ATOMIC BOHEMIAN & BALLERINI BOOK PRESS ARE DELIGHTED TO INVITE YOU TO A DOUBLE BILL EVENING OF CELEBRATION AND READINGS
On Sunday December 15th 2024 we will be hosting the joint online launch of David Hay’s first full collection, ON THE EDGE OF THE ASYLUM and his pamphlet BEYOND THE GATE IS A GARDEN. Hosted by BRIONY COLLINS, Guests include Lou Mach, JP Seabright and Stuart McPhearson.
‘David Hay offers us lyrical prose and vivid poetic imagery; existential angst tempered with social realism and gritty, witty humour…the words in Beyond the Iron Gate is a Garden are a poetic prayer of utterance for even the most hardened cynic.’
- JP SEABRIGHT
In her preview of ON THE EDGE OF THE ASYLUM, Vikki C writes;
David Hay acquaints us with the dark romanticism we both fear and covet – a life of impossible love and excess, summoned through echoes of literary forebearers: Keats, Whitman, Thomas et al.
These converge into a “Kerouac-style” stream-of-consciousness, appealing to the disconnect between body and psyche. A chorale of voices that project: “images/ too unspeakable/ to accompany/ word pictures/ would make prophets blush/ spitting out their recycled tomes…”
January Falls into February
From the height of your long-lasting sorrows, I
awoke to a sky scabbed over by stars too old to
caress even the ugliest rose with anything but
dying light. In the fallout zone of human touch, a
couple bound by their parent’s routines not the
dreamed terrain of deep-velvet tones of swooning
love – of the casual death and flower adorned
motorcycle accidents. Some bitterness runs too
deep, and a heart made weak by daily breaks,
cannot be fixed. Time fossilises in each wound
until the lonely, sainted discovery appears in
celestial dark light – that all we have is each other
and nothing is so beautifully lost.
Host & Guest Speakers
BRIONY COLLINS
Briony Collins owns the publishing house Atomic Bohemian and is on the Sub-Committee for Poetry Wales.
Her book publications include Blame it on Me, All That Glisters, The Birds, The Rabbits, The Trees, Whisper Network, and cactus land. In 2025, her debut novel is forthcoming with Barnard Publishing, and she has two poetry books on the way: Wyoming (Black Bough Poetry) and I Know Where the Pelicans Go (Atomic Bohemian).
JP SEABRIGHT
JP Seabright (she/they) is a queer diabled writer living in London. They have six solo pamphelts and four collaborations, encompassing poetry, prose and experimental work. JP explores themes of gender, sexuality, trauma, technology and the climate crisis in her work, and has been nominated for Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Forward Prize and shortlisted (twice) for a Saboteur Award for Best Collaborative Work.
https://jpseabright.com and via Twitter @errormessage.
LOU MACHEN
Lou MAchen is a widely published Mancunian poet wih an MA in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester. Her work has most recently been featured by Sihe Press, in Cape Magazine, Dreich and Acropolis Journal; she has been nominated for the Forward Prize, Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Louise has a collaborative pamphlet with Hedgehog Press with a forthcoming collection from Black Bough Poetry.
STUART MCPHERSON
Stuart McPherson is a prize-winning poet from the UK. His poems have appeared in Butcher’s Dog Magazine, Bath Magg, Poetry Wales, Blackbox Manifold, Prelude and The78press. His second collection “End Ceremonies” was published by Broken Sleep on August 31 2023.
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