Books From the Margin November Choice
Plus mentoring, Spelt magazine and five substacks I recommend
Hello book lovers.
After a short hiatus, the Books from the Margin Book Club is back!
Here’s what we have coming up in November, December and January:
November - Jen Campbell - Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit - Bloodaxe Books
December - Nicola Chester - On Gallows Down - Chelsea Green Publishing
January - Jason Allen Paisent - Self Portrait as Othello - Carcanet
It seems fitting on National Poetry Day to announce a poetry collection as our book club choice for November. November’s choice is Jen Campbell’s Bloodaxe poetry collection, Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit.
When this book crossed my radar a few weeks ago I got super excited. Jen won first prize in Spelt Magazine’s 2022 poetry competition, and I knew her winning poem, The Hospital is Not My House was included in this vivid, beautifully crafted collection.
About Jen:
Jen Campbell is an award-winning poet and bestselling author of twelve books for adults and children, spanning fiction, non-fiction, poetry and picture books. She has won both the Jane Martin Poetry Prize and an Eric Gregory Award. Her most recent book Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit (Bloodaxe, 2023) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She also works as a freelance editor, book reviewer and disability advocate. Find out more at:www.jen-campbell.co.uk
Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit
Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit explores disability, storytelling, and the process of mythologising trauma. Jen Campbell writes of Victorian circus and folklore, deep seas and dark forests, discussing her own relationship with hospitals — both as a disabled person, and as an adult reflecting on childhood while going through IVF.
I’ve used Jen’s brilliant YouTube videos as part of workshops and courses around folklore and Fairytales that I have run, and know her as someone whose love for story telling and whose willingness to talk about disability and how disabled lives are framed within the context of storytelling is admirable. Her YouTube videos are fastidious, careful, thoughtful, interesting and her poetry is stunning. You can watch some of her youtube videos here: Jen’s YouTube
Zoom Book Club Book Chat Meet Up
Our zoom book chat will be on Sunday November 12th 10-11am UK time. It’s a friendly, no pressure place to join other book lovers to chat about the book club choice, but also share recommendations, general book chat and to be around other people who enjoy reading. You don’t have to have read the book club choice, the group is open to all. It’s free for paid subscribers to Notes from the Margin (who will receive their zoom link directly), but I ask a Pay What You Can donation from non subscribers, between £2 and £7 to help cover zoom costs.
Want to join us in November? Here’s the button to take you to Eventbrite:
Want to ask Jen a question about her new collection, her work, her life? Drop it in the comments below or come along to the book club.
What I Read in September
I’m a very slow reader at the minute due to working on my own book, but in September I read Polly Atkin’s wonderful memoir Some of Us Just Fall.
Just after I’d read it I went on social media and told everyone how much I loved it, managing to use the word ‘beautiful’ four times in a single post. I’ll try and rein myself in this time, but I have to tell you that it really is beautiful. The prose is careful, thoughtful, the descriptions of self, of body are nuanced, lyrical. It’s such an intimate portrayal of the inner workings of chronic ill health, and the long road to diagnosis, it felt like a privilege to be admitted into the book and allowed to read it from the inside out. The book covers a lot of ground, literally as well as figuratively - there’s a real sense of travelling through the book. Polly is thoughtful in her exploration of the idea of nature as cure, and what ‘cure’ means, and what ‘chronic’ means. I really can’t recommend it enough, it’s so good. It’s beautiful.
Mentoring
I began mentoring in 2014 with the Womentoring project which offered free mentoring services to women who might not otherwise have had access.
Since then I have mentored privately, offering my experience as a professional author, editor and creative facilitator to more than fifty people, most of whom have gone on to publication, some gaining agency representation, winning awards and competitions and having their work internationally recognised.
For the next few months I have some mentoring slots available. What do I offer?
Mentoring
MS feedback
Book Coaching
Writer Check Ins
To find out the details, pop over to my website:
Dawn Chorus
The Dawn Chorus - my early morning zoom facilitated writing hour returns next week. Come and join me for an hour of peaceful writing time. Full details and to book your place:
Five Substacks I Recommend
It’s been a while since I did some recommendations. Substack is growing and flourishing, which is wonderful. It’s a site full of writers and readers and there are so many different topics and themes. Here are some great newsletters to follow:
Katie Scribbles - One of the things I love the most about Katie’s posts is her transparency around how writers make a living. She is worth following:
The Wild Women Writers’ Salon - Vik Bennet of the Wild Women Press recently announced some fascinating looking Wild Women Writing Salons.
No Gloss, No Veneer, No Filter - A journey with the author through her own personal challenges, towards mental wellbeing; always with absolutely honesty, absolute truth
Dirtbags Through the Ages - drop everything and follow this page if you love history. It is one of the few newsletters in which I literally stop what I’m doing to go read, every time it drops into my inbox. Hilarious.
And finally - Scéal from Kerri Ní Dochartaigh - beautiful, thoughtful inspirational posts that give you an inner warmth and peace. Lovely stuff.
Until next time
x
Thank you so much for the shoutout, Wendy! x
Thanks Wendy. Plenty of suggestions here to keep me reading (and writing I hope!) x