Coin Opera/Obakaram reviewed

A joint review for our two micro-anthologies at Hand + Star. Critic John Challis captures the spirit of the books perfectly in his concluding paragraph:

"Both micro anthologies present a landscape of unexplored poetic territory, and if video games and mythical beasts are the first muses of Sidekick Books’ experimentations then I look forward to what Dr Fulminare has cooking in his trough of lyrical candy floss."

It's also slightly disturbing how close Challis' own thoughts are to where I've been considering heading for one of our next projects:

"In keeping with the innovative tradition editors Stone & Kirsten Irving have set with Fuselit, I did wonder if they had considered creating an actual game, or phone app so readers could ‘play’ the poems; jumping from platforms of moving stanzas to catch the umlaut power-up."

Meanwhile, another Hand + Star reviewer (and contributor to Dr F's Irregular Features), Phil Brown, has just been announced as one of this year's Eric Gregory Award winners! Super well done to Phil, who I have met once and spoken to a few times but has never actually even told me he writes poetry, let alone wins things with it. I mean, I sort of assumed that he did, because most of us involved in poetry write it as well, but the point is he's such a dedicated reviewer, creator, investigator, celebrator and all-round team player that I hadn't thoroughly investigated the matter. Much the better, then, that an award goes to someone like him, rather than some character who expends all their efforts on self-promotion, eh?