Excellent news! Today in the post - my contributor's copy of Korsakoff's Paper Chain, the newest micro-anthology out from Sidekick Books.What is Korsakoff's Paper Chain, you ask? Why not let the good Doctor tell you himself:
"Just as a patient suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome, which affects the memory, may confabulate - create a false account in order to explain their solution and completely believe in it - and just as an act of architectural restoration may involve a certain amount of creative guesswork, so too goes the story of this wretched scrap of literature. Repeatedly destroyed, savaged, battered and blown to bits, only to be rebuilt from a few scattered remains by a different writer every time, it has survived long enough to be worth my presenting to you in bound form, with every past iteration having been reclaimed using sorcery, and the full story of its life painstakingly put back together. I, Dr Fulminare, give you the one and only Korsakoff's Paper Chain."
The A6 anthology features poems from: David Floyd, Charlotte Geater, myself, Sarah Howe, Edward Mackay, Richard O'Brien, Adham Smart, James Wilkes, Chrissy Williams and Tony Williams.
All of these were commissioned for the anthology as they are all linked together, built from one another.
The poems are threaded together by Dr Fulminare, who explains how each piece of text was destroyed in increasingly surprising ways (which are reflected in the shape of the 'ruined' texts!), and pieced back together by the poets. Below, you'll see the 'ruined' text I was provided:
The poems are threaded together by Dr Fulminare, who explains how each piece of text was destroyed in increasingly surprising ways (which are reflected in the shape of the 'ruined' texts!), and pieced back together by the poets. Below, you'll see the 'ruined' text I was provided:
And here, the poem I created from it: Dogged for the Last Time: The Great War:
A zombie poem, no less! It was a real, REAL challenge, writing to such a tight form (and I thought sestinas were hard!). The other writers in the anthology seem to make light work of it though. Robots, Greeks, aliens, Bastille Day, and more feature in the book. It's great fun to read. Very imaginative and ingenious. And brilliant to see how such different pieces were drawn from one another.
I love this pitch from the editors: "If I may be so bold, it could make someone a unique and inspiring Christmas present. Along with all our other micro-anthologies, at £5 it makes an ideal 'Secret Santa' gift. If the limit is set at £5, your search has ended, whilst if the limit is set at £10 or more, simply combine the Sidekick Books micro-anthology with supermarket special offers or charity shop items to make it up to the total. Also, combine multiple Sidekick Books micro-anthologies to reduce average postage costs."
How can you say no to that? Besides, it's a great great anthology. Tis the season to help your local indie press!
