Egg Box Updates

Fresh Eggs

Nathan Hamilton — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:17:39 +0000

Two amazing new releases from Egg Box Publishing this Christmas: prize-winning rising poetry star, Agnes Lehoczky's long-anticipated second collection, Rememberer, and critically-acclaimed Vahni Capildeo's sensational third collection, Dark & Unaccustomed Words, both in wonderfully produced limited edition hardback.

"Vahni Capildeo not only breaks down conventional notions of seeing the world, but re-affirms ideas of the value and worth of individual experiences. This work... underlines what matters above all: the fate of the free self. It is a subversive ocean of diamonds, rubies and bones, raging against limiting forces.”
-- Andre Bagoo, for Newsday (Trinidad and Tobago)

"What I enjoy about Ágnes Lehóczky’s prose poetry is its dialogic lyricism. Her syntax carries the work of caesura and enjambment, shaping rhythmic wholes that take you back to places we’ve never been. The best of poetry does the like, and this is it."
-- Peter Robinson

UEA Anthologies 2011

Nathan Hamilton — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:28:33 +0000

The University of East Anglia is proud to announce two new anthologies of work from their world-renowned creative writing MA.

You are lime cordially invited to celebrate with us as follows:

Here are the details of the NORWICH launch:
Tuesday 4th October
UEA Drama Studio, Norwich
7.00pm, readings and refreshments

Here are the details of the LONDON launch:
Tuesday 11th October
The Old Crown, 33 New Oxford St. WC1
6.30pm, readings and cash bar

Copies of books will be available on special offer. If you sadly can't make it, then advance copies of both the Poetry & Prose volumes are now available from us here online. General release date (to Amazon and general trade) is OCT 31st.

Enjoy tomorrow's best writing today.

‘In years to come, when some of these writers are household names, this book will allow you to say, with total superiority: “I preferred their early stuff.”’ -- Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine

Capildeo Nominated

Nathan Hamilton — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:07:04 +0000

We are clucking over the fact that Egg Box Poet, Vahni Capildeo, has been shortlisted for the Guyana Prize for Literature, Caribbean Award, among some well-plumaged talent. That makes it two-out-of-two for us this year, with both of the last two Egg Box poets nominated or winning prizes, after Agnes Lehoczky scooped the Jane Martin Prize in May.

And, don't forget, Vahni was already highly commended in The Forward Prize, 2009. There is a little more information about this latest prize triumph here.

Vahni's next book, Dark & Unaccustomed Words is the most lyrical and playful part of a three-part project exploring the boundaries of the human and the natural, and the oceanic or musical possibilities of poetic form, and will be out later this year. It is available to pre-order here. If you haven't already, be sure to properly acquaint yourself with Vahni's brilliant work immediately here.

Lehoczky Laureled

Nathan Hamilton — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Egg Box poet Agnes Lehoczky has won the inaugural Jane Martin Prize for Poetry at Girton College, Cambridge. The judging panel, led by Dr Ian Patterson, critic, poet, author and Director of Studies in English at Queen’s College Cambridge, decided to award the new national poetry prize of £1000 jointly to poets Agnes and Emily Critchley (another good poet, not published by us - they do exist, but aren't to be trusted). Both were judged on a body of work, and Agnes' winning poem was Carp Fishpond Fable, which will feature in her second collection, out later this year. If you don't already own a copy of the first, you know what to do.

Commenting on the entries, Dr Patterson said: "Out of a large and very varied entry, the judges finally succeeded in agreeing on an impressive shortlist. In the end, though, two entries stood out, for their ambition and for the sustained level of their achievement: Emily Critchley's intellectual and poetic virtuosity and vitality, and the haunting, disturbing and beautiful interior worlds of Agnes Lehoczky's prose poems. Although very different, it proved impossible to choose one over the other, and so the prize is shared between them."

Undraining Sea Reviewed

Nathan Hamilton — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:25:33 +0000

We'd like to draw your attention to a few excellent, and deservingly highly favourable, reviews of Vahni Capildeo's Undraining Sea. Edward Baugh in the Caribbean Review of Books says: "This poetry is not for the faint-hearted. It disturbs conventional notions of how poems make meaning, both for the reader and for other poets for whom Vahni Capildeo — a Trinidadian writer living in Britain — may be the poet’s poet ... [Her poems] are at one and the same time tantalising enticement and warning." And quite right, too.

Adam Piette says, at Black Box Manifold: "This is an urgent, shapely, generous and serious collection – of self-witness, astute, gentle, sharp and alive, sensing where the mind in words will go, along long journeys/sequences of encounter with the lost other in language." Indeed, that's what we thought.

And finally, Andrew Bailey has also sung high hymns of praise unto the poetry of Capildeo, at Todd Swift's Eyewear. He says, "what she is responsible for, what I'm grateful for, is a wholly recommendable collection that justifies the praise on its back." He also says: "If the work is shapely, incidentally, so is the hardback form Eggbox have provided for it." And so say all of us. You should probably buy one or something.

Stop Sharpening Your Knives 4

Nathan Hamilton — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:42:40 +0000

The Rialto, Younger Poets

Nathan Hamilton — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:59:46 +0000

I've been asked by Michael Mackmin to organise a 'ones to watch' feature for The Rialto's 25th anniversary edition, to be published in May and including poems from Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and Tomaz Salamun, among many others.

I have been busy soliciting submissions from individuals (ongoing) I'd like to include, if possible, to make sure I can make a certain point or two with it. In the interests of fairness, however -- and to add an element of experimental fun -- I am also now seeking to broaden the catchment beyond my own network biases and peccadilloes with further recommendations and a short-deadline open call.

So: calling all poets, 35 and under! Please send 3-5 poems (no more than 5 sides) to this email address by 31st of March. These should either be previously unpublished or published somewhere of significantly lower profile than The Rialto (where Rialto would act as a greater showcase and validation of your work). Yes, it is a short deadline -- that's part of the challenge. It is also an experiment (for future work) to test or prove that such a submissions process might work well for things...

Undraining Sea by Vahni Capildeo

Nathan Hamilton — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:55:46 +0000

New from Egg Box Publishing in September is Vahni Capildeo's remarkable _Undraining Sea_. A poem, 'From first to last...', in this collection has already been highly commended in the Forward Prize 2009 and Vahni is due to appear in a number of anthologies over the next couple of years. In short, she is one of the finest and most exciting young poets around. Please check our store to buy your copy -- available now -- or read more about Vahni in our authors section.

Stop Sharpening Your Knives 3

Nathan Hamilton — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:25:24 +0000

The new Stop Sharpening Your Knives anthology, _Stop Sharpening Your Knives 3_, is out now from Egg Box Publishing. It was launched at events in Norwich and London to an audience of over 150. It features work from some of the finest young poets in the country alongside illustrations from a number of excellent young artists. You can buy your copy from us at the special direct order price of 6 pounds (RRP 8.99) here. Stay tuned for information about further readings, or you can visit the website here.

Daniel Kane in LRB

Nathan Hamilton — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:13:35 +0000

Daniel Kane has had two poems from _Ostentation of Peacocks_ published in the _London Review of Books_. You can view the relevant issue online. You might even like to order one, to reward the fine people of the LRB for their good taste. You can buy your copy of the book from us here at the special direct order price of 10 pounds (RRP 12.99) -- the author and publisher make more from a sale this way.