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With his first collection, Matt Riker takes us on a journey where we cannot be sure if we're awake or dreaming - if what we perceive is real or imagined. Circling love and family, nature and society, science and mythology, these poems bring both the surprising and the miraculous into sharp focus. But like words, all things are subject to change - some are lost, others gained. Riker looks inwards and outwards, to distant places and times, to the essence of consciousness. In poems both personal and philosophical, the intimate and the cerebral are entwined with the richness and ambiguity of existence.

Inside is a book that lives and breathes in its confinement.It places a brief account of the patients of a hospital assessment ward (catering to those in the process of being diagnosed with dementia) in contrast to the inmates of a broad spectrum of prisons.Holding these strands together is the voice of a single poet who doesn¿t hold back from telling it as it is.In sharply observed and pointed language, the whole carries a message for politicians and the public alike.

Longlisted for the 2023 Laurel Prize and Highly Commended in the 2023 Forward PrizesIn 1992, a group of young people began to protest against the extension of the M3 motorway through Twyford Down outside Winchester - a new road that would, by the hands of the Conservative government, cut seven minutes off the journey time between London and Southampton, whilst carving through the chalk hill in one of England's 'protected' Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Dongas Tribe, as they would later be known, named after the Matabele word for 'gully', radically altered the UK environmental movement, lauded by the Guardian as having 'kickstarted a major shift in green attitudes in both government and the public.' Twyford Down became a symbol for a further 1,000 protected heritage sites across the UK which were planned to undergo the same process, removing idiosyncrasy from the landscape and presenting an ideal for a country based on mobility and so-called 'progress'. Emma Must was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts towards land protection, including a period of detention in Holloway Prison as one of the 'Twyford Seven'. Must's searing collection, published 30 years after the Twyford protests, considers the role that language plays as witness to our actions on Earth. These powerful, moving and honest depictions of the Twyford protests explore the ways in which language reaches us, saves us, and fails to convince us. Here, the land reveals its histories to the reader, whilst protest actions entwine themselves around judicial statements, teetering between the active and passive voice, the human and non-human.* * *Royalties from each sale of this book will be donated to Transport Action Network and the A36/A350 Corridor Alliance.

Bold, beautiful and spiky, Angela Readman's stories are both magical and real. Following her acclaimed debut Don't Try This at Home, in this new collection, she approaches the fairy tale with a scalpel. The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles reads like a love letter to girlhood and a ransom note to all the fairy tales we have been told. In her prize-winning work 'The Story Never Told', an illiterate woman sells fairy tales for a book she knows will never have her name on the cover. In 'What's Inside a Girl', a class takes lessons on dating invisible girls.Dark, funny and surreal, these stories explore, challenge and ultimately transform the traditional fairy tale narrative. Women learn to be origami, climb into swan skins, feed wolves, flip burgers and snog kelpies. In dazzling prose that remains matter-of-fact, these tales take to task the happy endings we have been sold.Otherworldly, yet down to earth, The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles discovers the hidden voice in the stories we know and reveals the magic of working-class lives. These stories have teeth."Angela Readman's stories have a compelling intimacy and gorgeous imagery, and are often deeply moving - highly recommended reading." Alison Moore, author of Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse"Angela Readman's subtly dark stories rip the covers from the everyday. She turns its innocents and introverts inside-out before us, meanwhile exposing secret rituals and Chinese-whispery legends from all our suffocating and self-contained neighbourhoods. Throughout this new collection, the other Angela - Carter - hangs on Readman's shoulder as she creates an eerie new folklore for fraught times. These are the stories we always knew existed but were never brave enough to tell, even to ourselves." Ashley Stokes, author of Gigantic, Unsung Stories, 2021"A poetic recontextualising of fairy tales and folklore, The Girls Are Pretty Crocodiles manages to be both playful and dangerous, often in the same sentence. Readman deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Kirsty Logan and Marina Warner, as one of the natural successors to Angela Carter." Dan Coxon, author of Only The Broken Remain and editor of This Dreaming Isle

Put a barrier in the way of a writer and they will always find a way to tunnel under it, vault over it or blast through it. Beyond the Walls 2022 gives a new generation of talented writers the opportunity to do just that.York St John University''s Creative Writing students exemplify the talent that has arisen from the pioneering ''York Centre for Writing'', a beacon for independent Northern publishing. With an impressive blend of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, the latest edition of this much-loved anthology will showcase the power of new writing. Are you ready to have your expectations demolished and your hopes restored?

In Caroline Hardaker's first full-length collection of poetry, readers will find tales of human evolution and natural laws, of technology, of the world's problems and the twisted inventions we create. Each encounter takes a host of characters to the brink of epiphany ¿ sometimes they¿ll burn bright, and sometimes they¿ll fall apart.Step into a world of explorers, philosophers, automatons, wild things, and the ghosts that dwell deep in the heart of the earth itself.From the author: "The poems in this collection have been developed over a three year period, in which I wanted to explore the nature of discoveries, and how they impact our every day lives. One of the main topics I write about is memory and cultural memory, and I wanted to explore how folklore and history is repeated throughout time. Humanity is currently at a turning point in environmental terms ¿ and I think it¿s important to understand mistakes of the past so we can try to not repeat them. I¿ve balanced these larger questions with everyday ¿kitchen sink¿ encounters, to demonstrate that both have a huge impact on our lives.""Hardaker is a rising talent, she hunts for what it means to be human. This first collection looks at the world and the creations we make to keep moving through the little quakes that shake every day. Clear, concise, inventive and sharp, these poems burn like shooting stars." ¿ Angela Readman

Produced by members of the Northern Short Story Festival Academy, this new anthology showcasing the range of talent in the North of England features work by Litro fiction editor Barney Walsh, author & critic Richard Smyth, and poet and academic Haleemah Alaydi. Twelve of the authors featured in this new work are graduates of the Northern Short Story Festival Academy programme, which developed the voices of twelve brand new short story writers based in the region. Features a foreword by Anna Chilvers.

Poetry of kindness, gratitude and compassion for a healing world.