Fly On The Wall Press Showcase with Manchester Poetry Library at Contact
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Presented in conjunction with Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester-based indie publisher Fly On The Wall Press showcases northern poets Rachel Bower, Lucy Hurst, Sundra Lawrence, Jiye Lee and Tina Tamsho-Thomas.
Fly On The Wall Press is a not-for-profit publisher of innovative short stories, poetry and photography books, often with a socially conscious theme. The social enterprise team say they are “unafraid to generate conversation about perhaps ‘prickly’ subjects, whilst also dedicating a large proportion of their yearly publishing schedule to charitable projects”. The Fly On The Wall Press also runs the Northern Publishers’ Fair, which takes place every few months at Central Library, and recently presented a short story showcase at Blackwell’s Bookshop.
Fly On The Wall Press also runs the Northern Publishers’ Fair, which takes place every few months at Central Library, and recently presented a short story showcase at Blackwell’s Bookshop.
Rachel Bower is an award-winning writer based in Sheffield, whose poetry book These Mothers Of Gods came out with Fly On The Wall last July. Jason Allen-Paisant says: “These image-rich verses are poems of intense curiosity and beauty.” Her poetry has been published widely in journals and magazines, including Magma, The London Magazine, Frontier, New Welsh Review and Stand, and she edited Valley Press anthology Verse Matters with Helen Mort. Her short fiction has also been widely published, and she won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019-20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020, and she is also the author of Moon Milk (Valley Press) and Epistolarity and World Literature (Palgrave Macmillan). She is currently teaching creative writing at the University of Leeds.
Lucy Hurst has a creative writing masters from York St John University. Pain and disability are at the heart of Lucy’s work, aiming both to carve out a space for disability in poetry, and explore the limits of the body. Using a combination of appropriated medical terminology and an un-capitalised free-verse form, Lucy’s Fly On The Wall pamphlet Modern Medicine – which came out last summer – considers illness and its social implications, introducing a bold and propulsive new voice in poetry.
Sundra Lawrence’s new FOTW collection Warriors is an Aryamati Poetry Prize winner 2021 that Rishi Dastidar calls “superb”. Of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage, her work often interweaves themes of migration and conflict, and she has performed her work across the UK as well as internationally. Her poetry and short stories have featured on national television, radio and podcasts and in art exhibitions, and she teaches creative writing and is a creative consultant for the London Literature Lounge. She is an alumna of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, the initiative set up by Manchester Writing School poetry lecturer Malika Booker, Chair of Judges for the international Manchester Poetry Prize.
Jiye Lee is a British-Korean poet from Newcastle Upon Tyne, with a creative writing MA from Newcastle University. She has been fortunate enough to have lived all over the globe, including Scotland, Malaysia and South Korea, and her multicultural background often influences her writing, making cultural identity one of the key elements of her work. Other common themes are family, mental health struggles, female identity, love and loss. Her 2022 chapbook Aftereffects is a moving and lyrical exploration of the subtle reverberations of our lives.
Tina Tamsho-Thomas is the founder of Theatre of Colour and an acclaimed published writer, poet and spoken word performance artist, recently seen as part of the literature strand at Chorlton Arts Festival. She is also a BBC trained radio producer, human rights ambassador and arts consultant. She has been commissioned by the likes of the V&A Museum, Manchester International Festival and the University of Malawi. Her collection Someone Is Missing Me came out with Fly On The Wall last year.
