Buy a book - annoy a bigot

The campaign to support patrick jones' fantastic poetry collection, darkness is where the stars are, continues - yesterday we had a mention in the New Yorker as well as on some fantastic blogs (thanks to Pink Triangle and all the other brilliant bloggers).

We also attracted cross-party political support with a great interview from Lorraine Barrett A.M. (Labour) and Peter Black A.M. (Liberal Democratic) organising a reading at the Welsh Assembly for patrick on December 11th. We also had a lovely message of support from Dafydd Elis-Thomas A.M. (Plaid). Christian Voice have taken the offensive against the Lib Dems (bet they're scared :)) without realising that right thinking people of all persuasions (and all faiths) don't want to be associated with bullies who threaten violence and want a repressive theocracy. (The politicians, poets and people of Wales plus all their wonderful supporters world wide are never going to let it happen, Mr Green)

So we are marching on with the campaign to persuade Waterstones to reschedule the launch and with the aim of making this great poetry collection a best seller - poetry topping the charts would make the whole thing worthwhile so please buy the book - annoy a bigot :)

picking over the bones - the launch that wasn't

Cinnamon Press feel that it is important to put on record that the only people we hold responsible for the cancellation of Patrick jones’ launch of darkness is where the stars are are those members of Christian Voice who exerted threats on Waterstones.

We have had some enquiries as to whether patrick jones was responsible for the events that led to the cancellation of his launch. patrick’s work is politically engaged and he works tirelessly on many issues concerned with human rights and civil liberties. He has engaged with Christian Voice on previous occasions on a variety of issues and had sent an extract of his poetry in the spirit of ongoing debate to the leaders of Christian Voice. This was part of discussion dating back to March this year, there was no ‘gloating’ and no mention of the launch at Waterstones in this correspondence with Christian Voice.

It would be invidious to suggest that the person targeted by an extremist group should be in any way held responsible for being targeted. In the perspective of Christian Voice the mere existence of any alternative opinion to their own is ‘provocation’ and they want nothing short of the monolithic acceptance of their views. Fortunately most people in this ‘debate’ are reasonable – Gerry Johnson and I have agreed to differ on some things, but happily Waterstones are not blaming patrick for events that didn’t take place. To repeat what is on the Cinnamon Press blog earlier - there is only one group to blame here: Christian Voice.

darkness is still where the stars are

One of the things that really rattles me about vitriolic, bullying groups like Christian Voice is the way in which otherwise sane and sensible people feel that they have to take a balanced position between the competing views. I can see where this comes from - it's a sound rule of thumb that we generally debate rationally across disparate views, but the idea that we should give equal weight to the views of those spreading hatred and using tactics of intimidation is madness and I'm not happy to have my views weighed equally with theirs.

Well, that's got that off my chest - on with the issues.

I spoke with Gerry Johnson this morning and it's really sad that we can't agree on all the issues over the cancellation of patrick jones's launch, but we did get some agreement. We both think censorship is wrong and this means that Waterstones will continue to sell the book.

Where we part company is on how to respond to the threats of bullying bigots. I do understand that Mr Johnson has to take the safety of his staff seriously and that he has a duty of care, but I don't think the cancellation was commensurate with the threat. We know now that Christian Voice were planning some leafleting and maybe a bit of shouting - the event could have withstood that. Mr Johnson rightly points out that things happened quickly and that he didn't know the scale of the threat, but he didn't just cancel with the rider that we could review later - he is adamant that the event will not be rescheduled. I may never persuade him otherwise, but I will continue to stand by my view that this is not necessary or reasonable. It gives far too much ground to those who use unscrupulous tactics, even threaten unlawful action. It may well be a matter for the police, but it is not a matter for capitulation.

Mr Johnson insists that Waterstones is not a public body but a private company and therefore there are no rights to the space - absolutely right, but his company made a commitment that involved Cinnamon Press in costs and then pulled out offering no recompense. And the idea that we should only defend public spaces from those threatening disruption or even violence simply doesn't convince me.

But even more deeply I'm disturbed by the fact that Waterstones still seem to be blaming patrick jones and that goes back to my original point about how mad it is to allow ourselves to believe that hateful views deserve equal weight and respect. I hope I'm wrong about this, but Gerry Johnson did say to me today that patrick had admitted sending faxes to Christian Voice and someone wrote to me earlier to say that Waterstones claimed that , "shortly before the event took place, the author deliberately took provocative action to create a furore around the publication of his book."

This is a terribly twisted version of the claims that Stephen Green is making. In fact patrick jones has a long history of political activism and campaigning for minority, civil and human rights. This has brought him into conflict with Christian Voice's 'down with that kind of thing' mentality several times over the years and as part of a recent and ongoing debate (patrick generously talks about trying to chat and debate with these closed minds) patrick had sent some of his poems, including one that protested against female genital mutilation. The correspondence did not allude to the launch at Waterstones.

To call this ongoing engagement 'provocation' is unacceptable. Anyone who disagrees with Stephen Green is provocative by their mere existence from his perspective, but that is not reasonable or sane. Even if Gerry Johnson cannot bring himself to reschedule the launch I would be deeply appreciative of some indication from Waterstones that they do not concur with Christian Voice's inflammatory blame of patrick jones.

I do want to stress that the issues that separate us from Waterstones are really not that huge - I'm glad the book is still on sale there and particularly grateful to the staff at the Cardiff branch for their support, but I don't want Christian Voice to get away with any chipping away at free speech and civil society. patrick jones should be promoting his work - it's brilliant and what else should he do with his book? Only Christian Voice are culpable here - not Cinnamon Press, not patrick jones and not Waterstones. But Waterstones do have it in their power to do even more...

Mad world

Yesterday was one of the more interesting days running a small press. We travelled down to Cardiff to launch two fantastic books. The first was Black Waves in Cardiff Bay, a wonderful anthology of new writing. All went well and off we went to Waterstones for the launch of darkness is where the stars are by patrick jones.

We spent half an hour finding a car park anad twenty minutes dragging a laden trolley of wine, glasses and books to deliver to the author through Cardiff centre to be greeted by 'oh, that event is cancelled'.

It transpired that a bigoted group of intolerant religious extremists had taken offence at patrick's book. Now patrick is pretty outspoken when it comes to religion - he gets het up about silly little things like stoning women in the name of God, religious involvement in military conflict, the use of religion to label some people as 'outsiders' etc. This is hard hitting and passionate stuff and whilst not everyone would agree it's none the less brilliantly written and opens up very important debates with which people of all faiths and none should engage.

But Christian Voice don't want to engage in debate - they prefer to carry placards with 'down with that kind of thing' (they don't like gays and lots of other people as well as poets) and to bully and intimidate people into silence. So they whipped up a storn of emails to Waterstones and the MD, Gerry Johnson (email gerry.johnson@waterstones.com) caved in very quickly with remarks about how he couldn't risk disruption - we're talking boyotting, maybe a bit of leafletting or the odd shout - and, let's face it, if these people were threatening violence the obvious solution is to go to the police, not to do as they say!

The event was pulled last minute, we didn't know till we turned up and we were told that our author had been contacted and was not going to attend - this was false - he did come, along with a crowd, but we'd left by then on Waterstones' misinformation.

We drove back through the night and have spent the day in pyjamas (well Mike had to get dressed to go to the post and get breakfast food at two in the afternoon) answering the phone, sending out press releases, starting a FaceBook event and putting up a website for the book. The site is at www.darknessiswherethestarsare.co.uk and there is also a YouTube vlog and open letter to Waterstones at

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YDp0lNDZukM

Please buy this book - you can get it direct at www.cinnamonpress.com

We need to show bigots that we won't be bullied.

Crazy Autumn

So much seems to be happening at Cinnamon Press right now that it's hard to keep up. October was jam packed with launches and events - the launch of TAG at The Hootenanny in Brixton (Brixton's only ceilidh pub!) was a fantastic evening (the cover picture is reds not blues, by the way) and other great events at the launch of An Elusive State in Hoxton, the launch of Flashes and Specks in Bangor (standing room only) (alls the colours on these jpegs are weird - but you can see good ones at http://www.cinnamonpress.com/) and two poetry events at the Chester festival.

I also snuck in a week tutoring an Arvon course (first poetry collection with the wonderful Michael Laskey as co-tutor) and several trips to Yorkshire plus a a four day trip to Linlithgow with a group of young people, just to keep October extra busy.

November sees three more launches, so watch this space...

And don't forget the great books that have been around a bit longer from Cinnamon Press - there's an excellent interview with Shanta Everington, author of Marilyn & Me, at http://www.viewfromheremagazine.com/2008/11/shanta-everington-interview.html

Books make the best Christmas presents and they're not even expensive - especially with the great offers we've got at the moment - and if you haven't bought TAG yet, then hurry - it's flying off the shelves.

September sun shining on cinnamon

Just back from an amazing weekend on a canal boat staying with wonderful friends who live on the water. It's wonderful to have those moments to sit and read and reflect and even more wonderful to have the sun - just when I was beginning to forget what it looks like.

Of course the problem with going away for a few days is that the work lays in wait for you so I've had a busy morning catching up on emails and bits of admin, but while I've been working our latest book arrived from the printers - it is so beautiful I just want to sit and stroke it, but reading it's fantastic too - TAG by Stephen May is a book that we are really proud of.

Mistyann is fifteen, unpredictable, unreliable and violent. She’s also gifted. And now she’s on her way to Wales for a special residential course for talented youth. An American psychologist wants to unlock her potential, help her become the person that she’s always dreamt of being. God help Wales. God help us all.

Jonathan Diamond is forty-one. Looks a bit like Tom Cruise and he’s going to Wales too. A failed musician and a recovering alcoholic he’s now an Advanced Skills Teacher and he’ll be in loco parentis for the week. Together the two of them develop an unlikely and dangerous alliance as they are forced to confront difficult truths about themselves.

Part bleakly comic confession, part twisted romance, at heart an elegy for dreams that refuse to die, TAG is the fast-moving, at times shocking, story of two lives turned upside down by reckless moments and impulses that won’t be denied. Full of wit, drama and an eye for the absurdities of the way we live now, TAG is a memorable debut novel.

Stephen May is a hard-headed day-dreamer, always cynical but ever hopeful. He’s been a barman, warehouseman, museum attendant, low-level council flunkey and teacher. He became a Dad while still at college and spent several years in a series of low paid menial jobs, struggling to support his family. A lot of the jobs involved stacking, filing, photo-copying and answering the telephone and Steve thinks it’s this period that informs any good writing he’s done. He used to drink a lot and spend a lot of time chasing women around, but found, like Flaubert, that it is best to ‘be a bourgeois in your life, so that you can be an anarchist in your art.’ You get more done and it’s more interesting in the long run.Steve lives in West Yorkshire with his wife and two youngest children and is working on another novel (The Good Soldiers), another play and some television projects.

Ray French said about the book: "Tag is a cracking story which has also has important things to say about youth; about middle age; about what it means to be considered gifted; about Wales and England, as well as some withering, satirical comment about contemporary life. It is also, in parts, very funny indeed. And in the character of Mistyann, Stephen May has created a thoroughly modern small-town Miss. A motormouth underclass Holden Caulfield, if you will. A vividly alive fusion of wit, beauty and instinctive defiance of authority. A character who will linger in the mind long after you have finished the book."

It's one of those books you just can't put down once you begin - be warned.

All are welcome to the launches - Saturday 11th October 2008, 2.00 – 5.00 pm,
at the Ted Hughes Centre, Lumb Bank, Heptonstall, Hebden Bridge. Please arrive between 6.30 & 7:00pm for a complimentary drink & the chance to buy this superb book & Friday 24th October 2008, 5.00 – 7.30p.m. At The Hootenanny, Effra Road, Brixton, London.
Free event with bar.

You can also hear readings of TAG at Ilkley festival on October 4th ; Manchester Literary Festival on October 19th Bedford Waterstones on October 25th and Off the Shelf literary festival November 1st

new contracts

Just made out a new batch of contracts and it's always exciting thinking about the books to come out in the future. Printing out contracts reminds me that we're in ths for the long haul, especially now that the list is bursting at the seems and we're timetabling our 2010 books.

September has always been my favourite month - things seem to get going again after the summer (such as it was) and after weeks of rain we've even had a glimpse of sun in North Wales. The autumn is full of great titles - publishers are bound to say that their books are great, of course, but I really mean it. One of the things I love about Cinnamon Press is that it's like being a child in a bookstore - we only publish books that we love, that spark some real passion and interest in us and the autumn is full of such gems.

At the moment one of those gems is Welsh book of the month at Waterstones, which is fantastic news for a small press like Cinnamon - you can actually walk into Waterstones across the country and see Yeah Dai Dando front of store. Brilliant - and it deserves to be there. If you can't get to a Waterstones in Wales check it out on the website - it's Meic Stephens first novel, but you wouldn't know it from the writing, which is funny and sharp and - sometimes only a Welsh word will do - bendigedig - absolutely bendigedig!