Birch Moon Press

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We're loving the feedback we've been getting about Heartache & Hope. Have you read it? What would you like to tell us about it?

The news hasn't been very promising over the weekend with another lockdown coming (in England at least!) but research has shown reading can alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation and mental health symptoms.
We never need an excuse to get ourselves a book! Tell us what you're reading at the moment, and what you get out of reading...

The paperback of is here! We're very excited and hope you love it as much as we do. Here's the link to buy your very own copy: https://www.paypal.com/instantcommerce/checkout/5N36V7KFZQXFY

Hello everyone! We hope you've had restful summers and are ready for autumn. At Birch Moon Press we're approaching the new season with energy and optimism. You can find out more in our new blog post: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/heartache-and-hope/bringing-plans-to-fruition/

A new blog post about the Primadonna literary festival which two of our authors took part in earlier this month. The poetry session was a fabulous one - well done Laura Hanna and Micha Colombo!

https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/spoken-word-poetry-at-the-primadonna-festival/

Spoken word poetry at the Primadonna Festival | Birch Moon Press We were thrilled to have some of our Heartache and Hope authors feature in the Primadonna Festival earlier this month. This is the first UK literary festival to specifically give prominence to work by women and underrepresented groups. As a press supporting women's voices, it's right up our street!

The story of how and why we set up our press, as told by Maddy at Creative Bubble. It’s been an intense year!

I wrote a blog post about the strangeness of this year and where it has led me so far: https://www.maddybennettcreative.co.uk/blog/2020/8/5/creativity-and-coronavirus-setting-up-birch-moon-press

The photo is of Filey beach at sunset last Friday night - it was gorgeous!

Well, wow, we can really recommend the 'Poems at Lunchtime' session from Sunday's Primadonna Festival! Two authors from our anthology feature – Laura Hanna (at 6.07) and Micha Colombo (at 24.36) but the whole session is well worth watching and bursting with talent. We were gripped from the outset by the beautiful reading – to music – of 'And the moon don't talk to me anymore' by Salena Godden Enjoy! https://youtu.be/NzOTER6A1WM

We have two of our authors reciting their poetry at the Primadonna Festival Poetry Hour tomorrow.

It starts at 12pm on Youtube. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYTJXWOD4D8LFW_sny72nRg

Primadonna Festival Primadonna is a new and inclusive festival for all ages celebrating the creative community, giving prominence to work by women and introducing fresh voices a...

Did anyone else have a lockdown romance? Have a read of 'Maybe Love' by Chrissie Metcalf and lose yourself in the possibilities:
https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

Were you ever lonely or scared during lockdown? 'All The Things I Hear (Sounds of Isolation)' by Laura Hanna, (Illustrated by Creative Bubble) is a compelling exploration of lockdown in solitude. Part poetry, part prose and all honesty and insight, it's available now in our anthology: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

How is the loosening of lockdown going for you? We've been thinking about these words from a poem by Micha Colombo... right now lockdown seems to be swirling round and round with people reacting differently and a whole range of emotions and opinions on the subject!

The whole poem, along with other pandemic-themed poetry and short stories, is in our anthology: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

"It used to be called confinement, this period after childbirth. I never imagined this. You were conceived before the lockdown was even something I could conceive of myself."

Extract from 'Hold' by Alice Speirs, a beautiful tale of birth, love and early parenthood in lockdown. It's available now in our anthology: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

'The Wishing Horse' by Jo Winwood is a beautiful, magical tale from our anthology. Set in an imagined near future where a pandemic has kept people separate for years, it shows how hope and the human spirit always endures. You can read more in our ebook which is available now: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

Thanks so much to everyone who's bought our ebook so far! Every purchase allows us to donate more to Rosa and it makes us smile to see our authors' beautiful words going out into the world. https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

From 'Strangest of Times' by Reneè Davis - a searingly honest account of life in lockdown. Read more in our anthology available now on our website and from major retailers: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

An extract from 'Twenty-Twenty Vision' by Kamsin Kaneko - a powerful exploration of grief and life, inspired by the pandemic. It's part of our anthology which is available now: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

An extract from 'Disquiet' by Chrissie Metcalf - the tale of a mother trying to keep life from unravelling as the pandemic spreads. It's part of our 'Heartache and Hope' anthology which is available now: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

A snippet from 'Pandemic Times' by Iona Fraser, part of our anthology which is available to buy now! https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

This quote is from the poem 'Ox Unravelling' by Micha Colombo and is illustrated by Maddy Bubble. It powerfully captures the emotions of motherhood during lockdown and is available now in our anthology: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

We've written a blog post about our launch party, which includes the words that people shared with us to describe their lockdown experience and a little about how the whole launch was for us (some of us were newbies to the whole 'live' thing!) The video is also embedded in the post should any of you want to share it with non-facebook-using friends. https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-launch-party/

We had great fun at our launch last night - thank you to all who attended! Our ebook is now available for sale - you can buy it directly from our website or follow the link from there to download it from major retailers. Thank you!
https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/

Yippee!!!Our anthology is now published. You can find it on our website https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/ebooks/heartache-and-hope-buy-now/ for £2.99.
Don't forget to enter our competition to win a free copy, comment with three words to summarise your lockdown experience. The word cloud here is gathered from the collection.

Tomorrow is our launch day for Heartache and Hope, our first publication. As a not-for-profit press we have chosen to support Rosa, all profits will be donated there.

Rosa is a grantmaking charity funding grassroots women’s organisations to make the UK a fairer, safer place for women and girls. Over the past 12 years, Rosa has funded a breadth of specialist women’s organisations and services across the UK working on: economic justice, health and wellbeing, leadership and representation, and safety.

Most recently, Rosa secured just under £1 million in funding for its Covid-19 Response Fund. Rosa’s network of grantees include organisations led ‘by and for’ BME women, deaf and disabled women, LGBTQI+ communities, survivors of gender-based violence, and more – many of which have been marginalised and excluded from existing funding systems.

Emergency Response Fund - UK women's sector organized by Rosa Fund Coronavirus is a global emergency that has exposed existing inequalities. Women… Rosa Fund needs your support for Emergency Response Fund - UK women's sector

Competition time!!!
Aren’t these illustrations gorgeous? They are from the lovely and super talented Creative Bubble and can be found in our book, Heartache and Hope, released on Friday. The collection is full of big, strong emotive subjects; birth and death, love and grief, magic and mundanity. For each of the anthology pieces there is a matching picture, including these that beautifully sum them up. At our launch party we will be giving away two copies of our e-book. To enter follow us for updates and comment with three words that describe your lockdown experience. Winners will be announced at our Facebook Live launch party Friday 3rd July 8pm and notified by message.

Announcing our launch date... this Friday! Stay tuned for news of our launch party 😀

The idea for Birch Moon Press was conceived on a Zoom call back in the early days of lockdown. Since then we've had many calls and sent endless messages and emails to plan everything for the launch of the press and our first book (out soon!) This photo of the six of us represents a lot of that experience - us in our houses all round the country (from the south coast to the wilds of Northumberland) talking excitedly about plans. We can't wait to share more with you soon.

Here's the cover of our inaugural anthology (and a bit of information about it too)! We'll be announcing our publication date very soon...

What's the story behind Birch Moon Press? We've written a blog post so you can find out a little more about us: https://birchmoonpress.co.uk/about-the-press/our-story/

Our Story - Birch Moon Press Birch Moon Press is a not-for-profit organisation, run by women and supporting female voices. That’s the short version, at least.  As an independent press though, we’re all about stories and we thought you might like to hear a little more of ours… Our press is run by six women: Maddy, Chriss...

Birch Moon Press updated their website address.