the87press 2024-25 Book Subscription

Introduction:

"the87press is now the most stimulating poetry publisher in the UK, a notable presence where the long tail of modernism wags again, thanks to a cohort of young, ethnically-diverse, often queer poets cheered on in public readings by enthusiastic crowds."
- John Wilkinson

the87press has run 3 successful campaigns in the past three years, offering book subscriptions to assist with shoring up cash flow in an increasingly difficult economic climate marred by inflation and recession. Whilst the87press is a National Portfolio Organisation and receives money from Arts Council England, this funding is only partial for our annual budget. 

We have faced difficulty fundraising through creative partnerships over the last year and wish to ensure 2024/5 is successful and are calling on our loyal international audience and community to support this subscription drive. 

The Subscription Schemes:

Our 2024-25 book subscription offers discounted rates for subscribers and the option to be credited on our website as a named patron. 

We have three subscription options: 

Two Title Subscription

(2 books of your choice for £20)

The Half Catalogue

(5 books of your choice for £50).

The Full Catalogue 

(All 10 forthcoming books for £100 + a bonus new book which will be revealed in Summer 2024). 

With an average RRP of £14.99 per book, a 1 year subscription will save you either £9.98, £24.95, or £49.90 respectively. 

We cover the postage and we ship internationally.
You will receive your books at least 1 month before their official publication date.

Financial Transparency:

We are looking to raise £40,000 which is equal to 400 x Full Catalogue subscriptions or 800 x Half Catalogue subscriptions. 

All the money raised will go towards paying freelance designers and typesetters, advancing printing costs, and raising money for legal costs so we can transform our company's structure into a community interest company (not for profit) which will assist us with applying for more grant funding in the future. 

Whilst we have always run in a not-for-profit manner, we wish to formalise this legally at this juncture so we can move forward with confidence. 

We will also, if we reach our target, use money to fund our reading series and online publications, ensuring poets are compensated with a fee (plus accommodation and travel for their labour where relevant). 

We will use money raised through this subscription scheme as as follows:

• £12,500 - Design and Typesetting Costs
• £8000 - Legal fees to formalise Not for Profit status
• £1200 - To cover 12 x £100 commission fees for our online journal, theHythe.
• £10,000 - Poet/Writers fees and accommodation/travel budget for live and online events.
• £8,100 - initial printing budget.
• The remaining money accounts for transaction fees and platform fees. 

The Book List

Poetry

1. Kat Sinclair, The Pharmacy, October 2024

The Pharmacy is an extended exploration of family, loss, and the indignities of British medical institutions.

Kat Sinclair lives in Southampton. She is the author of Very Authentic Person (the87press, 2019), and PLEASE PRESS (Sad Press, 2022).

2. dove / Chris Kirubi, WILDPLASSEN, October 2024

dove / Chris Kirubi's WILDPLASSEN is a finely-wrought debut collection. The weather surrounds, as subjectivity is carefully interrogated through typographic gesture and image. Thinking with Sembéne, Glissant, Nourbese Philip and others, we are ushered into a space of translation and study reflecting on dispossession, native informants and racial categorisation. "Wildplassen" is a legal term for public urination in which wildness is invoked as an inappropriate occupation of public (urban) space. This collection transfigures the borders of air, city and landscape; language, lyric and page with instability and waywardness.

dove / Chris Kirubi is a poet-artist based in London.

3. Jimin Seo, Ossia, November 2024

In this extraordinary, passionate debut poetry collection, Jimin Seo takes up a material we think we recognize – language – and transforms it through permutation, history, and translation into a lyrical and alien terrain. Seo takes up both Korean and English, drawing them across multiple experiences of relation – none of them equivalence. Translation and re-translation triangulate to form the ghostly third other which defines every relationship of two. Fragmentation, riff, homophony, and analogy sprawl like cuttings from a plant, yielding poems that grow in defiant new directions. This is a book calling to a mother, a teacher, lovers, and ultimately a self whose elements materialise through language, even as the speaker laments what language cannot be or hold. 

Jimin Seo was born in Seoul, Korea and immigrated to the US to join his family at the age of eight. He is the author of OSSIA, winner of The Changes Book Prize. His poems can be found in Action Fokus, The Canary, annulet, Pleiades, mercury firs, and The Bronx Museum. His most recent projects were Poems of Consumption with H. Sinno at the Barbican Centre in London, and a site activation for salazarsequeromedina's Open Pavilion at the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

4. Kazim Ali, The Voice of Sheila Chandra, November 2024

Titled for the influential singer left almost voiceless by a terrible syndrome, the poems bring sweet melodies and rhythms as the voices blend and become multitudinous. There's an honouring of not only survival, but of persistence, as this part research-based, pensive collection contemplates what it takes to move forward when the unimaginable holds you back

Kazim Ali is the author of twenty-four books of poetry, essay, fiction, and cross-genre work. He has also edited an anthology of Muslim writers and books of critical writing on poets Agha Shahid Ali, Jean Valentine, and Shreela Ray, as well as translated books by Marguerite Duras, Ananda Devi, and Sohrab Sepehri. After teaching positions at various colleges including Oberlin, Davidson, and St. Mary's College of California, he was appointed Professor of Comparative Literature and Literary Arts at the University of California, San Diego, where he currently chairs the Department of Literature.

5. Karenjit Sandhu, GESTALT!, March 2025

This visual poetry collection consists of drawings, collages, instructions, and writings which provide an alternative and transgressive documentation of the British Asian art scene in the 1980s.

Karenjit Sandhu is a poet and artist. She is a Lecturer in Art at the Reading School of Art, University of Reading. Her publications include Poetic Fragments from the Irritating Archive (Guillemot Press), young girls! (the87Press) and Baby 19 (intergraphia books). Her work is featured in Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry and The Blue Notebook: Journal for Artists’ Books. Her own artists’ books have been collected by the Tate Archive (London) and exhibited at The Showroom (London) and Galerie éof (Paris). Sandhu’s performance work has led to collaborations with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Barbican, Flat Time House and Christie’s (London), Arnolfini (Bristol) and Galerie Eric Dupont (Paris). She is a member of the British Art Network and has written for exhibition catalogues on contemporary British, European and South Asian art.

DELAYED 
6̶. S̶t̶e̶p̶h̶e̶n̶ W̶i̶l̶l̶e̶y̶, g̶r̶a̶v̶e̶ s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ [̶T̶B̶C̶]̶, M̶a̶r̶c̶h̶ 2̶0̶2̶5̶  
T̶h̶i̶s̶ c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ f̶r̶o̶m̶ S̶t̶e̶p̶h̶e̶n̶ W̶i̶l̶l̶e̶y̶ b̶r̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ t̶o̶g̶e̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ a̶ w̶e̶b̶ o̶f̶ w̶o̶r̶k̶ b̶o̶r̶n̶e̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶ a̶u̶t̶h̶o̶r̶'s̶ s̶o̶l̶i̶d̶a̶r̶i̶t̶y̶ t̶r̶i̶p̶s̶ t̶o̶ P̶a̶l̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶e̶. H̶i̶s̶ w̶e̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ o̶f̶ p̶r̶o̶t̶e̶s̶t̶, p̶o̶e̶t̶r̶y̶, c̶a̶r̶e̶ a̶n̶d̶ c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ a̶s̶ e̶x̶e̶m̶p̶l̶a̶r̶y̶ i̶n̶ d̶e̶v̶e̶l̶o̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶-̶c̶u̶l̶t̶u̶r̶a̶l̶ e̶x̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ a̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶e̶ b̶u̶i̶l̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ o̶f̶ g̶l̶o̶b̶a̶l̶ c̶h̶a̶i̶n̶s̶ o̶f̶ d̶i̶a̶l̶o̶g̶u̶e̶ a̶n̶d̶ e̶t̶h̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶. I̶n̶ e̶n̶g̶a̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ c̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ i̶n̶ P̶a̶l̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶e̶ a̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶e̶ U̶K̶, W̶i̶l̶l̶e̶y̶ p̶o̶s̶i̶t̶s̶ t̶h̶e̶ c̶a̶p̶a̶c̶i̶t̶y̶ f̶o̶r̶ p̶o̶e̶t̶r̶y̶ t̶o̶ p̶r̶o̶v̶i̶d̶e̶ a̶ s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶ f̶o̶r̶ p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ a̶n̶d̶ r̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ o̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶ v̶i̶s̶c̶e̶r̶a̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ o̶f̶ c̶a̶t̶a̶s̶t̶r̶o̶p̶h̶e̶.

S̶t̶e̶p̶h̶e̶n̶ W̶i̶l̶l̶e̶y̶ l̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ i̶n̶ N̶e̶w̶h̶a̶m̶, L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶, a̶n̶d̶ i̶s̶ t̶h̶e̶ a̶u̶t̶h̶o̶r̶ o̶f̶ s̶e̶v̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ p̶o̶e̶t̶r̶y̶ c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶:̶ L̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ I̶n̶:̶ C̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ S̶o̶l̶i̶d̶a̶r̶i̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ i̶n̶ P̶a̶l̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶e̶ (̶T̶h̶e̶ O̶n̶s̶l̶a̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ P̶r̶e̶s̶s̶, 2̶0̶2̶0̶)̶;̶ S̶e̶a̶ F̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ (̶K̶n̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ F̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ a̶n̶d̶ S̶p̶o̶o̶n̶s̶ (̶2̶0̶1̶7̶)̶, E̶l̶e̶g̶y̶ (̶V̶e̶e̶r̶ B̶o̶o̶k̶s̶, 2̶0̶1̶2̶)̶;̶ W̶a̶v̶e̶:̶ H̶i̶s̶t̶o̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶ K̶u̶r̶s̶k̶ (̶O̶p̶e̶n̶n̶e̶d̶, 2̶0̶0̶8̶)̶;̶ a̶n̶d̶ P̶o̶r̶t̶m̶a̶n̶t̶e̶a̶u̶x̶///D̶o̶c̶u̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ (̶O̶p̶e̶n̶n̶e̶d̶, 2̶0̶0̶8̶)̶. H̶e̶ h̶a̶s̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ p̶o̶e̶t̶ i̶n̶ r̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ a̶t̶ t̶h̶e̶ U̶n̶i̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶t̶y̶ o̶f̶ A̶r̶i̶z̶o̶n̶a̶ P̶o̶e̶t̶r̶y̶ C̶e̶n̶t̶r̶e̶ i̶n̶ T̶u̶c̶s̶o̶n̶ a̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶e̶ P̶a̶l̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶e̶ P̶o̶e̶t̶r̶y̶ W̶o̶r̶k̶s̶h̶o̶p̶ i̶n̶ B̶i̶r̶z̶e̶i̶t̶. H̶i̶s̶ w̶o̶r̶k̶ h̶a̶s̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶l̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ i̶n̶t̶o̶ G̶e̶r̶m̶a̶n̶ a̶n̶d̶ A̶r̶a̶b̶i̶c̶. H̶e̶ r̶a̶n̶ O̶p̶e̶n̶n̶e̶d̶, a̶ p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶, w̶e̶b̶s̶i̶t̶e̶ a̶n̶d̶ r̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ s̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ A̶l̶e̶x̶ D̶a̶v̶i̶e̶s̶ b̶e̶t̶w̶e̶e̶n̶ 2̶0̶0̶6̶ – 2̶0̶1̶2̶, a̶n̶d̶ i̶s̶ c̶u̶r̶r̶e̶n̶t̶l̶y̶ A̶c̶a̶d̶e̶m̶i̶c̶ C̶o̶-̶D̶i̶r̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ o̶f̶ E̶n̶v̶i̶r̶o̶n̶m̶e̶n̶t̶a̶l̶ E̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ P̶r̶o̶j̶e̶c̶t̶s̶ a̶t̶ B̶i̶r̶k̶b̶e̶c̶k̶, U̶n̶i̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶t̶y̶ o̶f̶ L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶

LATE ADDITION 
6. Sarah Ghazal Ali, Theophanies, March 2025

In Theophanies, award-winning poet Sarah Ghazal Ali testifies to women's capacity for piercing and musical exegesis and asks: what more might a woman’s body hold after it has been hailed a vessel for the divine? Braiding the scriptures of the Qur’an and Bible, Theophanies interlaces the spectacles of gender, faith, and family and unravels the age-old idea that seeing is believing. Drawing from art and music, Pakistani history, and cultural inheritance, these poems speak back against eons to the matriarchs of the Abrahamic faiths, the mothers at the heart of sacred history.

Sarah Ghazal Ali is a poet and editor. A Stadler and Kundiman Fellow and recipient of The Sewanee Review poetry prize, her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor for West Branch and an Assistant Professor of English at Macalester College. 

Fiction

7. Omar Sakr, Son of Sin, November 2024

An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark. When every thread in life constricts instead of connects, how do you find a way to breathe? Torn between faith and fear, gossip and gospel, family and friendship, Jamal must find and test the limits of love.
In this extraordinary work, Omar Sakr deftly weaves a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet’s eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human.

Omar Sakr is the acclaimed author of three poetry collections, including The Lost Arabs (UQP, 2019) and Non-Essential Work (UQP, 2023). The Lost Arabs was shortlisted in five significant awards, and won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry; he was the first Arab-Australian poet to receive this major prize. Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish. SON OF SIN is his debut novel.

Non-Fiction

8. The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989, October 2024
(Introduction by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Edited by Julie R. Enszer)

Poets Audre Lorde and Pat Parker first met in 1969; they began exchanging letters regularly five years later. Over the next fifteen years, Lorde and Parker shared ideas, advice, and confidences through the mail. They sent each other handwritten and typewritten let- ters and postcards often with inserted items including articles, money, and videotapes. The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989 gathers this correspondence for readers to eavesdrop on Lorde and Parker. They discuss their work as writers as well as the intimate details of their lives, including periods when each lived with cancer. This is a rare opportunity to glimpse inside the minds and friendship of two great twentieth century poets.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was the author of ten volumes of poetry and five works of prose, including Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New, The Black Unicorn, and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.

Pat Parker (1944-1989) was the author of five volumes of poetry, including Movement in Black, Jonestown & Other Madness, and Woman Slaughter.

9. Emma Gomis, Recupera, March 2025

Recupera is a book of interwoven essays and autofiction constellating around the complex nature of sisterhood. It follows two sisters as they recover from addiction. With a mix of epistolary form, lyric essay, and art writing, the work hopes to reach beyond conventional narrative towards something hybrid and multivalent.. It is about the relationships between two sisters across Catalunya, Colorado and London– a bond which unravels and exposes its multifaceted nature through their narrative of addiction and recovery.

Emma Gomis is a Catalan American poet, essayist, and researcher. She has published four pamphlets: Canxona (Blush Lit) and X (SpamZine Press), and two cowritten with Anne Waldman: Goslings to Prophecy (The Lune) and A Punch in the Gut of a Star (Pamenar Press). She is the coeditor of New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archives (Nightboat Books, 2022) and Manifold, a journal of experimental criticism. She was selected by Patricia Spears Jones as The Poetry Project’s 2020 Brannan Poetry Prize winner, holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Poetics from Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, where she was also a fellowship recipient, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in criticism and culture at the University of Cambridge on experimental art writing.

Drama

10. Aisha Zia, ‘Project O’ [TBC], January 2025.

Aisha Zia's new play is about first generation economic and war migrants, their experience in the UK and subverting the political narrative of refugees and migrants before the next general election. It's based on interviews with people who have lived experience of the immigration system and have sought asylum from war and poverty, from colonisation and white supremacy. 

Aisha Zia is an award winning British Pakistani theatre-maker and playwright based in the UK. She is a literary fellow at the Royal Literary Fund, a former Resident Artist at Somerset House Studios in London, Foundation Jan Michalski in Switzerland, an Associate Artist at HighTide, and a 503Five alumni at Theatre503 . She is winner of a Scotsman Fringe First and a Highly Commended from Amnesty International, both for plays written with Common Wealth. As well as conceiving original ideas for theatre, film and TV, Aisha has worked as a Photo Editor for the Financial Times and the Independent having previously worked for the New Statesman and Reuters. She edits and curates www.62gladsonestreet.com, a platform for South Asian artists and writers to showcase their work.

About the87press:

the87press (est. 2018) is an independent publishing house, events curator, and educational organisation based in South London. We focus on works of poetry, fiction, and essay engaging in the long traditions of modernism, anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and environmentalism as they continue to energise cultural productions in the 21st Century. Favouring experimental and avant-garde forms, we prioritise editorial and intellectual rigor in all our activities which include: bespoke creative writing workshops, industry-leading live events, and our online journal of culture theHythe. 

the87press is a writer-led publishing house focussed on campaigning for wider industry systems-change on equity. With us, all authors regardless of their age/sex/gender/ethnicity/sexuality/ability/class receive the same terms of contract. We focus on building and nurturing an ever-growing international community audience, skills-sharing and raising mutual aid where possible, whilst also offering unique annual subscriptions for our books.

Since April 2023, we are proud to be featured on Arts Council England's National Portfolio and work on delivering various productions to contribute to their civil society project Let's Create. We are the only National Portfolio Organisation in the London Borough of Sutton and look forward to working with schools and community centres here to co-create fruitful spaces for learning.