flipped eye news

Our latest newsletter: June 24 2009

2009-06-28T10:48:00.001+01:00

This has been a good year for us so far and we hope it continues. Amidst all the anniversary celebrations, Niki Aguirre's brilliant 29 Ways to Drown has been selected for the People's Book Prize June list. Please stop by the site and vote for her book to be the overall winner and make this year the sweetest ever for flipped eye: http://tr.im/n1Bm

Even better, we have been informed that Aoife Mannix's debut, Heritage of Secrets, has made the July list for the prize. We will inform you as soon as it it possible to vote for Aoife.

Read more...

From BookBrunch: Manchester indie flipped eye goes on the road

2009-04-21T17:17:00.001+01:00

Written by Liz Thomson

Monday, 20 April 2009 09:01

Flipped Eye Publishing, the award-winning small press based in Manchester, has unveiled a house band, l'8 Quintet (pronounced lit quintet), to mark its eighth anniversary. The brainchild of publisher Nii Ayikwei Parkes (who is a finalist for the UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year Award, to be announced at the LBF next week), the band will play a series of gigs with literary guest musicians such as Roger Robinson and Hisham Matar from July. The gigs follow their official debut at the Southbank Centre on 20 May at a gala evening to celebrate Flipped Eye's milestone and to launch a nationwide series of readings and performances, F8.

The gala launch is described by Parkes as "a fun-filled evening to remind us all why we fell in love with words". Drawing inspiration from the kinds of literary evenings that saw Langston Hughes jam on stage with jazz greats, the programme consists of a quiet session, with readings from short stories and novels, and a "punctuated" session where writers will jam with l'8 quintet while mingling with the audience and enjoying wine from Chile and Argentina, sponsored by South American wines online.

The members of l'8 quintet are keyboardist, trombonist and arranger Dave Holland, saxophonists Chris Rand and Rob Sell, trumpeter Mark Crown, and bass player Hedi Pinkerfeld. Although a young collective, members have played with some of the biggest names in contemporary music, including Courtney Pine, Estelle, Jason Yarde, Finley Quaye, Denys Baptiste and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Parkes, who was born in Ghana, where he has set up a Writer's Fund to promote writing among the country's youth, is a former Poet-in-Residence at London's Poetry Cafe and was British Council Writer-in-Residence at California State University in Los Angeles. Between 2001 and 2005, he was Resident Poet at Borders Charing Cross Road, hosting monthly open mike sessions; he now runs the African Writers' Evening at the Poetry Cafe. Parkes was featured in Granta's New Writers 15 in June 2007 and is credited by the Arts Council as one of the people who, through Flipped Eye's Mouthmark pamphlet initiative, helped inspire Faber's New Poets series of pamphlets. He also has a novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, due from Cape in June.

l'8, left to right: Hedi Pinkerfeld (bass), Mark Crown (trumpet/flugelhorn), Rob Sell (saxes/flute), Dave Holland (trombone/keys/strings) and Chris Rand (tenor sax)

flipped eye publishing unveils house band

2009-03-31T22:50:00.001+01:00

For Immediate Release
March 2009

l'8 quintet
flipped eye publishing Unveils House Band To Mark 8th Anniversary

flipped eye publishing, an award-winning small press based in Manchester, has unveiled a house band l'8 quintet (pronounced lit quintet) to mark its eighth anniversary. The brainchild of publisher Nii Ayikwei Parkes, the band will play a series of gigs with literary guest musicians such as Roger Robinson and Hisham Matar from July 2009 after their official debut at the Southbank Centre on May 20 2009 at a gala evening to celebrate flipped eye publishing's milestone and launch their nationwide series of readings and performances, the f8 tour.

The f8 tour's gala launch has been described by Mr Parkes as 'a fun-filled evening to remind us all why we fell in love with words.' Drawing inspiration from the kinds of literary evenings that saw Langston Hughes jam on stage with jazz greats, the programme consists of a quiet session with readings from short stories and novels, and a 'punctuated' session where writers will jam with l'8 quintet while mingling with the audience and enjoying wine from Chile and Argentina, sponsored by South American wines online.

The members of l'8 quintet are keyboardist, trombonist and arranger, Dave Holland, saxophonists Chris Rand and Rob Sell, trumpeter Mark Crown and bass player Hedi Pinkerfeld. Although a young collective, members have played with some of the biggest names in contemporary music, including Courtney Pine, Estelle, Jason Yarde, Finley Quaye, Denys Baptiste and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Notes:

l'8 quintet is a jazz-style quintet and the brainchild of writer and publisher Nii Ayikwei Parkes who has always sought to sustain the fun in literature and thought l'8 quintet would be the perfect way to link his love of music with his love of words. He enlisted the help of friend and jazz virtuoso Jason Yarde to audition a set of 'groovy and tight' young musicians with a good appreciation for words at the Spice of Life in Soho to form l'8 quintet (pronounced lit quintet).
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, the publisher at flipped eye publishing, started his performance career at the Frog & Bucket in Manchester and has shared the stage with many musicians and bands including the Kindred band, Natalie Williams, Trouba, Terri Walker and US hip-hop icons, Dead Prez.
l'8 quintet can be found online at www.l-8vibe.com

Further Details:

For images, or more information on l'8 quintet please contact Ian Somers on: Ian.Somers [at] shesgotthatvibe [dot] com

For more information flipped eye publishing and its initiatives, please contact Horton Silvera: horton [at] shesgotthatvibe [dot] com or Stuart Strong on: stuart [dot] strong [at] flippedeye [dot] net / 0845 652 9517

Editor at Pre-London Book Fair 2009 Seminar On Indian Publishing

2009-03-10T09:25:00.001Z

News/Press Release link: http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/20143

Become a Fan on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/6qxe3v

Anthologies Galore: Jacob Sam-La Rose et al

2009-02-16T13:28:00.000Z

It all started with Niall's entry into the Forward Prize anthology late last year, wethinks, and then all of a sudden - here come the anthologies: So, Jacob Sam-La Rose is having some work in a Bloodaxe anthology edited by Roddy Lumsden, two London anthologies, 'Michael's Rosen's A-Z: The very best of children's poetry from Agard to Zephaniah' (wethinks our new boy, Joseph Coelho may have something in there too - or is it in The Complete Works anthology he's in? anyway, back to Jacob...) and a Penguin anthology of love poems for which his poem 'Things That Could Happen' has been selected. Senior Editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, has also had his poem 'I Like it to Rain' selected by the Education group at Cambridge University Press for an anthology provisionally titled 'The Truth About Love' - and Inua Ellams is getting in on the action with one of those London anthologies Jacob has work in... Good hunting boys! Ladies?

Nick Makoha poem features on Tate: Remixed

2009-02-13T20:52:00.000Z

A little late to be sharing the information since the Turner Prize is all but done, yet it's worth letting you know that Nick Makoha, author of The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man, was one of four poets commissioned to do a special piece for the Turner Prize as part of the Tate: Remixed initiative. You can hear his poem Vistas online at: http://www.tate.org.uk/podcasts/tateremixed/nickmakoha.htm - but here's the text for the quick readers:

[Nick Makoha – Turner Prize]

Vista

Welcome back to the neighborhood.
From factory rooftops the ruins fade.

Adjust your set the static will clear.
We are close to the river where the evening has gathered.

In a dead-end alley, discarded cigarette carcasses glow on the pavement.
This dark night lacks direction, a broken skyline smolders in its distance.

I am one of the bystanders, heads bound in headphones.
Music heard without interruption is our common spark.

The ricocheting hums of trains through tunnels, sets the hand in motion.
Spray cans on the canvas of derelict walls will make us legend.

Paint smeared like oil on the chest finds its shape with a flick of the wrist.
Look at the origins of sentient formless life along this faceless mountain.

A cats cradle network of power lines in silhouette to the moon.
CCTV cameras crane their necks to give us an afterlife,

as laundry organizes itself in pairs on the clothesline. 
A seamless beat overlaps and fades stitching me to the world.

Watch the street lamp undress the darkness that moves like a body.
The body becomes song, an aria of light casting out shadows.

If you are one of us you know this vista, these characters these signs.
History is on the tips of our tongue, yet we are not in textbooks.

The sign says, No Talking. Listen to the opus, the anthem, the tune.
Do not adjust your speaker just change your point of view

www.tate.org.uk/go/tateremixed

lexEYEcon up for Mashable Web Awards

2008-11-11T18:21:00.003Z

The flipped eye translation wiki project lexEYEcon (lexicon) is up for a Mashable Web Award in the niche category. You can see the PDF of the project's results so far at the following link: http://tinyurl.com/6lg9av

Senior Editor up for UKYPE Award

2008-11-11T18:08:00.005Z

flipped eye publishing is happy to announce that Senior Editor and co-founder, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, has been longlisted for the UK Young Publishing Entrepreneurs Award run by the British Council. A shortlist will be released in late November/early December. For more information visit the following link: www.creativeconomy.org.uk/UKYCE/index.asp?ID=28

Ainsley Burrows featured in New York Times

2008-09-16T22:18:00.004+01:00

So, we were picked for photo of the day at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Again... Ainsley Burrows at work... again! This time by the New York Times, no less. Better pick up Ainsley's new book, The Wolf Who Cried Boy, before New York beats you to it... Link: http://tinyurl.com/5cxu5t

Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times
Ainsley Burrows recited a piece for an audience at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Saturday.

13 Fairy Negro Tales - limited edition release

2008-08-29T18:42:00.001+01:00

After sales in excess of 1500 for his debut chapbook, writer / artist Inua Ellams was invited to curate an exhibition of illustrations based on written works at London's Southbank Centre. The result of his own illustrations is this exquisite limited edition version of the now iconic title 13 Fairy Negro Tales, with an illustration accompanying each poem. The 313 numbered, signed copies will not appear in stores, but will be sold exclusively at events, readings and via our new online store, where the first 20 are already on sale. To order a copy, please visit our online store by clicking on the image on the right, or - if you want a specific number - please e-mail us on books [at] flippedeye [dot] net. Please note that numbers 1-5 and 21-60 have already been bought by collectors and are not available.

Book Review: A Publicist's Response

2008-07-13T13:55:00.001+01:00

Read this thought-provoking note from our publicists:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=18468172849

Niki Aguirre interviewed on 'Guide to Good Books'

2008-05-29T10:44:00.001+01:00

Niki Aguirre has been interviewed by Malaysian site Guide to Good Books as one of the authors longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize. Read the article at this link:
http://goodbooksguide.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-couch-with-niki-aguirre.html

flipped eye launches series of events under 7FEST

2008-05-21T08:36:00.005+01:00

flipped eye publishing has launched a series of events under the banner 7fest to mark its seventh anniversary year. The first of the events - an all day series of readings, performances, discussions and book signings - will take place at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden. More details can be found on the events page, but the timings for the event are as follows:

12.00-12.40: NEW FICTION
13.00-13.40: REDIRECTION
14.00-14.40: WRITING OBSESSIONS
15.00-15.40: QUESTION THE EDITORS
16.00 - BOOK SIGNING
17.30-18.25: FORTHCOMING POETRY
19.00-19.50: NEW POETRY
20.00 - BOOK SIGNING
20.30-21.10: GENERATIONS
21.20-22.50: FICTION UNLEASHED

WHILE THE EVENT IS FREE, WE ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO DONATE TOWARDS THE DISASTER RELIEF EFFORTS IN BURMA THROUGH DEC (http://www.dec.org.uk/) OR CHINA THROUGH THE RED CROSS (http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=77029)

29 Ways to Drown reviewed in The Sun

2008-05-09T21:43:00.001+01:00

Niki Aguirre's debut 29 Ways to Drown which was recently longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize, has just been reviewed in The Sun newspaper of May 9, 2008. The full review is reproduced below:

This debut novel is a collection of short stories which is perfect to dip in and out of at your leisure. Each tale takes us to a different country, spanning London to America. Along the way we meet a beautiful woman trapped in a marriage because her husband is so determined that money is the only thing of importance, a man who is at his happiest in his shed writing a story he knows he will never finish and a woman who is terrified of the rain after a traumatic experience during her childhood. Aguirre has an amazing imagination and each story is individual and thought-provoking. This collection of tales is perfect bedtime fodder. – Natasha Harding, The Sun

The book has also been made available on The Sun's online bookshop. To see Niki's next events, please click on the events tab on the top right of the news page.

Become a Fan on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/6qxe3v

Videos of Jacob Sam-La Rose reading

2008-03-20T00:40:00.001Z

on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twZE5XTGSDU (Gravity)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE2EkvupFew (Never + extra poem)

Work from flipped eye poets to appear in stage show

2008-03-12T12:40:00.001Z

Poems from Truth Thomas (author of Party of Black) and avery r. young (whose poems appear in A Storm Between Fingers) have been incorporated into a stage show, which will appear at Harlem's National Black Theatre from March 19-22, 2008. We congratulate them and pray for movies next :) Details below:

March, 19 2008 at Fingernails Across the Chalkboard @ National Black Theatre
2031-33 National Black Theatre Way, Harlem, New York 10035
Cost : $10

This ground-breaking anthology dealing with HIV & AIDS in the African American community has been adapted for the stage and will appear at Harlem's own National Black Theater from March 19-22. Each show takes place at 7:30 p.m. The theatre is located at 2031-33 National Black Theatre Way, Fifth Avenue between 126th & 127th Streets. Poems by Tara Betts, Alan King, avery r. young, Evie Shockley, Lamont B. Steptoe, Melanie Henderson, Ebony Golden, Fred Joiner, Dwayne Betts, Myronn Hardy, Duriel Harris, Tony Medina, Truth Thomas, Arisa White and others will be a part of this production with Kraven Seneca: The Company. Tickets are $10.00. For reservations and tickets call 718-960-6087.

Dance the Guns poet, Lisa Suhair Majaj featured on IMEU website

2007-10-26T08:04:00.001+01:00

Text: Widely-published Palestinian-American poet and scholar Lisa Suhair Majaj was captivated by poetry at a young age. "I wrote poems for the school magazine as early as second grade," she says. "I remember the excitement of discovering that words could convey both visual images and feelings, and that they could take on substance on the page."

Born in Iowa in 1960, Majaj grew up in Jordan...

Read the rest of the article | Buy and Read the book

PBS feature - again!

2007-10-24T00:08:00.001+01:00

We are pleased to announce that Denise Saul's White Narcissi has been chosen as the PBS featured pamphlet for Winter 2007. This is the second PBS selection for the groundbreaking mouthmark series, which had its first with Jacob Sam-La Rose's Communion. More news and press release soon...

flipped eye at the Brooklyn Book Festival - 17.09.07

2007-09-18T02:20:00.001+01:00

flipped eye publishing staged a series of guerrilla readings at the Brooklyn Book Festival in New York City and ended up headlining the article covering the event in the New York Metro today. Local poet Ainsley Burrows, author of Black Angels with Sky Blue Feathers, and the forthcoming The Wolf Who Cried Boy, was featured in the only photograph of the event in the daily free newspaper. Also at the festival reading were Jennifer Kabat, t. tara turk and Mohammed Naseehu Ali from the fiction anthology x-24: unclassified and Niki Aguirre, who also read from x-24: unclassified, who was there to promote her forthcoming book, 29 Ways to Drown. DC poet Truth Thomas, author of Party of Black also stunned passersby with excerpts from his collection-in-progress. Other flipped eye authors who were not present but made an impression through sales at the fair were Charlotte Ansell, Jessica Horn, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Niall O'Sullivan and Agnes Meadows.

Link to online article: http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Brooklyns_book_bash/10024.html

flipped eye in the news - 06.07.07

2007-07-06T11:15:00.001+01:00

Launch of Storm Between Fingers: Bookseller

Inua Ellams reading at Generation TXT: http://www.poetcasting.co.uk/?p=25

Inua Ellams at Latitude

Niall O'Sullivan at Latitude

Roger Robinson in Malaysia

News from flipped eye publishing - 05.07.2007

2007-07-06T10:46:00.001+01:00

flipped eye publishing celebrates its sixth year in 2007 and we are proud to announce that since being shortlisted for the IPG (Independent Publishers Guild) Diversity Award in 2006, we have begun to take on fiction and have already released one outstanding anthology x-24: unclassified (co-edited by Whitbread Prize winner Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes). However, we have not deserted our poetry roots and in addition to the release of A Storm Between Fingers, an anthology by Malika's Kitchen (due to be released officially on July 13 2007), we have titles forthcoming from writers such as Ainsley Burrows, Denise Saul, Malika Booker, L.K. Robinson and Niall O'Sullivan this year. And, as always, we have some great FREE readings, a CASHBACK offer and goodies for you (bottom of this message).

WEBSITE UPDATES:
--------------------------------
We have updated the sites for the mouthmark series (www.flippedeye.net/mouthmark) and the waterways imprint (specifically the events page - http://www.waterways-publishing.com/events.html), to provide links to our authors' myspace pages, provide instant updates through writer blogs as well as give you direct access to our news, awards and initiatives. We hope that these changes will aid our constant effort to link the reading public as intimately as possible to the writer's world. So, visit, leave a comment, ask a poet a question and have some fun!

EVENTS:
--------------
JULY 9: London Lit Plus Festival: A Storm Between at the Barbican Library
TIME: 6.30pm / ENTRY: FREE (drinks provided)
VENUE: Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, London, EC2Y 8DS
MAP: Google Map

The Barbican Library hosts a reading by members in the international writing collective, Malika's Kitchen to celebrate the launch of A Storm Between Fingers, a new anthology of their poetry. Readers will include the co-founders of the collective, Malika Booker, Roger Robinson and Jacob Sam-La Rose, as well as a selection of writers from the London chapter of Malika's Kitchen.

"Malika's Kitchen is a literary movement whose impact on British poetry will be felt for a long time to come. These are writers committed to their craft, committed to expanding notions of Britishness through an engagement with the realities of British society and with the many strands that have come to shape it." – Kwame Dawes, Professor of English, University of South Carolina

TITLE: A Storm Between Fingers // ISBN: 1905233132
AVAILABLE: In stores at Foyles, online at Amazon, Borders, WHSmith, and Waterstones

There will be signed copies of the anthology available to buy!

All enquiries to books@flippedeye.net.

----//

JULY 25: Launch Reading - x-24: unclassified
TIME: 6.30pm / ENTRY: FREE (drinks provided)
VENUE: Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, London, EC2Y 8DS
MAP: Google Map

To celebrate the release of our new, international short story anthology, x-24: unclassified, a selection of writers from the book will read at this exclusive event supported by the Barbican Library. In attendance will be the editors Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who will speak briefly about the joys and challenges of putting together an anthology that includes work by writers from Ecuador, Nigeria, Peru, and the United States (to name a few). Considering that the editors themselves grew up in Malaysia and Ghana respectively, this promises to be a truly international experience.

Reading on the night will be: Gaylene Gould, Clare Wigfall, Niki Aguirre and Claire Sharland

Join us for a fantastic evening.

"This is a rare anthology that is as much a celebration of new literary talent as it is of the range and internationalism of contemporary English literature." - Hisham Matar

TITLE: X-24: Unclassified // ISBN: 095415701X
AVAILABLE: In stores at Borders (under Aw), online at Amazon, Foyles, WHSmith, and Waterstones

There will be signed copies of the anthology available at the reading!

All enquiries to books@flippedeye.net.

SALES:
------------
Amazon.co.uk -
A Storm Between Fingers - 20% OFF
Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa - 20% OFF

flippedeye.net -
Great New £2 CASHBACK offer: Over the summer, we celebrate our first foray into fiction with a £2 cashback offer for all purchases of two books or more from our site that include a copy of X-24: unclassified. More details at http://www.flippedeye.net/shop/sales/06_07.html

GOODIES:
----------------
We have a sublime poetry screensaver at the mouthmark site. Just visit the mouthmark site at http://www.flippedeye.net/mouthmark/ and click on the free stuff link to download it. As your computer sleeps, the screensaver flips through poetry by Jacob Sam-La Rose, Truth Thomas, Nick Makoha, Peter Kahn, Inua Ellams and Jessica Horn. Don't miss out. (And watch out for more screensavers from the flipped eye family)

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. Please join our mailing list at http://www.flippedeye.net/maillist.html and we'll continue to keep you informed and give you the best offers available in literature.

Great New £2 CASHBACK offer

2007-07-03T20:06:00.001+01:00

Over the summer, we celebrate our first foray into fiction with a £2 cashback offer for all purchases of two books or more from our site that include a copy of X-24: unclassified. More details at this link: NEW OFFERS »»

Thank you for your continued support.

x-24: unclassified on Borders shelves

2007-06-14T13:38:00.001+01:00

x-24: unclassified
Our first fiction anthology under our recently acquired lubin & kleyner imprint is currently on the shelves at Borders Oxford Road and Borders Charing Cross. More stores are being added but please order the book at your local library or bookstore to help us increase distribution quicker. The anthology was edited by our senior Editor, N. A. Parkes and Whitbread Prize winner Tash Aw and there will be a reading at the Barbican Library in late July to showcase the collection.

Buy now: Amazon | Inpress

Three flipped eye authors feature in National Gallery Podcast

2007-05-08T00:36:00.001+01:00

Three authors from flipped eye publishing's list: Niall O'Sullivan & Roger Robinson (waterways) and Jacob Sam-La Rose (mouthmark), have work featured in the National Gallery's May podcast. To hear the podcast and read some of the bonus poems (including Niall O'Sullivan's) online, visit: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast/default.htm

Books by the authors:
Niall O'Sullivan - you're not singing anymore
Roger Robinson - Suitcase
Jacob Sam-La Rose - Communion

FEP

February 17, 2007: Roger Robinson on Excess Baggage

2007-02-22T20:11:00.000Z

Our fantastic Trinidadian poet guests on John McCarthy's Excess Baggage talking about carnivals. Listen online at the link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/excessbaggage/rams/excessbaggage_current.ram