The Ekphrastic Review and Menopause: The Anthology

Two of my poems inspired by women’s experiences have been published this month. One traces my direct line of female ancestors via mitochondrial DNA, and the other is a surreal riff on hot flushes.

Arachne Press’s Menopause: The Anthology is already making waves with launches in London, Sheffield, Liverpool, at the Open University and online. Editors Catherine Pestano and Cherry Potts called for poems and stories beyond the cliched realms of the climacteric. This is a collection rich in emotion and humour, offering new truths about a little talked-about, but hugely significant, life experience.

“The subject is just beginning to break the barrier of taboo and become a mainstream discussion point,” write the editors in their introduction, “but that discussion has until now been serious, medical and, we would argue, heterosexual and white. This anthology of poems and short fiction aims to address that, with wild and wonderful writing.”

The writers include Jane Ayres, Susan Bennett, Claire Booker, Jane Burn, Anne Caldwell, Anne Eccleshall , Em Gray, Joanne Harris, Tessa Lang, Anne Macaulay, Jane McLaughlin, Sian Northey, Rachel Playforth, Cheryl Powell, Julie-Ann Rowell. If you’re looking to get your work published by Arachne Press, the only way is to submit to one of their anthologies. This is how they make contact with promising writers, and they may ask you to submit a prospective pamphlet or collection if they like your work.

Copies of Menopause: The Anthology are available directly from https://arachnepress.com/shop/Menopause-The-Anthology-p582770373, from most good bookstores and also The Welcome Trust.

I was lucky as a child to visit the French caves at Les Eyzies when the public were still allowed to brush (sometimes literally) against 30,000 year old cave art. This inspired a poem that contemplates the 5,000 generations of women who passed their mDNA to me in a direct line.

You can read it at the online poetry magazine The Ekphrastic Review, which is one of those great, rainy-Sunday-afternoon places to visit if you enjoy your poetry with a good splash of visual art. Great poetry responding to paintings both ancient and modern, photography, sculpture, and images of all kinds. Browse to your heart’s content here: www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/passing-it-on-or-genesis-5-revisited-by-claire-booker

Submissions windows for The Ekphrastic Review are currently December, March, June and September. The founding editor Lorette C Luzajic writes: “Our objective is to promote ekphrastic writing, promote art appreciation, and experience how the two strengthen each other and bring enrichment to every facet of life. We want to inspire more ekphrastic writing and promote the best in ekphrasis far and wide.”