Hello and welcome!
époque press is an independent publisher based between Brighton and Dublin established to promote and represent the very best in new literary talent.
Through a combination of our main publishing imprint and our online ezine we aim to bring inspirational and thought provoking work to a wider audience.
Our main imprint is seeking out new voices, authors who are producing high-quality literary fiction and who are looking for a partner to help realise their ambitions. Our commitment is to fully consider all submissions on literary merit alone and to provide a personal response.
Our ezine will showcase a combination of the written word, visual and aural art forms, bringing together artists working in different mediums to encourage and inspire new perspectives on specific themes.
For details of how to submit your work to us for consideration please follow the submissions guidelines and for all other enquiries please email info@epoquepress.com
Hello and welcome!
époque press is an independent publisher based between Brighton and Dublin established to promote and represent the very best in new literary talent.
Through a combination of our main publishing imprint and our online ezine we aim to bring inspirational and thought provoking work to a wider audience.
Our main imprint is seeking out new voices, authors who are producing high-quality literary fiction and who are looking for a partner to help realise their ambitions. Our commitment is to fully consider all submissions on literary merit alone and to provide a personal response.
Our ezine will showcase a combination of the written word, visual and aural art forms, bringing together artists working in different mediums to encourage and inspire new perspectives on specific themes.
For details of how to submit your work to us for consideration please follow the submissions guidelines and for all other enquiries please email info@epoquepress.com
époque press
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Manon Martini
Poetry
Gluttony
I loop my trembling hands around my thigh.
Against your sinful tradition,
Shrink my lustful, swollen flesh to brittle skull and bone.
In the sacred garden of Eden,
Her pulsing roots and bloated fruits,
I sit strait-laced on my ivory throne.
My tongue hangs like a slug at the back of my throat.
When I reach for the tree, the serpent whispers:
Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust,
Apples to thigh,
Bread to breast.
Another sleepless night,
Spine piercing mattress,
Teeth screech and joints grind in the dark.
Dear God,
Make me terribly ill.
Strand me on an island,
Sink a ship,
Kill a farmer,
Bring the flood,
Start a war.
Make my famine outwardly imposed,
I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath.
Sitting in the pews with my crying mother.
She prays for me to get better.
The bench feels cold and hard on my bum.
I watch poor Jesus.
His ribs.
His pelvis.
Kiss my coccyx
Tighten my chest
Make me hollow
Then fill me with you.
Manon Martini is an MA student of English Literature at the University of Exeter.
Of the poem featured, Manon states:
‘My interpretation of the ‘Shortage’ prompt encapsulates my experience of suffering with Anorexia Nervosa and the relentless torture of self-restriction and a kind of self-imposed food shortage. The poem articulates the ways in which a lack of food and nutrients can impair rational thinking and judgement as the disorder manifests its own insidious thoughts in the mind and underpins everything a person thinks or does. Inspired by Northern Irish cultural history and literature, my poem also explores questions of famine, poverty and religion and the ways in which these socio-political issues interact and co-exist with eating disorders.’