The end of #pamphletparty: a round-up of the review-a-thon

–Claire Trévien–

This December I reviewed one poetry pamphlet a day – a challenge made trickier by the fact that it coincided with many holidays… It was all done to crowdfund for our next Saboteur Awards (you can contribute here). I gave myself the additional challenge to review one pamphlet per press, so that readers joining me for the ride might get a glimpse at the diversity of publishing out there.

There were perks to the challenge – having avoided reviewing for most of the year, going through an intense reading period felt wonderful. I remembered what’s great about the process: that pamphlets I dismissed on first flicking through, grew to be among my favourites by the end of the month.

With this in mind, here are a few ‘awards’ to celebrate the end of the process

Top 5 favourite pamphlets:

1. Warsan Shire, Teaching my Mother How to Give Birth (Flipped Eye)
2. Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Her Human Costume (Gold Line Press)
3. Jaswinder Bolina, The Tallest Building in America (Floating Wolf Quarterly)
4. Lynn Pedersen, Tiktaalik, Adieu (Finishing Line Press)
5. Josephine Corcoran, The Misplaced House (Tall Lighthouse)

Top 5 most read reviews: 

1. Reuben Woolley, dying notes (erbacce press)
2. Warsan Shire, Teaching my Mother How to Give Birth (Flipped Eye)
3. Inua Ellams, The Wire-Headed Heathen (Akashic Books)
4. Jaswinder Bolina, The Tallest Building in America (Floating Wolf Quarterly)
5. Josephine Corcoran, The Misplaced House (Tall Lighthouse)

Top 5 most interesting uses of the pamphlet form:

1. Sarah Hymas, A Dock is Not a Solid Thing
2. Corina Copp, Pro Magenta / Be Met (Ugly Duckling Press)
3. Lucy Furlong, Over the fields
4. Adrian Sobol, Selfies with the Moon
5. Kristy Bowen, Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan (dancing girl press)

Top 5 don’t judge a pamphlet by its cover and/or title, because you’ll like it a whole lot more than you expected:

1. Sophie Reynolds, Theatreland (Indigo Dreams Publishing)
2. Reuben Woolley, dying notes (erbacce press)
3. Helen Evans, Only by Flying (Happenstance Press)
4. Jake Campbell, The Coast Will Wait Behind You (Art Editions North)
5. Neil Elder, Codes of Conduct (Cinnamon Press)

Special mentions:

• Adam Horovitz, Only the flame remains (Yew Tree Press)
• Selina Nwulu, The Secrets I Let Slip (Burning Eye Books)