Oversteps Books

Will Daunt

Sample poem: Goodbye, Islands

Personal website: www.freewebs.com/willdauntpoetry

Oversteps publications

Running out of England (1999)

A car which threw the group who drove
against the swell of trippers, south,
recorded, in a glaze, the land
of bright and focused genocide.

from “Cumbrian Junctions”

James Cole

James Cole was born in Torquay and has lived in the West Country for all of his life. He gets much of his inspiration from walking on Dartmoor and from the sea and coastline of the South West. He is a member of the Company of Poets and has had some of his poems published in their anthologies.

Sample poem: Grandparents

Oversteps publications

From The Blue (2002)

Anne Born

Anne Born (1924-2011) was a poet and prize-winning translator. As well as writing twelve books of poetry and history, she translated over fifty books from Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. She was born in Sussex, educated at Copenhagen and Oxford universities and lived for many years in South Devon. She was the Founding Editor of Oversteps Books.

Sample poem: Stars

Oversteps publications

Singing Granites (2008): poems of Devon and Gondwanaland by Anne Born and Glen Phillips, jointly published in Australia and the UK

Glen Phillips

Glen Phillips is a nationally and internationally published Australian poet, Adjunct Associate Professor of English at Edith Cowan University, Director of the International Centre for Landscape and Language and author and editor of numerous books. His poems and stories have been published in more than 50 journals, anthologies and newspapers around the world and translated into several languages. He has written both about and with the poet John Kinsella.

Sample poems

• The Wall
• Refuge

Oversteps publications

Singing Granites (2008): poems of Devon and Gondwanaland by Anne Born and Glen Phillips, jointly published in Australia and the UK

A C Clarke

A C Clarke’s many awards include the Royal Literary Fund Mentoring Scheme (2005), the Petra Kenney Award (2005) and the Brownsbank International Poetry Competition ( 2007). In 2006 she was also short-listed for the Hamish Canham Award and commended in the National Poetry Competition.

‘A troubling woman’ is A C Clarke’s third Oversteps collection. She is an active member of Scottish PEN, was the Makar for the Federation of Writers (Scotland) for 2007-2008 and she lives in Glasgow.

Sample poems

Observed
Fr Meslier on his book
Margery’s vision

Oversteps publications

A troubling woman (2017)
Fr Meslier’s Confession (2012)
Messages of Change (2008)

Rebecca Gethin

Rebecca’s poems have appeared in numerous publications, and she gives regular readings around Devon. She lives on Dartmoor, but also spends time in the Italian Maritime Alps, where her ancestors lived; and both of these areas are reflected in her poetry. She teaches creative writing to prisoners, and has recently finished writing her first novel.

Sample poem: Night Vision

Oversteps publications

River is the Plural of Rain (2009) OUT OF PRINT

W H Petty

W H Petty was formerly President of the Society of Education Officers and was appointed CBE for services to Education. He holds a D.Litt from the University of Kent, and served as Chair of what is now Canterbury Christ Church University.

His poems have been widely published and successful in a number of competitions and his previous collections have all been well received. He has himself reviewed poetry for several literary journals.

Sample poem: Watch

Oversteps publications

But Someone Liked Them (2009)

Above the headland rock
the fists
of Winter are hammering
the earth. Black thoughts come wagging
from History,

for we also watch that room-cornered screen

and watch
another day, cruel,
go crumbling to its close.

Extract from “Closure”

Jenny Hope

Jenny’s poetry has been published in a number of small-press magazines including Envoi, The Rialto, Obsessed by Pipework, and on Daisy Goodwin’s website. As well as poems about various relationships and family members, and observations of nature, this first collection also includes poems on such subjects as electricity and tarmac, a man whose greatest love is lavished on his car, and a pleasing section on food.

Sample poem: Jalfrezi

Personal website: www.poetrymaker.co.uk

Oversteps publications

Petrolhead (2010)

Now he’s gone.
The cat’s appeared
like death on a warm day,

in two minds whether the effort
was worth a face full of feathers.

Extract from “Bird”

Christopher North

Although Christopher has published widely and has won a glittering array of prizes for his poetry, Explaining the Circumstances was his first full collection. His work has universality, strength and wit; and even when he is being playful, his poetry sings with lyrical expression and an understanding of human nature. With his wife Marisa, Christopher facilitates the poetry writing retreats in his art centre, Almassera Vella, in Spain.

Christopher has now collaborated with Terry Gifford to produce a bi-lingual book about the area of Eastern Spain where they both live and write. Al Otro Lado del Aguilar is a collection of poems and conversations written by Christopher and Terry and translated into Spanish by a team of translators from Alicante University and Madrid.

Personal website: www.oldolivepress.com

Sample poems

After the Uffizi from Explaining the Circumstances

Village Wedding at Relleu from Al Otro Lado del Aguilar

Berners’ Doves from The Night Surveyor

Oversteps publications

The Night Surveyor (2014)

Explaining the Circumstances (2010)

Al Otro Lado del Aguilar with Terry Gifford (2011)

Suddenly, crossing the road in front of us,
a gull. Expressionless, self-involved,
it was hurrying, slightly late for an appointment.

Near the verge it broke into a little run
and we could see it carried a broken wing,
seemingly clutching to its side – a brief-case.

Extract from “Gull”

Jennie Osborne

Jennie’s work has been widely published in national magazines, and she is well-known as a poetry performer, particularly in the South West. How to be Naked was her first collection, and this is now followed by ‘Colouring outside the lines’.

Sample poems:

Ascending

After

Oversteps publications

Colouring outside the lines (2015)

How to be Naked (2010)

“Her voice is lyrical and poised, and her ear is tuned to the musicality of language. A lovely collection.” Penelope Shuttle

“A highly original voice is at work here, with nuance, depth and music that ignites the imagination with a range of amazing imagery and often great tenderness, beautifully composed. There is so much to excite and move the reader.” Julie-ann Rowell

Extract from “Sighting”

You may mistake it for a low-lurking sun, scarfed in haze
as it hangs, pulsing amber, above the rockline.
Watch as it sweeps its wings back
like an arrowhead at rest,
catches a current, somersaults
on the edge of belief.