system Archives - Sidekick Books

Hipflask Series

H I P F L A S K S E R I E S

Available individually or as a set

The Hipflask Series is an improvised dance of unusual forms and genres, played out across four collaborative, pocket-sized collections. Each book comprises a selection of written works that skirt close to (or cross the border into) poetic composition, revealing the dynamic relationship between poetry and other written forms.

The major theme of each is extrapolated from one or other of these key aspects of modern poetry – play, appropriation, subtext and conflict – but the result is a series that occupies its own strange niche: mutant miscellanies, oddball assortments. Good for a nip or a shot or a long, deep swig.

The Hipflask Series is an improvised dance of unusual forms and genres, played out across four collaborative, pocket-sized collections.

Each book comprises a selection of written works that skirt close to (or cross the border into) poetic composition, revealing the dynamic relationship between poetry and other written forms.

The major theme of each is extrapolated from one or other of these key aspects of modern poetry – play, appropriation, subtext and conflict – but the result is a series that occupies its own strange niche: mutant miscellanies, oddball assortments. Good for a nip or a shot or a long, deep swig.

About

Sidekick Books is a London-based small press founded in 2010 by Jon Stone and Kirsten Irving, though (un)officially the editor-in-chief is the disgraced alchemist Dr. Fulminare, with the next in the chain of command being his familiar, Bandijcat.

We specialise in collaborative books, mostly made up of poems. Our guiding ethos when we began was to explore alternatives to the single-author poetry volume, and to mix poetry with other genres and types of book. Our books have been nominated for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, been featured in The Guardian and BBC Wildlife Magazine, and won the Sabouteur Award for Best Collaboration. We’ve put on various joint readings and events with other presses and organisations, including The Poetry Society, and we’ve thrown book launches as toga parties and immersive theatre.

We also sometimes sell bookmarks, badges, special editions and so on at book fairs, but these tend to disappear pretty fast.

Submissions

Please note we don’t consider unsolicited manuscripts or book proposals. We do not publish single-author collections at all.

We periodically issue calls for submissions to our planned multi-author projects, and aim to include in these a plethora of styles and approaches by writers and artists both established and unsung. We encourage submissions by members of underrepresented groups, though we do not place upon members of those groups any expectation that they foreground or discuss aspects of their identity or personal experiences. Generally, we don’t believe the value of work rests in its claim to authenticity.

On the other hand, we encourage exploration of any topic, so long as it plausibly fits the criteria for a given project.

At the moment, there are no calls for submissions, but you can keep up to date via our blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Sunday Review: Idra Novey’s Exit, Civilian

posted by the Judge

This Sunday, Rowyda Amin reviews Exit, Civilian, by Idra Novey, selected for the National Poetry Series in the US of A. You can find the review here. An entire collection dedicated to the American prison system – you don’t get poetry much more socially engaged than this.

Have a great Sunday!

Category: system