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A Successful kickstarter campaign has funded publication of Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy.
Arachne Press recently published a new anthology of poetry celebrating queer joy, after a kickstarter campaign to fund publication of the book ended with 106% of the target raised.
Published on 17 May 2024, which was International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy is a book of poems that celebrate all that is best about LGBTQ+ communities and lives. Readers can open this book at random and find a moment of poetic queer joy for themselves, however big or small.
The anthology includes work by debut poets, poets who have previously been published by Arachne Press, and well-known voices who are new to the independent press. It is edited by Cherry Potts, owner/director of Arachne Press and poet Jeremy Dixon, whose debut full-length collection, A Voice Coming From Then, won the Wales Book of the Year (English language poetry category) in 2022.
Cherry Potts explains how the project came about: "Arachne Press is a long-time champion of LGBTQ+ writers, in particular poets. With many collections published over the years, we decided it was time to give an opportunity to as many LGBTQ+ poets as possible. We had an open meeting as part of Arachne Press' 10th Anniversary celebrations, and invited LGBTQ+ poets to come along and help us define the project. We decided that we all write about trauma, and protest, and survival, but we don't always want to read it, and that we could do with something celebratory, comforting and reassuring. This is what Joy//Us became."
The poems included in the book encompass various themes – love, pride, nature, pop-culture, food, identity, dancing and more. Queer joy is examined from all angles, taking in momentous moments, as well as the little things - like a really good, identity-confirming haircut.
pink doesn’t always suit
rainbows are scarce
unicorns rarer
no permissions required
to share your joy
so share our joy
OUR GAIETY
Joy//Us by Jeremy Dixon
Joy//Us includes contributions from Abhi, Alexander Williams, Annie Kerr, Aoife Mannix, Becky Brookfield, Cherry Potts, Conway Emmett, Dean Atta, Desree, Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell, Elizabeth Gibson, Garnett ‘Ratte’ Frost, Helen Bowie, Jane Aldous, Jeremy Dixon, John McCullough, Joshua Linney, Joshua Jones, Joy Howard, JP Seabright, K. Angel, Kate Foley, Khakan Qureshi, BEM, Laurie B., Lawrence Wilson, Lydia Fulleylove, Maria Jastrzębska, Mwelwa Chilekwa, P Burton-Morgan, Rab Green, Rick Dove, Robert Hamberger, Sophia Blackwell, Steph Morris, Tanya Erin Sheehan, Tom McLaughlin, Vron McIntyre, Zo Copeland.
The cover design is by non-binary trans artist Frank Duffy and is inspired by the old Magpie rhyme - one for sorrow, two for joy.
