Sheila Wakefield

We have three new exciting books for you all to sink your teeth into. Whether you’re looking for short stories, poetry, or historical explorations. Edwin Stockdale’s collection of poem Winter Wolf is about the bisexual medieval monarch Edward II. The research and writing of it was funded by Arts Council England through the Developing Your Creative Practice Fund. As Seán Hewitt describes, ‘Edwin Stockdale’s poems are alive and utterly haunting. History is resurrected in this collection, full of earth and desire and absolute precision. Think of Hilary Mantel meeting Derek Jarman, of Christopher Marlowe going hand-in-hand with Thom Gunn, and you’ll have something of the tenor of this brilliant, striking collection of poems.’   Each Man is a Half Open Door is a new collection of short stories by the prize winning author Pauline Plummer. When describing her new work Plummer explains, The stories are peopled from diverse and multi-cultural backgrounds and different ages. The settings are local and abroad, reflecting my own travels and the style could be described as social realist. I have tried to be truthful in the telling – truthful in the sense of reflecting what I know and have known of human beings and how they live their lives. But as you know, what is realistic and what is hoped for are different things. The five linked stories depict a young woman’s journey from youthful carelessness to an acceptance of who she wants to be.’ Last but not least we have These Are My Bounds, Tom Kelly’s 14th publication with Red Squirrel Press. Through prose and poems, Kelly explores his working-class life on Tyneside yesteryear and today. And as the British Theatre Guide explains, ‘Kelly is a keen observer of people and is able to capture their essence. The language is everyday but subtle so that, even when we laugh (and there is much laughter in these pieces), we are keenly aware of the sadness beneath, but it’s not the sadness of the characters so much as the sadness we feel for lives which are, in so many ways, wasted.’ As always, our books are all available through the website.

For those who may be new to Red Squirrel Press and those who are curious about our origin.

In A Landscape to Figure In the Pennine and Pentland Hills are fixed points from which to encounter Scottish and Greek islands, the  US/Canada border, Zimbabwe, the settings for paintings, a theatre interior. There are hybrid, fictive topographies, too, plus some seascapes. These poems examine physical and psychological edges and the semi-rural; the routes that link locations, and states of motion or stasis—voluntary and involuntary, for work or leisure, across generations, seasons and centuries, across species.   
There are hints at trauma, and of magic, as notions of heft and heredity are tested. From historical persecutions to Brexit and permitted exercise during the Covid-19 pandemic, here is place reimagined—coded as map, sign, or picture; felt as home. Always attuned to the relationship of land and language, these are poems of terrain grounded in the quiet radicalism of the walk and the line imprinted on earth or paper.   
‘Trudging into westerlies, / hair wind-chilled onto January cheeks. I’d turn / to face back down here and single out my own / front door, anchored by the moor’s breadth.’

And from the illustrious Eleanor Livingstone - Surprising the Misses McRuvie. Here is a poet falling in love with words all over again! This is work that communicates a palpable buzz. If only the Misses McRuvie were here to hear it...

Next in the tour of our books is Sean O’Brien’s The Long Glass.   
In Sean O’Brien’s collection of stories, there is everything to be afraid of—books, paintings, libraries, mirrors, houses, run-down schools, trains, wolves, writers and painters. People may not be quite what they seem, or indeed they may not quite be people at all. The movement from calm to disquiet and then to terror takes only a moment. Why not open the door and enter the room where the nightmare or the comeuppance have been waiting for you? You know you want to.

Postbox is the magazine of Postbox Press, the literary fiction imprint of Red Squirrel Press, which publishes short story pamphlets and collections and novellas. Their founder and editor-at-large is Sheila Wakefield. ‘2026 will be the twentieth anniversary of Red Squirrel Press and ahead of that, this year, 2025 is the tenth anniversary of Postbox Press, the literary fiction imprint of Red Squirrel Press. I haven’t said much about how I went on to found Postbox— Scotland’s International Short Story Magazine in 2019 since Issue 1 so I’ll recap a wee bit, six years on, here with Issue 12. I believe the short story is an endangered form and not published often enough. The degree to which short stories are read varies from country to country but they aren’t read sufficiently anywhere. One or two small presses are doing their best to ‘save the short story’ and some literary agencies have lead campaigns to attempt to raise awareness but more is needed. I’d long held an ambition to begin a biannual international short story magazine and was finally able to do so in 2019. Colin Will, poet, writer, editor and former publisher was editor from 2019–2023 and Samuel Tongue, poet, writer, editor and workshop leader took over in 2024.

Samuel Tongue is a widely published poet with two pamphlet collections: Stitch (Tapsalteerie, 2018) and Hauling-Out (Eyewear, 2016). He won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2013 and poems have featured in journals and newspapers including And Other Poems, Blackbox Manifold, Envoi, Magma, Gutter, The Herald, Interpreter’s House, The Scotsman, The Compass, Northwords Now, The Scores and the anthologies Be The First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry and Best British and Irish Poets 2016. He is former poetry editor at the Glasgow Review of Books and former co-editor of New Writing Scotland. His day job is project coordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library. The poems in Samuel Tongue’s debut collection explore the meshwork and mess of living lives dependent on ‘sacrifice zones’: places, peoples, and animals that become expendable in the maintenance of civilised society. From medieval animal trials to extinctions in colonial Van Diemen’s land; from personal online data collection, to Quint’s Ahab-like obsession with killing sharks in Jaws, these poems trouble and are troubled by the cost of sacrifice. If the ritual roots of sacrifice (sacer [holy] + faciō [to do/make]) are intended to render the material world sacred, then what kind of religions are we caught up in now? With poems that muddy the religious and theological with the animal concerns of weevils, ticks, magpies, and whales, Tongue finds the beating engine at the heart of things.

For our 20th anniversary I would like to share just a few of Red Squirrel Press & Imprints’ wonderful titles to showcase some of our great achievements over the years. Longlisted for The Highland Book Prize & Finalist in The People’s Book Prize is Kirsten MacQuarrie’s Remember the Rowan. ‘If hate were love, if love were hate, it could not make our tale untold.’ Divorced and living apart from her two children as she strives against the odds to carve out a career in 1940s London, poet Kathleen Raine is initially unimpressed when she meets Gavin Maxwell, a would-be portrait painter struggling to recover from a recent breakdown. Nevertheless, the pair soon bond over childhood memories and a profound love of nature, epitomised by a mysterious vision they share of a rowan tree. When Gavin confides that he is ‘more of a man’s man’, Kathleen remains determined that their connection can survive. They share a cottage in the wildest reaches of the West Highlands, where they care for Gavin’s beloved pet otter Mij and for each other. But when tragedy strikes, love soon turns to hate, and Kathleen finds herself being written out of her own life. Inspired by the true story of Kathleen Raine and Gavin Maxwell’s ‘some-requited’ love, Remember the Rowan illuminates their extraordinary relationship and shines a light on the woman behind Ring of Bright Water.

2026 is the twentieth anniversary of Red Squirrel Press and I’m doing some special events both sides of the border like I did for the tenth anniversary. The first one is 7-9pm on Wednesday 25th March at The Lit and Phil (23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne). Please join us for the launch of four publications, Tom Kelly’s poems and prose, ‘These Are My Bounds’, David Costello’s second poetry collection, ‘Witness’, Edwin Stockdale’s debut poetry collection, ‘Winter Wolf’ and Pauline Plummer’s second short story collection ‘Evety Person is a Half-Open Door’. Everyone is welcome, free event, wine available. Please book via .uk or phone 0191 232 0192. Thank you.

Are you… Interested in learning about the business of publishing? Keen to have your writing seen by a publisher? Seeking advice from an experienced professional? Well this Sunday at StAnza, Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel Press & Imprints will be hosting a drop-in session for you to ask any questions about getting your poetry published! We hope to see you there. Sunday 15th March, 11:20-11:50

20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR: 2006-2026 As we celebrate 20 years of Red Squirrel Press & Imprints, stay tuned for events, new releases, and much more.