Bøker utgitt av Cinnamon Press

Lucid, linguistically dextrous, and woven through with Welsh phrases, and words and passages in French, this exquisitely observed sequence of haiku and haibun was written during lockdown, though only refers to Covid elliptically. There is nothing obvious here-instead there are connections-with nature, with relationships, with what is lost and what is saved.

The willingness to take risks with form and to push the reader's expectations of what a poem might be make E A Griffiths' poetry immediately distinctive. Here we find lyrical poems that are tiny, elliptical, often heart-breaking and utterly located in a sense of place that is at once home and yet the terrain of struggle. Drawing on Welsh tradition and the complexity that spins from needing to learn your native language so that even when it becomes fluent it never becomes the language of dream, the collection also opens a dialogue with concrete poetry. It's a move that allows words to fragment, names to partially mirror themselves, breath to expand the possibilities of the poem on the page. The concrete poetry in this collection is as serious as a funeral, or electric shock therapy, yet it is also playful, generous and expansive. Moving between the concrete and the lyrical, Concrete Sea is a cohesive, tightly-written debut that invites us to feel into the experiences of the poems, emerging with the sense of another's heart-print.

It's winter, 1553. A small Italian hill town is under siege... In this narrative of uncommon endurance Alex Josephy inhabits place and people with lively precision. Told in the voices of women, including a chorus, a nearby mountain and the fortress herself, the uniting voice of the pamphlet is a 'girl', through whose eyes we see the minute details of life under immense stress and feel the nuances of loss, hunger and uncertainty. Again Behold the Stars is an intense immersion into a lockdown that challenges all the senses, one utterly different from the modern experience of lockdown during the Covid pandemic, yet also hauntingly resonant with it. Most vitally, the empathy evoked reaches us across almost five centuries, making us care in the present.

How do we come home in a strange land? Moving to a remote forest hamlet in a new country in the midst of a pandemic, the only way to connect is to take the time to linger, listen and observe-to be with the land that is becoming home. From this observations a series of haiku arise, following the Japanese system of 24 seasons divided into 72 micro-seasons and interspersed with eight lyric poems that travel around the Celtic wheel of the year. And so a forest garden and its surrounding Finistère woodland slowly reveals itself, weaving together the lunar and solar, melding the Celtic shape of the year with the increments of the Japanese solar terms, each one unveiling a new aspect of change. Charting a life unmoored from the familiar, but permeable to the new the poems find their place at 'the end of the world', as the Romans called Finistère, but also in Penn-ar-Bed, the Breton name which is both the end and start of the world. Most endings are also beginnings and here in these precise, exquisitely observed poems, we find ourselves both unsettled and settling, exploring what it means to hold together being adrift and belonging; cycles and transformation and how we find a beginning at the end of the world.

Stunning and complex drama, interweaving identity, politics, the art world and the Holocaust.

Two years after the events of The Standing Ground, the tiny outpost of Y Tir in North Wales becomes a refuge for those who want to live without implants-permanent links to government surveillance that are threatening to dominate people's lives again. But can Alys, Luke and Emrys thwart the growing threats of the new tech-giants whose offers of enhanced memories and virtual lives mask the erosion of privacy and even humanity? As new enemies threaten Y Tir's existence, and old enemies emerge to sew seeds of destruction, Alys' and Luke's lives are put under increasing pressure. But there are also allies, not least Alys' and Luke's daughter, Iris, who appears to have fallen out of the mists of Greek legend and into Celtic myth. Can Iris, more strange and powerful even than Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin, save the day for Y Tir?

For Eleanor Barton, fleeing from the bombs of the Birmingham Blitz during World War II changes her life. On the Isles of Scilly, she negotiates a teaching contract, her own sexual awakening, and a decision about her future that will have repercussions for decades. Her course is set when she sails from the UK on the Queen Mary as one of thousands of GI brides. But the path she has chosen will not be an easy one. Struggling with issues of infidelity, gas-lighting, her 'outsider's' experience of racial apartheid in 1950s America and living within the bounds of Catholic teaching on contraception and marriage, Eleanor faces an uncertain future. But she persists, bolstered by her love for her daughter, Sadie. Spanning the 1940s to 1980s, Eleanor faces a stream of new challenges--not least the struggle to overturn the Decree of Nullity granted to her American husband by the Catholic Church, and her waning health. But a return visit to Scilly brings her life full circle and demonstrates the endurance of deep love. Exquisitely realised characters and a powerful story unite in Waiting for the All Clear, L.B. Gray's debut novel, to immerse readers in the ageless questions of what it means to make a good life and what are the boundaries that must be defended if we are to remain true to our own stories.

In the far future, after a nuclear war, the world is separated into two realms, each under the protection of the all-powerful Commission. In Ecologia mammoths, wolves and sabre cats roam the world of Stone Age people, while Economica is populated by modern people enjoying technological convenience, complete with robots that serve every need. In Ecologia the Commission is worshiped as a deity, but in Economica it is resented as an obstructive and unaccountable bureaucracy.When Peter finds a portal between these realms, he illicitly sets up a life for himself in both worlds, knowing that he is in danger.But like everyone else he has no idea what the Commission really is, and when Peter¿s friend, Simon, figures it out and is silenced by sinister forces, Peter¿s questions about his future only become more complicated. His quandary exacerbated by the imminent closure of the portal, Peter has to make a choice about where he belongs; a choice that will be the most important he¿s ever made.Raising questions about what we mean by ¿nature¿, ¿humanity¿ and life itself, Destiny of a Free Spirit is a compelling debut that will keep you guessing till the end.

A young woman walks, walks, walks... always in search of the wondrous hidden in the everyday. When she at last enters a place of marvels just a step away from the mundane world, she discovers that the urge to keep searching is carrying her towards a climactic and extraordinary transmutation. Part Alchemical fable, part celebration of the transformative power of the Imagination, 'Marietta Merz' weaves a spell that lingers long after the story ends. Originally appearing as a key story in the highly acclaimed collection, High City Walk, 'Marietta Merz' is a limited edition chapbook illustrated with original drawings.

Emily needs friends. Outwardly successful, about to get married, inside she is scared and grieving. When an accident reveals a relative she never knew existed, everything changes.Jim has buried his life in a mundane job at the Ministry of Information, writing manuals to help others and hiding the secrets that continue to haunt his family.Through their distinct voices, Emily speaking from 1993 and Jim from 1915, the link between two intriguing tales emerges. As their stories come together, will Emily finally escape the past to find a life of her own?How to Keep Well in Wartime is a compelling exploration of the human condition and the importance of creating a life worth living. "Exploring how we deal with loss, grief, relationships, and mental health, How to Keep Well in Wartime addresses issues that are central to all our lives, delivering a story that is not only finely crafted, but meaningful."Life ends not when you die, but when you stop living it, the narrative insists."A powerful novel with a universal sensibility that transcends time and place to speak to readers everywhere." - Tracey Iceton, author of The Celtic Colours trilogy & Rock God Complex: the Mickey Hunter Story

Honza Pernath¿s life is barren. The person he loves is gone and his friends, even his dreams, say she will not return.When a chance meeting sets him on a search for his lost love, the path is neither straight nor easy and Honza comes to doubt everything, including the one he searches for. A single image¿a star rising over the seäcalls him on, but that image is more than it seems and as Honza nears its source, his search reveals more than he could have imagined.A sequel to the mysterious and beautiful short story, ¿Marietta Merz¿ (now an illustrated chapbook), Child of the Black Sun is an exploration of the living symbols at the core of everyday life; a visionary evocation of the internal journey.

I¿m doing something I¿ve never done before. I¿m hanging upside down in a circus hoop suspended from the beams of a redundant church in Sheffield. I¿m not very far from the floor, but the way I feel I may as well be. What am I scared of? Fear just is. It¿s there in the muscle memory¿ Now, knees gripping the metal hoop I let go with my hands and see the world upside down.Upside Down in a Hoop is memoir about loss and letting go. What is it that keeps us going through the tough times? The joy of dancing as a child? The adventures we dare to take as adults? Through fear and holding on, to freedom.

With bugs in her skin and noise in her head, Riz is real and the rest are fake. What matters to her: Mark Rothko's art. So despite the horror of family time, it's a fine thing that a major Rothko show coincides with the global conference where her so-called Dad is such a big wheel. Holed up with VIPs at a heavily guarded hotel, Riz collides with a sharp-dressed assassin she calls The Man. As she plunges into a world of covert deals and power plays, Riz is befriended and betrayed by Russian and Syrian agents. And emotionally bruised by the leader of a violent anti-capitalist group in town to protest the conference. Told in Riz's breathless, insistent voice, the edgy friendship between the isolated teen and the travelling killer drives a thrill-ride through riot-torn London.

Thrust into a hostile world, and unable to comprehend the language, Heike, an immigrant and ¿enemy¿ child, struggles to understand the English islanders as she adjusts to the new identity demanded of her. Intent on escaping the traumas of growing up in fascist Germany and the horrors of its post-war desolation, Heike¿s mother will marry the charismatic English officer she met during the Allied occupation of Lüneburg. Her daughter, who will be known as ¿Susannä from now on, must be kept innocent of her mother¿s past and grow up to be English. As this memoir of displacement, national character, and misunderstandings unfolds, S M Saunders becomes the detective in her own story, searching for the truth that will reconcile her double identity and conflicting emotions. But this is far from a misery memoir. This is a tale of love¿the narrator¿s intense love for the extraordinary and eccentric English people whose positive influences not only shaped her and her mother, but also lent her the strength to come to terms with both her own identity and with her mother¿s complex, harrowing story. Susanna: the Making of an English Girl explores a childhood that is sad, beautiful, funny, rich in detail and marked, above all, by love.

A Little Switch sees Max Falkland on a new mission, this time posing as a maid of honour at the Queen¿s coronation. Out of her comfort zone with an assignment that reminds her she is the daughter of a viscount, and out of her depth with the silent men in her life, she takes refuge in an archeological expedition, but a chance meeting leads to a trip that will force Max to face the most frightening moments of her career while trying to protect those she loves. The final novel in this Cold War spy trilogy comes to an exciting conclusion to Max Falkland novels following on from Cold Crash and A Running Lie.

In The Third Sister Speaks Liliana A Pasterska immerses us in the voice of Anne Brontë¿a frontierswoman and trailblazing writer of the mid 19th century who stepped out of ¿female¿ territory to expose the taboos of her age, including gender inequality, marital abuse, the terrible conditions in which many women teachers worked and the effects of alcohol and substance abuse. A woman at the margins of her time, Anne Brontë lived for only 29 years, yet left a wealth of acute observation and sharp insight in her writing, as well as poetry that witnesses to her personal, spiritual and literary intelligence. For all of this, her voice is the one not often heard amongst the extraordinary Brontë sisters. But here is a corrective to this. In lyrical poetry originally commissioned for a programme of music and words celebrating Anne Brontë¿s bicentenary, we enter Anne¿s world. In this careful and beautifully achieved debut pamphlet, the voice of the poet reaches into the voice of a young woman still calling to the modern reader across time: elegant, spare, leaving space for silence and allowing its questions to resonate long after reading:I am a teller of truth a seer¿can you hear me?

In the initial sequence of this pamphlet, and following short lyrics, the writer explores the experience of living with long-term, and severe mental states. There is no safe haven of medical ¿pathology¿ here, but an urgent rite of passage for the damaged and conflicted soul. A form of modern Purgatory¿escaping the grasping jaws of Inferno, to find itself stumbling towards a rarefied, yet earthy, Paradiso.Ian Marriott¿s marvellous poems inhabit rather than observe nature ¿ in fact they do both ¿ but are as much concerned with the human condition. They work in the area of what Hopkins called instress. The voice is calm, contained and precise, as when he watches a Pond Skater, ¿So perilous / this thin meniscus ¿ / six legs spread out¿. The poems too seem to tremble on the water of their vision.¿ George Szirtes

The manifestations and properties of water are excitingly explored in Edward Ragg¿s new collection. Here are living poems where narrative and lyric work together to contemplate the energies implicit in water. The intriguing emphases laid upon the meanings of the word ¿present¿ give a unique edge to the poems. Glass, tears, ice, rivers, wine, salinity, tides: all these elements are woven into the texture of this collection, where the illuminations and fluidities of language are beautifully captured.¿ Penelope Shuttle

Lynn Valentine is a distinctive new voice in Scottish poetry. With hints of fairytale and gothic, she writes precise and poignant poems embracing what is often overlooked or peripheral ¿ a father who drives the snowplough, a childless woman seeking consolation from a Sheela-na-gig. This collection is alive with horses, crows, deer, and as the title suggests, bees; all points north. ¿ Jay Whittaker Enhanced by her apt and confident use of Scots, which glimmers like gold leaf throughout, Lynn Valentine¿s poems weave the ethereal with the everyday, and reveal to us a glimpse of the natural and unnatural world we stride and stumble through. From council workers to prophetic aunts, Mills and Boon to the winter solstice, the poems here are full of making do and doing without, of childhood and childlessness, of the grief of loss and the grief of absence. This is a special collection, and a wonderful debut. ¿ Aoife Lyall Lynn Valentine is a fearless writer who tackles the great unspeakables head-on ¿ bereavement, loss, childlessness, exile; and yet it¿s not death that prevails in these poems, but rather the sovereignty of life and, with all its gifts and with all its heartbreaks, the obstinate beauty of the living world.¿ John Glenday

Ecologically aware, gripping and mesmeric new collection from 'the godmother of prose poetry'.

Exquisite and honed collection that finds the extraordinary in ordinary life.

A tender yet passionate commentary on loss and grief.

Part physical journey, part journey through memory, this poetry pamphlet is journey alongside an old friend and a beloved river.

Beautiful and personal meditation on fatherhood, marriage and bereavement.

Vivid and absorbing exploration of the phenomenon of Shabtai Zvi of Smyrna