffs and fossils, shing vessels and windmills, people and sheep. Past, present and future collide within geological and emotional landscapes.ClaireBookeroffersmovingandmemorable poetry from an iconic corner of England.