We are thrilled to announce that Muscaliet Press has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Publisher’s Award 2022! We’d like to sincerely thank all our poets, writers and supporters. Without such innovative, imaginative writing, after all, we wouldn’t find ourselves on a shortlist of four out of more than 200 entries!
Here’s what the judges said about us:
‘Muscaliet Press, named after a mythical composite creature, imparts a slightly magical tenor to its pamphlets. They are usually tile-sized and all appear in unlettered and unpatterned covers, whose solid hues are chosen by the authors. The pamphlets often feature interplays of words and images; they are produced in short runs of 80-120 copies. Muscaliet Press exhibits the dignity of an actor who is tiny on the scale of our cataclysmic and cluttered world yet has the courage to bring clarity and beauty into that world, to hold space for its bewilderment, and to explore new creative possibilities.’
And there’s more: we are hugely proud, too, to share the news that Tomi Adegbayibi is on the shortlist for the Michael Marks Poetry Award for her Muscaliet pamphlet Colours & Tea (Human). The judges were similarly impressed by Tomi’s poetry and the overall conception of the pamphlet:
‘The cover of Tomi Adegbayibi’s Colours & Tea (Human), published by Muscaliet Press, is fuzzy black; this is followed by a pine-green fibrous endpaper. Both choices are made by the author. We open the first poem and we are in a forest; next we come home and make tea. “We are born and we die. Everything else is hazy, human, and hazy.” What comes in between these forest green and deep black brackets is a poetic journey in which the delicate attention with which one brews and sips tea is unflinchingly brought to the situations of human terrors and agonies. The syntax uncurls as a tealeaf and the images whirl; Tomi Adegbayibi’s voice comes through blazing with sympathy and vigour.’
Many, many congratulations Tomi!
All shortlisted poets and publishers will appear at an event at the British Library on 13 December, when the winners will be announced. It’s free to attend in person and will be broadcast online. Tickets must be booked in advance and the Michael Marks team will announce on their website www.michaelmarksawards.org and on social media when they are available.
We hope you can join us there, or tune into the event!
Warmest wishes,
Simon & Moyra