Incredible Things Do Happen

Hi everyone! I’m over the moon to announce our next book, audiobook and eBook, Glass by Emily Cooper, a writer and poet from Ireland. The book means a lot to me and marks the launch of our ambitious New Words Spring-Summer Programme, supported by Arts Council England. As I type, we are busy organising an outside event in a safe, stunning location.

If you want to support the book, the best way is with a £10 preorder or by ordering a copy from your local bookshop! The first 100 book orders from our site come with an exclusive print and large vinyl sticker—and for UK customers there is free postage for the next week.
Preorder Glass today

As with Strangers and The Yak Dilemma, Glass is a deluxe, flapped paperback, offset litho printed on uncoated paper stock. Glass has been designed and typeset by longterm Makina family, Patrick Fisher of Frontwards Design. Watch the animated cover reveal by James Paulley by clicking the window below.

Preorder Glass today

Glass is Emily’s debut poetry title. Cooper’s poetics masterfully create a compelling space that deliberately excludes wide views—instead bringing her pen up close to a dilapidated house in a small rural town with its own personality. The traces and presence of those who have existed in those spaces—real and imagined—become interdependent in the narrative. Rural, intimate, isolated and hospitable, she ponders the context of ownership of buildings in A fountain pen slices my leg through a bin bag as I move into my new house, and celebrates the old ones collapsing along with their social history. A tunnel of light, the vulnerability of garlic charcoaling in hot oil and the layering dust in-between floorboards are intercut with quiet moments of solitude, affection, disappointment and intimacy. Outside of these spaces of physical realities, there is a strong sense of affection for the enduring landscape of Donegal. Her poems are peppered with the idea of possibilities, of parallel lives and the potential for futures unknown and unseen.

Emily Cooper is a poet and writer whose work has been published in the Stinging Fly, Banshee, Hotel, Poetry Ireland Review and Bath Magg, among others. She has been granted residencies and funding by the Arts Councils of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Irish Writers Centre, Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, Greywood Arts and Donegal County Council. In 2019, Emily was a recipient of the Next Generation Award and took part in Poetry Ireland Introductions. She lives in Ramelton, Donegal.

Preorder Glass today

Preorder Glass today

Stockists

This list of shops changes often, but I try to keep it up to date. If you would like to stock any of our titles, please contact hello@makinabooks.com

Four walls don’t make a home or a house—it takes some doing

This list of shops changes often, but I try to keep it up to date. If you would like to stock any of our titles, please contact hello@makinabooks.com

Strangers audio described book, Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal

Hi everyone! Today marks 6 months since we first published Strangers by Rebecca Tamás. To celebrate, I asked access and interpretation consultant Caroline Dawson, to create an audio description of the look and feel of Strangers in the same way she would a piece of art (something she already does with various superb slow looking initiatives). The result is, I think, stunning and an exciting new medium for us to work in. I couldn’t be happier to share it with you today and to offer 25% off all formats in our shop. Click to listen I’ve been thinking about improving the accessibility and reach of our project and how I can do more with the limited resources available. The answer is lots! I’ve wanted to work with audio for some time and create more accessible and affordable formats, such as e-books. We continue to donate to prisons and libraries and hope to record our first audiobook this year. Let me know what you think and please share the description! Download the free MP3 and transcript PDF here: https://makinabooks.com/product/strangers/ Listen in full on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVt9z38LWJ8  For the next 48 hours, enjoy 25% off our shop and celebrate 6 months of Strangers. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Yak Dilemma, Perpetual Skip or the blue room whilst you are there! *** Shop Makina *** I couldn’t be happier to publish The Yak Dilemma, the first full-length collection by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal on April 15th in a deluxe flapped paperback and e-book. This collection is about personal identity, home and forging a map of our own. Supriya’s poems are transportative, evocative, thrilling and razor-sharp. Supriya’s writing explores Europe and the Middle East in a heartfelt way that is sure to resonate with readers this spring. Preorder The Yak Dilemma with a free print and vinyl sticker  The first 100 preorders will receive the book with an exclusive The Yak Dilemma print and vinyl sticker! ‘Dhaliwal is an important and vibrantly exciting new voice in poetry.’ — Rebecca Tamás, author of WITCH and Strangers ‘These are songs of belonging and of movement, of fluid identity, carefully crafted and always graceful.’ — Seán Hewitt, author of Tongues of Fire ‘Dhaliwal’s writing is evocative, thrilling, and magnificent.’ — Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country ‘A heartfelt, entertaining debut’ — André Naffis-Sahely, author of The Promised Land: Poems from Itinerant Life ‘Dhaliwal writes with a rich fluency of tongues, evoking pathos and pleasure in equal measure.’ — Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, author of Auguries of a Minor God Kaur Dhaliwal travels through time and space and the self; I wanted to go wherever she was heading.’ — Jen Calleja, author of Goblins ‘The Yak Dilemma is beautiful, transportative and so deeply felt.’ – Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of I Choose Elena Preorder The Yak Dilemma with a free print and vinyl sticker  Photography Lastly, I have a new website for my own photography. Get in touch if you or someone you know is after a headshot! robinchristian.net

New Title: The Yak Dilemma, Print & Animated Cover Reveal

Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal was born in the Himalayan town of Palampur, India. She studied at St. Bede’s College, Shimla; Trinity College, Dublin; and Queen’s University, Belfast. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German and Italian, and have recently appeared in Ambit, Banshee, Gutter, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Jukebox, Poetry London, The Bombay Literary Magazine, The Irish Times, The Lonely Crowd, The Pickled Body, The Tangerine and elsewhere. In 2018, she was one of the twelve poets selected for Poetry Ireland’s ‘Introductions’ series. She is the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. The Yak Dilemma is her first full-length collection.

Praise for The Yak Dilemma 

‘The Yak Dilemma charts a masterful fugue of exile, longing and belonging. Dhaliwal writes with a rich fluency of tongues, evoking  pathos and pleasure in equal measure. Upending perception, these poems become a way of looking by which we start to see  through our hands. A marvellous work.’
— Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe

‘Tender, innovative and potent, with a razor sharp intelligence, these poems travel the world, and the heart, with fierce beauty. Dhaliwal is an important and vibrantly exciting new voice in poetry.’
— Rebecca Tamás

‘This collection is a treat for the soul, taking readers on a journey across time and borders. Dhaliwal’s writing is evocative, thrilling, and magnificent.’
— Zeba Talkhani

‘Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal is an assured and musical poet. In The Yak Dilemma, the natural world turns through lyrics of brief encounter. Language, like a bird, alights and then departs, leaving behind an impression of change, held momentarily, and then set free. These are songs of belonging and of movement, of fluid identity, carefully crafted and always graceful. Like a global flâneuse, Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal writes poems that offer hope, ‘a daisy chain of ampersands / on no man’s land.’
— Seán Hewitt

‘A heartfelt, entertaining debut which sees the author explore Europe and the Middle East like an intrepid flâneuse, reminding us how the impulse to walk around our world’s cities allows the best poets to turn one’s private life into a constantly shifting terrain for exploration.’
— André Naffis-Sahely

‘This deeply satisfying collection is bathed in wit and colour, and skilfully interweaves personal, literary and socio-political events. Kaur Dhaliwal travels through time and space and the self; I wanted to go wherever she was heading.’
— Jen Calleja

‘The Yak Dilemma is beautiful, transportative and so deeply felt. Surpiya Kaur Dhaliwal takes us on a powerful and tender poetic journey through liminal spaces and places, asking what it means to feel at home in the world and at home in your mind.’
— Lucia Osborne-Crowley
The Yak Dilemma is published as a book and ePub on April 15th. The book was designed by longtime Makina collaborator, Patrick Fisher of Frontwards Design and is colour offset litho printed, section sewn perfect binding with flapped covers.

If you are a bookseller or reviewer and would like to request review copies, please email hello@makinabooks.com.

Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal was recently a guest on Episode 9 of the Unlaunched Books Podcast, also featuring Evgeny Shtorn and Oein DeBhairduin in conversation with Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe.

Strangers ePub and feature in this is tomorrow

This list of shops changes often, but I try to keep it up to date. If you would like to stock any of our titles, please contact hello@makinabooks.com

Strangers longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021

Rainbow Path in the Grass

I’m typing this at my desk, next to a window with blue curtains with coloured vertical stripes. To my left I can just pick out Alexandra Palace and the beautiful BBC transmission mast. Today it is so bright that I have pulled the curtains slightly so I can see the monitor better, and I am now bathed in a dramatic hue! The last few weeks have been dominated by writing a funding bid and efforts to put our next programme in place. Exciting things are underway but we are holding back from announcing forthcoming titles and projects until we have the resources and everything else ready. Our plans for the new year are ambitious with a greater emphasis on accessibility and collaboration and I am really excited to share the projects as soon as we can. Until then, we have some really good news to share…

Strangers longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021

We are delighted to announce that Strangers by Rebecca Tamás has been longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize!The shortlist will be revealed on 10 February. Discover the full longlist at:
www.rathbonesfolioprize.comI couldn’t be happier to see the book longlisted and get wider recognition. Many congratulations to Rebecca whose words have connected with so many readers already. Thanks also to the books designer, Patrick Fisher of Frontwards Design and publicist, Jordan Taylor-Jones who have worked so hard on the title.

If you missed Rebecca’s discussion with Katherine Angel for Pages of Hackney, you can watch both parts at the following link: https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/event-news/rebecca-tamas-in-conversation-with-katherine-angel/

‘So full of insight, compassion and reason’ – Anthony Anaxagorou

‘This text is an echoing, unstoppable bell.’ – Caught by the River
(book of the month)

‘A passionate and poetic exercise in empathy for everything.’ – Between Two Books

‘a beautiful exploration of our relationship with nature’ – Idler

‘intriguing and generous’ – New Statesman

Zabriskie Rewind: Buchladen für Kultur und Natur

At the end of the year I was asked by Zabriskie, Buchladen für Kultur und Natur – an independent bookshop based in Berlin to contribute to their annual Rewind feature. The shop has been a great supporter of Makina this year (championing both Night Blooms by Angus Carlyle and Strangers by Rebecca Tamás). Like many, I struggled reading last year but I did persevere with some books and I enjoyed writing about the ones that meant the most, You can read the feature here: https://zabriskie.de/zabriskie-rewind-2020/

20% off all titles

Please use code MAKINA20 at checkout 🙂

Strangers – Charcoal and gift-wrapped edition

Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers, has just been reprinted with a new colour way in a ‘charcoal’ edition. The new edition has a revised cover, designed again by Frontwards and is available to order now in two beautiful versions, including a limited, hand-stamped edition with an oversized tarot card, a vinyl sticker all wrapped in hand-stamped archival book wrap!

Order the limited edition version of Strangers

MIDDEX on Soho Radio 

Last month, Kevin and myself were guests on Creg’s excellent Doin’ It Ourselves radio show. Kevin read a couple of pieces from Perpetual Skip and you can listen back at the following link: https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/doin-it-ourselves-28122020/

Thank you for reading if you got this far.

Robin x

Stockists

This list of shops changes often, but I try to keep it up to date. If you would like to stock any of our titles, please contact hello@makinabooks.com

London: Books Peckham • Brick Lane Bookshop • Burley Fisher • Camden Art Centre • Caught By The River • Chener Books • Dulwich Books • Foyles • Fox Lane Books • Housmans • John Sandoe Books • London Review Bookshop • Pages of Hackney • Review, Peckham • Riverside Bookshop • South London Gallery • Tate Modern • Tenderbooks • Treadwell’s • Waterstones

Glasgow: Burning House Books • Good Press

Edinburgh: Lighthouse Bookshop • Topping, Edinburgh • The Portobello Bookshop

UK: Blackwells • HOME, Manchester • Mr B’s Emporium • Margate Bookshop • No Alibis • Rare Mags • Storysmith • Storytellers Inc • Topping, St Andrews • Topping, Bath • Village Books • Waterstones

Overseas: After 8 Books (Paris) • Athenaeum Boekhandel (Amsterdam) • The Moon (Singapore) • Zabriskie (Berlin)

Makina Books • Makina Audio

2020 Bestsellers and Book Lists

Everything gift-wrapped this month

Our 2020 bestsellers are Strangers by Rebecca Tamás & Shia LaBeouf by A K Blakemore. Two sharp, weird, original and compelling bodies of Work for the reader in your life – or as a present for yourself.  We are making both available in a bundle with 25% off & gift-wrapped free. Please give generously and shop early – all publisher proceeds will go towards next year’s programme.

Shop Makina

Daily Winds Book Lists

I thought I’d share these texts which I wrote for The Daily Winds Tourist Information Centre as part of the Flo Brooks exhibition, Angletwich – currently showing at Brighton CCA. I was invited by Polly Wright, Programme Producer and Flo to respond to the theme of ruralism. There is a great video of the show you can see here. You can read texts and book lists from Black Lodge Press and Public House Birmingham–who also contributed, here.

Dartmoor 365 by John Hayward, Curlew Publications (2020)

John Hayward, walked, drew and wrote this wonderful book between 1989 to 1990. The approach was methodical and caringly executed; Hayward divided a map of Dartmoor National Park up into 365 individual square miles and identified a point of interest on every single one. Readers are invited to follow and colour each of ‘the 365 squares’ they visit in the book. Sites include; fords, bridges, hills, Tors, crosses, architecture and the locations of many folkloric legends.

I grew up on the edge of Dartmoor and it can be a lonely and wild place. One of the things I love most about this book is picturing Hayward in solitude, on his many ‘wanderings’ through the vast expanse of ‘the moor’ determined to forge his own path and bring back something new. I see his modest ink sketches (some made in fog, rain and snow) as a form of collecting a new heritage.

In recent months, when longing for ruralism I’ve turned to this book at times of worry and have sought comfort in the unfamiliar and familiar place names; Deadman’s Bottom, Ephraim’s Pinch, Hangman’s Pit and Bloody Pool to name a few.

Night Blooms by Angus Carlyle, Makina Books (2020)

‘Feet beating the ground, the ground sounding its surface in return’

Angus Carlyle’s Night Blooms collects nocturnal explorations of an area of woodland close to his home on the South Coast of England. Poetic prose and photographic experiments document Carlyle’s chosen medium of running, an everyday act he has repeated across specific trails in solitude for years. In Night Blooms, public space becomes unrecognised – trespassed underfoot and collected. We encounter the smells, noises, the presence of inhabitants; bats, a nightjar, laughter, concrete. A head torch provides a prism of vignetted light and acts as a portable studio, like a lantern to the understory of a secret yet shared space. Everyday objects take on a new status – shrine-like, sinister, glowing. The exhale of breath, bad weather, a deflated bouncy castle are seemingly snatched at pace from the air. If there is a constant character here, it is the blooms which remain more familiar, unwieldily and delicate. Night Blooms takes us up high – as territory, trails and terrain overlap and collide, re-assembled glimpses offer study caught in motion.

Swims by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Penned in the Margins (2017)

‘Swimming is continuous. Only the rivers are intermittent.’

The journey of this singular, evocative poem takes many forms–including an interspersed sequence of three poems, Aegina, The Voice and Wallflowers about the poet’s Father who taught her to swim. Swims begins and ends in Devon, taking us through Britain’s waterways, from urban pond to open sea; The Teign, The Barle, The Ouse, Grasmere, Hampstead Heath, King’s Cross Pond, Llyn Gwynant, Lyn Idwal, The English Channel, Porthmeor and The Dart. Burnett conceived each swim as an environmental action, testing the ways in which individuals might affect environmental change.

Portrait of Our Times Interview

Alessia Arcuri and Robin Silas Christian discuss how Makina Books set foot into the publishing industry, focusing on the challenges and exciting prospects following their venture into the world of combined images and words.

Q&A with Makina Books

Perpetual Skip

Kevin Hendrick has been quietly making work as Middex for a few years now. Their first record, NO HOME was icy, sharp, brutal and forward-thinking. This one, perhaps situated in a strange borough is different. I read the words in Perpetual Skip (the seventh pamphlet in the New Words series) in one sitting before working with Kevin on the arrangement. The words are drawn from a record forthcoming in 2021 on the Outer Reaches label and like everything else we’ve done I think this book steps across borders. It’s not easy to categorise Perpetual Skip as a pamphlet, bookwork, booklet or project. It is, however, the first ‘lyrical’ Makina Book – an idea that excites me not least because when I was younger I used to devour the booklets in compact discs and scour them for any information or clues as to the origin of the work. Middex makes a world and I’ve needed places like this to retreat to during this weird year. Frontwards Design did the business with the design brief too – I’ve loved collaborating with them this year on everything we’ve done. Somehow this feels like the right book to end this year on.

In Perpetual Skip, 11 sermons, once soaked in pools of echo are orphaned from the noise – taking on an urgent and compelling archive—(non) prayers stoked by vivid light. Here, words are on the move, crossing all zones—sprawling grounds of a strange borough—with broken catholic memories and colour. In Skinhead on a Raft we follow the arc of a smoked and discarded cigarette and stay with it on the floor. Discarded cigarette, discarded truths. Glue Preference honours the writers in the unlit underground yards. Stories look outwards; through a scratch-tagged bus window, to the ceiling (and beyond) of a rented flat, and into the canal—rank and receiving. Perpetual Skip is a constant. A beautiful mess with a million stories. ‘Oh it loves a mess – and the mess – is the moss – of denial.’

Order

Strangers – Charcoal and gift-wrapped edition

Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers, already one of the non-fiction books of the year has just been reprinted with a new colour way in a ‘charcoal’ edition. The new edition has a revised cover, designed again by Frontwards and is available to order now in two beautiful versions, including a limited, signed by the author, hand-stamped edition with an oversized tarot card, a vinyl sticker all wrapped in hand-stamped green bookwrap! Is this the ideal Christmas present you’ve been waiting for? I hope so.

Last week, Strangers was recommended by the New Statesman and reviewed in It’s Freezing in L.A. It has also been a book club read for Burning House Books and Cunning Folk. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the title already – it means the world. Click here to watch Rebecca do a reading of On Greeness for Between two Books – Florence Welch’s book club!

Order the limited edition version of Strangers

x

Perpetual Skip

​Kevin Hendrick has been quietly making work as Middex for a few years now. Their first record, NO HOME was icy, sharp, brutal ​and forward-thinking. This one, perhaps situated in a strange borough is different. I read the words in Perpetual Skip (the seventh pamphlet in the New Words series) in one sitting​​ before working with Kevin on the arrangement. ​The words are drawn from a record forthcoming in 2021 on the Outer Reaches label and like ​everything else we’ve done I think this book steps across borders. It’s not easy to categorise Perpetual Skip as a pamphlet, bookwork, booklet or project. It is​, however​, the first ‘lyrical’ ​Makina Book​ ​– an idea that excites me​ not least because w​hen I was younger I used to devour the booklets in compact discs and scour them for any information or clues as to the origin of the work. Middex makes a world and I’ve needed places like this to ​retreat​ to ​during ​this ​​weird year.​ Frontwards Design did the business with the design brief too – I’ve loved collaborating with them this year on everything we’ve done. Somehow this feels like the right book to end this year on. We launched the book this weekend just gone at HYPERTEXT Bound Art Book Fair. The programme was incredible and the site, exhibitors and shop is well worth your time. As ever, a huge thanks to everyone who has supported us. I should also say that this book and everything we have left in print is part of our 20-30% off sale. Middex orders come with an embroidered skip patch whilst stocks last! Shop indie and help us out with our programme next year.

Order

The Makina Books Flash Sale (24 hours)

All books and prints are reduced – select free UK postage at checkout

Shop now with free UK Postage

Podcast  Lunch with Flo Brooks and Polly Wright

I’m delighted to be doing a podcast lunch with the artist Flo Brooks and Polly Wright, Programme Producer of Brighton CCA tomorrow – December 2nd at 12noon. I worked with Flo a couple of years ago on Outskirts as a book and exhibition and am a huge fan of his work. We’ll be taking about creative communities, ruralism, Dartmoor and Flo’s amazing current show, Angletwich.

Strangers – Charcoal and gift-wrapped edition

Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers, already one of the non-fiction books of the year has just been reprinted with a new colour way in a ‘charcoal’ edition. The new edition has a revised cover, designed again by Frontwards and is available to order now in two beautiful versions, including a limited, signed by the author, hand-stamped edition with an oversized tarot card, a vinyl sticker all wrapped in hand-stamped green bookwrap! Is this the ideal Christmas present you’ve been waiting for? I hope so.

Last week, Strangers was recommended by the New Statesman and reviewed in It’s Freezing in L.A. It has also been a book club read for Burning House Books and Cunning Folk. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the title already – it means the world. Click here to watch Rebecca do a reading of On Greeness for Between two Books – Florence Welch’s book club!

Order the limited edition version of Strangers

Thank you everyone – I’ll leave you with the 2020 Makina Books Family Portrait

Robin x

New edition, new title and HYPERTEXT Virtual Book Fair

Hi everyone, I hope you are all OK during such a difficult year. Despite everything happening in the world, I’ve felt so supported by the bookselling community; I couldn’t be prouder to be working with our amazing authors, designers and all of the shops who have all been pulling together to keep things going. I know that you know this––but it can never be said enough––now is the time to support independent press and booksellers.

Strangers was recently launched by our wonderful local indie bookshop, Pages of Hackney and you can watch the whole event–hosted by Katherine Angel, including some great questions from the engaged audience here. The book was selected by one of our favourite projects (now a physical shop in Finnieston, Glasgow) Burning House Books as the inaugural title for their new monthly book club, was the feature window in Waterstones Crouch End and has been a London Review Bookshop bestseller for three consecutive weeks! Recent press includes, The Arts Desk, Splice and The Skinny. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the title already – it means the world.

Pre-order the limited edition version of Strangers

For those who want an original green copy – they are in Waterstones across the land and these excellent independent booksellers all offering it online;

Pages of Hackney
Burley Fisher
Good Press
Mr B’S Emporium
Storysmith
Village

Master animator, James Paulley recently produced a short film for the cover reveal of the 2nd printing. You can watch night become day here and see more of James’ stunning work here.

Click image to view

New title – Middex: Perpetual Skip

Next up is a new pamphlet, the seventh in our New Words series. Perpetual Skip is available to pre-order now, with or without an embroidered patch and will be launching as part of HYPERTEXT Bound Art Book Fair.

Perpetual Skip is the new collection of poetic prose from the electrifying voice of Middex. In this bookwork, 11 sermons, once soaked in pools of echo are orphaned from the noise – taking on an urgent and compelling archive—(non) prayers stoked by vivid light. Here, words are on the move, crossing all zones—sprawling grounds of a strange borough—with broken catholic memories and colour. In Skinhead on a Raft we follow the arc of a smoked and discarded cigarette and stay with it on the floor. Discarded cigarette, discarded truths. Glue Preference honours the writers in the unlit underground yards. Stories look outwards; through a scratch-tagged bus window, to the ceiling (and beyond) of a rented flat, and into the canal—rank and receiving. Perpetual Skip is a constant. A beautiful mess with a million stories. ‘Oh it loves a mess – and the mess – is the moss – of denial.’

Middex has previously released records through Polytechnic Youth, The Tapeworm, Makina Books and Infant Tree.  Their first album, No Home was released in 2018. Middex performs very occasionally.

I couldn’t be prouder to publish this pamphlet. Listen to Middex here.

Pre-order Perpetual Skip here

OK. that’s it! We’ll be back soon to announce our Spring programme where we will be announcing a new format and focussing mostly on longer-form books. Got some amazing collaborations we have been working on and cannot wait to share them.

Thank you for reading and supporting Makina x

🌿 Face becoming green, leaves pouring out of its mouth, its eyes…

STRANGERS: OUT NOW! 

Strangers by Rebecca Tamás is out now! Signed copies, bookmarks and badges are scattered across the land, in beloved independent bookshops–and from our online shop. We couldn’t be happier to tell you that this vital book is featured in the current issue of Idler, is Caught By The River’s October Book of the Month and London Review Bookshop’s Book of the Week. I’m adding a press section to the site, but for now if you need any more convincing you can read Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s insightful review for Caught By The River, here and Amy Clarkson’s wonderful piece for Spam, here. Additionally, two of the books essays are available to read, in full. On Mystery is being hosted by London Review  Bookshop and On Panpsychism is being hosted by the wonderful Hotel. If all that wasn’t quite enough you can also listen and watch a short film of On Greenness and this beautiful trailer made by and with new sounds from the books designers, Frontwards Design.

Pages of Hackney Launch Event – This Wednesday 

Please join us on Wednesday evening for the Strangers launch event hosted by our local independent bookshop, Pages of Hackney

Rebecca will be in conversation with one of our favourite writers, Katherine Angel on
Wednesday 14th October at 19.30 BST
Instagram Live – www.instagram.com/pagesofhackney

Help Us to Support Black Minds Matter UK

This event is free to attend, however you can show your support with a donation here. All contributions for this event will be donated to Black Minds Matter, an organisation that connects Black individuals and families with free professional mental health services across the UK.

“A slim but powerful invitation to see ourselves and the world through new eyes.”

Pages of Hackney have signed copies of Strangers in stock here! 

Thank you to all the booksellers and team at Crouch End Waterstones who made this Strangers window display – seeing this 100% made my week!

Order Strangers by Rebecca Tamás with 20% off

In Strangers, Rebecca Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, and why this delicate connection just might be the most important relationship of our times. From ‘On Watermelon’ to ‘On Grief’, Tamás’s essays are exhilarating to read in their radical and original exploration of the links between the environmental, the political, the folkloric and the historical. From thinking stones, to fairgrounds, from colliding planets to transformative cockroaches, Tamás’s lyrical perspective takes the reader on a journey between body, land and spirit—exploring a new ecological vision for our fractured, fragile world.

For booksellers, the ISBN is 978​1916060890​. Please contact ​jordan@jordantaylorjones.com with any PR queries.

Recommended: Flo Brooks: Angletwich

Showing at: Brighton CCA, 17 October – 13 December

Flo Brooks’ practice encompasses painting, sculpture, collage, publishing and social engagement. For this major new commission with Brighton CCA, Brooks has expanded the scope of his work to site this suit of paintings within a sculptural installation for the first time. The title of the show, Angletwich, takes its name from a Devonshire dialect term for a worm used in fishing bait, but has evolved to describe a fast moving creature or child. It speaks to the frenetic layering of people and activity within the works as well as recurrent motifs of migration and the makeshift.

Weaving together this semi autobiographical narrative of queer and trans experience, Brooks has turned to the rural South West England where he grew up and in particular its marginalised spaces and communities. These new works centre on a series of rural archetypes; from the livestock fair and the post office, to a lonely bus stop, generating a simultaneous sense of familiarity and isolation. Each work in the exhibition is part of a wider whole; depicting characters, scenes and places which together develop a critical narrative of place and queer experience in Britain. The installation mirrors the environments found within the work, creating a dramatic context to more closely connect the world of Brooks’ painting with the experience of encountering them

Currently / recently reading

I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For by Jen Calleja (Prototype), Hollow Places by Christopher Hadley, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Anne Dillard, Kingdomland by Racheal Allen, Swims by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Weird Walk.

Thank you for reading and supporting Makina
Robin x

‘if you’re reading this, Shia, you’ve an advocate and friend in me’

Makina Books invites you to the launch of

Shia LaBeouf by A K Blakemore
with Andrew McMillan

On Tuesday 15th September at 19.00 BST.
Instagram Live – instagram.com/makinabooks

I’m delighted to be publishing A K Blakemore’s stinging–weird–and tender new poetry collection–in which every detail crackles–Shia LaBeouf.

‘some poetry just slips into the accidental realm of the iconic, where language refracts and dazzles’
– Maria Sledmere, SPAM

Order a copy of Shia LaBeouf with free postage, here – for booksellers the ISBN is: 978-1-9160608-6-9

Click the video below to see the book page by page. Shia LaBeouf is another Frontwards Design classic that turns everything on it’s side!

Order a copy of Shia LaBeouf with free postage, here

A K Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others. Her debut novel, The Manningtree Witches which will be published in spring 2021 by Granta.

Praise for Shia LaBeouf

‘While the Beat Gen Men said what they wanted to say about society and masculinity in thousands upon thousands of words, AK Blakemore expresses 21st century alienation, for women, in just a few well-chosen ones.’
– wouldbeepoet.com

‘Blakemore excels at sudden and drastic changes of tone and imagery that marry the beautiful to the painful. Evocative and unsettling, it also boasts a wry humour.’
– The Indie Insider

‘Sharp, bleakly funny, mordant and tender poetry from one of British poetry’s most original talents.’
– Rebecca Tamás

‘I think in some moods one of the only poets around now worth reading, that is, who hasn’t forgotten about pleasure.’
– Sam Riviere

‘We all know AK Blakemore is a bolt of lightning. And in this stinging new work, she’s weirder, wilder, even more fun.’
– Wayne Holloway-Smith

Shia LaBeouf is the new poetry collection from the startling voice of A. K. Blakemore. Delivered with succinct precision and bright salient menace in her inimitable style—each poem suspends from the space around it with unapologetic leavings that will reside with you. Here, every detail crackles and comes at you sideways; a bad poem is dedicated to William Faulkner (and also your mother) – we are shown male models dancing to Roxy Music – a crosswise salver – a drinking spider – a sparrow’s wet dream and an altercation at a South London pub. A. K. Blakemore’s latest offering will take readers into a burnished and strange place. Shia LaBeouf cements her reputation as an electrifying voice in British poetry. ‘if you’re reading this, Shia, you’ve an advocate and friend in me’

Shimmering Surface, Radical Depth

Irregulars 

I’ll be on Soho Radio today (Monday 17 August) with poets, A.K Blakemore and Emily S. Cooper for a ‘Makina Books takeover’ of the brilliant Rough Trade Books Irregulars show. We’ll be talking about short poems, dentistry, Selling Sunset, solitude as well as their upcoming poetry books;  Shia LaBeouf and Blakemore’s forthcoming debut novel, The Manningtree Witches (Granta, 2021) as well as Emily S. Cooper’s Glass (Makina Books, 2021). There are new readings by; Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal, Rebecca Tamás, Alanna McArdle & Middex. It’s all happening at 2pm and you can listen to it here if you want to!

Shimmering Surface, Radical Depth

We are so excited that MAP have commissioned a series of responses to our forthcoming title, Strangers by Rebecca Tamás. The first is by Rosalind Blake, an artist and academic based in North Uist in the Outer Hebridesis. You can read Rosalind’s response here.

On Panpsychism – short film

You can listen to Rebecca Tamás reading an extract from On Panpsychism – one of seven new essays in Strangers in this short film here.

A. K Blakemore  – Shia LaBeouf

‘some poetry just slips into the accidental realm of the iconic, where language refracts and dazzles’
– Maria Sledmere, SPAM

A.K. Blakemore’s latest collection Shia LaBeouf will be published in just three weeks! Stay tuned for the launch event. The book was recently the subject of an amazing review by Maria Sledmere in SPAM which I urge you to read and has received coverage in TLS, Hotel and Would Bee Poet. You can pre-order the book with free postage and a bookmark, here.

Everything Looks Different in the Dark

‘Carlyle’s photographic encounters are clear evidence that wild nature is rare and seldom untouched by our presence.​ ​Nature can be a source of comfort and delight but it never stands still and it always fights back.’ – Photomonitor

Angus Carlyle’s stunning bookwork Night Blooms was recently reviewed alongside the work of Fleur Olby in Photomonitor. You can read the essay by Anneka French here and grab one of the final copies of Night Blooms here.

‘Pointillist zooms, far-echoing found sounds, mysterious and charged photographic images: Night Blooms is a force field that seduces and singes.’
— Sukhdev Sandhu, author of Night Haunts

Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman

‘A fascinating, lyrical exploration of the eco-political, from human and non-human bodies to landscapes. Tamás’ essays are deeply rooted in folklore and the fragility of existence. A stunning work of enquiry and eloquence.’
– Sinéad Gleeson

‘Bursting with intellectual generosity. Deep wide roots and radical shoots.’
– Max Porter

‘Strangers is an extraordinary, essential book. Both quiet and loud. Strange yet explicit.’
– Sara Baume

‘exciting and clear-eyed’
– Melissa Harrison

‘Erudite yet intimate, moving yet fierce, her hungry exploration of the world – occurring at the porous boundary between literary forms – made me rethink what it means to be humane.’
– Olivia Sudjic

In Strangers, Rebecca Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, and why this delicate connection just might be the most important relationship of our times. From ‘On Watermelon’ to ‘On Grief’, Tamás’s essays are exhilarating to read in their radical and original exploration of the links between the environmental, the political, the folkloric and the historical. From thinking stones, to fairgrounds, from colliding planets to transformative cockroaches, Tamás’s lyrical perspective takes the reader on a journey between body, land and spirit—exploring a new ecological vision for our fractured, fragile world.

Essays:
On Watermelon • On Hospitality • On Panpscychism • On Greenness • On Pain • On Grief • On Mystery

You can pre-order the book today in one of two limited edition options—both with free UK postage: a standard edition with 20% off the cover price and a bundle option (limited to the first 100 pre-orders) in a hand-stamped newsprint wrapper with a screen printed book bag and set of Strangers badges. Scroll down for more info. The book has been full-colour litho printed, with flapped covers and perfect-bound on uncoated Munken paper stock.

Pre-order Strangers by Rebecca Tamás with 20% off and free UK postage

Rebecca Tamás’s poetry and criticism has been published widely. She is the co-editor of Spells: Occult Poetry for the 21st Century, with Sarah Shin, published by Ignota Books and her first poetry collection, WITCH was published by Penned in the Margins in 2019; to praise from the Poetry Book Society, the Guardian, Telegraph, Irish Times, TLS, White Review and The Paris Review. Rebecca is a lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University, where she co-curates The York Centre for Writing Poetry Series.

We have also produced a limited run of these screen printed organic heavy shopper bags, 58mm badge sets and hand-stamped newsprint-wrapped editions for the  pre-order bundle. The bags are screen-printed on both sides with eco friendly water-based screen printing inks – they are 350mm wide x 320mm deep and have a long strap so you can carry it over your shoulder.

For booksellers, the ISBN is 978​1916060890​. Please contact ​jordan@jordantaylorjones.com with any PR queries.

New Prints

There are five new A2 and A3 giclee prints up on the web shop; Kitchen, Garden, Lamp, Bowl and Jug. At least 20% from all sales will be donated to Black Minds Matter UK. Prints are produced on heavy Somerset textured paper and will be sent in a sturdy tube.

New from Rebecca Tamás – Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman

We are delighted to announce Strangers by Rebecca Tamás! Published October 8 2020

In Strangers, Rebecca Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, and why this delicate connection just might be the most important relationship of our times. From ‘On Watermelon’ to ‘On Grief’, Tamás’s essays are exhilarating to read in their radical and original exploration of the links between the environmental, the political, the folkloric and the historical. From thinking stones, to fairgrounds, from colliding planets to transformative cockroaches, Tamás’s lyrical perspective takes the reader on a journey between body, land and spirit—exploring a new ecological vision for our fractured, fragile world.

The striking cover, illustrated by Frontwards Design is based on the books unique perspective on ecology. Head to our site to read an excerpt from ‘On Greenness’ – one of seven brilliant new essays in the book.

Essays:
On Watermelon • On Hospitality • On Panscychism • On Greenness • On Pain • On Grief • On Mystery

You can pre-order the book today in one of two limited edition options—both with free UK postage: a standard edition with 20% off the cover price and a bundle option (limited to the first 50 pre-orders) in a hand-stamped newsprint wrapper with a screen printed book bag and set of Strangers badges. Scroll down for more info. The has been full-colour litho printed and perfect-bound on uncoated Munken paper stock.

Rebecca Tamás’s poetry and criticism has been published widely. She is the co-editor of Spells: Occult Poetry for the 21st Century, with Sarah Shin, published by Ignota Books and her first poetry collection, WITCH was published by Penned in the Margins in 2019; to praise from the Poetry Book Society, the Guardian, Telegraph, Irish Times, TLS, White Review and The Paris Review. Rebecca is a lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University, where she co-curates The York Centre for Writing Poetry Series.

Limited pre-order bundle with screen-printed bag, badge set and hand-stamped book.
**Limited to the first 50 pre-orders only**

Pre-order Strangers by Rebecca Tamás with 20% off and free UK postage

We have also produced a limited run of these screen printed organic heavy shopper bags, 58mm badge sets and hand-stamped newsprint-wrapped editions for the  pre-order bundle. The bags are screen-printed on both sides with eco friendly water-based screen printing inks – they are 350mm wide x 320mm deep and have a long strap so you can carry it over your shoulder.

For booksellers, the ISBN is 9781916060890. Please contact jordan@jordantaylorjones.com with any PR queries.

Praise for ‘WITCH’ by Rebecca Tamás (Penned in the Margins, 2019)

‘My heart pounded as I read WITCH; I felt as if Tamás’s words were burning the page as I read. WITCH is sexy, frightening, and cerebral at once; full of the weight of history, while also being witty, contemporary, and playful. What Tamás does with language, and with the legacy of the witch, is thrillingly strange. She is the real deal.’
– Katherine Angel

‘Opening with a “penis hex”, WITCH is intent on reclaiming the sorcerer as a symbol of female empowerment, conjuring spells where “the smell of freedom is the smell of vomit”. Freewheeling and spirited, these poems tend to take the form of lengthy streams of consciousness, blurring statements, non sequiturs and disembodied confessions to unpick themes as various as logic and friendship.’
– Ben Wilkinson, The Guardian

Pre-order Strangers by Rebecca Tamás with 20% off and free UK postage

More from Makina Books

Shia LaBeouf by A.K. Blakemore
Pre-order with 20% off and free UK postage

The wait for Shia LaBeouf the new collection from A.K. Blakemore is almost over.

‘I think in some moods one of the only poets around now worth reading, that is, who hasn’t forgotten about pleasure. Or as if imagism happened again, only this time you could think in it.’
—Sam Riviere

‘We all know AK Blakemore is a bolt of lightning. And in this stinging new work, she’s weirder, wilder, even more fun.’
—Wayne Holloway-Smith

‘While the Beat Gen Men said what they wanted to say about society and masculinity in thousands upon thousands of words, AK Blakemore expresses 21st century alienation, for women, in just a few well-chosen ones.’ – wouldbeepoet.com

Shia LaBeouf is the new poetry collection from the startling voice of A. K. Blakemore. Delivered with succinct precision and bright salient menace in her inimitable style—each poem suspends from the space around it with unapologetic leavings that will reside with you. Here, every detail crackles and comes at you sideways; a bad poem is dedicated to William Faulkner (and also your mother) – we are shown male models dancing to Roxy Music – a crosswise salver – a drinking spider – a sparrow’s wet dream and an altercation at a South London pub. A. K. Blakemore’s latest offering will take readers into a burnished and strange place. Shia LaBeouf cements her reputation as an electrifying voice in British poetry. ‘if you’re reading this, Shia, you’ve an advocate and friend in me’

A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others. She is currently working on her debut novel, which will be published in spring 2021 by Granta.

the blue room in SPAM

Alice Hill-Woods recently reviewed the blue room by Eloise Hendy for SPAM Zine. You can read the whole thing, here. Last copies are in our shop.

‘Her bright and broad imaginings disrupt verse’s dreaminess, slapping a splash your way to bring you back into the glistering present’

Books to your door!

Lastly, although we have sold out, our friends at Cornerhouse Publications have the last copies of Night Blooms by Angus Carlyle and split ends / rooms by Alanna McArdle — all here.

Thank you for reading and for all your support.