Sta.sh
 It’s been three years in the making — I’ve been a total perfectionist, and more latterly, a total idiot, about releasing it, and as a result, I’ve been nagged, mocked and nagged some more about it. But after much blood, sweat, tears and nerves, it’s here: my debut poetry pamphlet, The Mermaid and the Sailors. There’s nothing worse than talking about your own creative output, so I won’t. If you want to know what kind of book it is, check out the stuff that some very fine people have said about it, below. All I will tell you is this: I currently have only a very few copies available, so if you want one and you don’t want to have to wait, get in there. It’s four quid, plus postage, and if you’re in the UK, you’ll get it first class — hopefully within a couple of days of ordering it. If you want it signed, or if you’d like a personal message, leave a note as you pay, and I’ll sign it. Finally, I’ll say: please buy it. I’m on an unfunded PhD programme, and… well, you can imagine. CLICK HERE TO BUY 'THE MERMAID AND THE SAILORS' Praise for “The Mermaid and the Sailors”: ‘Claire Askew’s verse can be enjoyed for its playfulness and sharp wit. More rarely, it can also be treasured for its sureness of voice, its rich linguistic texture and deep emotional core. Rooted in the everyday, she has an ability to make the ordinary startling. Often funny, frequently startling in her imagery, she is adept at giving us the surprises, anxieties and estrangements of the modern world. But a series of poems about grandparents, of vividly rendered domestic interiors and Northern landscapes, also haunt with their poignant sense of belonging and loss. The Mermaid and the Sailors offers a procession of poems that have been honed with precision and skill, but which are effortlessly entertaining, echoing in the mind long after one has read them. This generous debut pamphlet confirms that Claire Askew is one of the most distinctive young poets to emerge in Britain in recent years.’ -- ALAN GILLIS ‘These finely tuned poems, studded with arresting and memorable images, often resonate with loss and longing, absences and distances, yet many are shot through with a wry and sometimes very dark humour which unsettles even as it delights. People’s inner lives come alive in these poised and telling narratives. Claire Askew is a fresh and highly distinctive new voice.’ -- BRIAN McCABE ‘Askew’s debut pamphlet displays great assurance. Her poems impact immediately, offering brief yet memorable vignettes of quiet lives and moments … one senses a major talent emergent in The Mermaid and the Sailors.’ -- ROBERT ALAN JAMIESON ‘Claire Askew is a young poet at once cosmopolitan and distinctively northern, with a fine ear for the aptly-placed colloquialism, the unusual word. A skilful and understated user of form, at times she is painterly, allowing sequences of images to play out like stills from a lost reel of footage, and at other times joyously musical, creating an interplay of word-sounds whose sheer energy draws the reader onward. “The Mermaid and the Sailors” is a welcome first publication from a sparky new writer.’ -- KONA MACPHEE ‘Askew writes with haunting precision, bringing to life the magic and wonder of the things we ordinarily overlook or take for granted. These are poems to savor, poems of electrifying intimacy and startling beauty.’ -- SAM MEEKINGS CONVINCED? CLICK HERE TO BUY 'THE MERMAID AND THE SAILORS' Any questions? Want to let me know what you thought of it? I'd love to hear from you! Email claire@onenightstanzas.com Cover image: Miriam Parker // Cover design: Leon Crosby (leon.a.crosby@gmail.com) // Editor: Kevin Cadwallender // Publisher: Red Squirrel Press |
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to hear from you!
Optimism 
apologize for my poor English
kind regards,
K.
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Vampire Princess Miyu
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Want in depth critique on your writing? In-depth feedback? From a widely published writer? Someone who knows their stuff? Click ye here!
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Nothing
(Is everything)
(... Who are you?)
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• Founder of 21st-Century-Artist
Come on, we're waiting for you (;
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looking back, the future has begun to be forward
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#CRLiterature #HammeredPoetry #transliterations
<Vocable> How many zebras does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
<Vocable> Three. One to screw it in, one to watch and one to make dirty jokes.
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Want in depth critique on your writing? In-depth feedback? From a widely published writer? Someone who knows their stuff? Click ye here!
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I probably just said something offensive, and you probably just got mad.
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Want in depth critique on your writing? In-depth feedback? From a widely published writer? Someone who knows their stuff? Click ye here!
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Willing to do requests, depending. Note me on what you want.