We are proud to announce the release of Peat and Other Soils, our EIC's debut poetry pamphlet. The pamphlet has been published by Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers, a Manchester-based small press dedicated to publishing high-quality literature and art from across the world. Best known for their publication of beat writer Brenda Frazer, Death of Workers has grown exponentially over the years of a producer and archivist of lost literary treasures.
The Blurb
Soil, mud, ditches, peat, fathers, alcohol. Brandon Bennett’s Peat and Other Soils excavates patrilineal trauma and considers what it means to be an embodied male capable of repeating toxic behaviours. There is an air of Seamus Heaney and Gregory Corso throughout; tone and scenery are damp, soused even, ready to be set alight. Bennett’s spaceless phrasemaking is shimmering and pained: ‘sungushing’; ‘fatherleaning’; ‘strippedbackgums’; the speaker moored on the broads catching ‘thisbarelyfish’. Peat and Other Soils introduces readers to a striking new voice in northern poetry, a collection in which time is forever stuck, ‘watch[ing] the light ripple through his pint on the wood’. - Tom Branfoot, Manchester Cathedral Writer-in-Residence
A Note on ‘Peat and Other Soils’ by Brandon Bennett
As I write this, the skeleton of a bonsai sits like a sombre monument on my windowsill and the first moments of summer enact a forceful play on the world outside. With that being said, I will try to keep this as neat as possible.
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Peat and Other Soils was written across two years, with one poem spanning five. In those two years my second son, Spencer, was born and my father, Roger, died. These poems explore masculinity, fatherhood, faith, and grief - many of which exist on the backdrop of the Lindow Moss in Wilmslow, the Peat Bogs my father and I grew up on and around. Lindow men through and through.
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There are people I must thank. Rebecca, my fiancée and the mother of my children, for your belief and grounding. Will Barnard for your unwavering honesty and kinship. Kaolan O’Connor and Joe Simpson for your stalwart friendship. Tom Branfoot, I thank you for your patient edits. And, of course, my late father – a man to whom many of these poems are directed. Despite our often-rocky relationship, your alcoholism, I would like it to be made clear that above all the anger and frustration there was a deep love and desire for some kind of salvation,redemption. It is only fair I dedicate this pamphlet, this small collection of words, to you. I can only hope you’ve found your peace.
The first edition prints are limited edition with only 36 available. The pamphlet consists of 16 pages printed onto recycled paper. The books are hand sewn. Inside, readers can also find the artwork of Michael Hoffman. The book itself was designed and produced by Lucy Wilkinson. They are currently available to buy for £14.54.