In 2021, Nine Arches Press launched their nationwide Primers scheme for a sixth time, in search of exciting new voices in poetry, with Rishi Dastidar and Jane Commane as selecting editors. After reading through hundreds of anonymous entries, and narrowing down the choices from longlist to shortlist, three poets emerged as clear choices: Kym Deyn, Estelle Price and Fathima Zahra.

Primers: Volume Six now brings together a showcase from each of the three poets. Startling, original and packed with flair, Deyn, Price and Zahra explore everything from magic and mourning, cross-examinations of power and patriarchy, and the intimate secrets and 'Parent cuts' of growing up. These are poems of becoming and being, of difference and defiance, of other worlds, hard lessons and leaps of faith. Primers is proud to present these bold and dynamic poems from three of contemporary poetry's most exciting new voices.

Praise for Primers: Volume Six

"There is of course nothing more exciting in reading poetry than finding a voice new to you, and feeling that feeling - where the brain says 'oh hello, what have we here?', as the skin responds with a tingle and your face starts smiling as you realise, there is something special in these words. That, roughly described, was our initial sensation on seeing the work of Kym Deyn, Estelle Price and Fathima Zahra. Each, in their unique ways, have that uncanny ability to recast what you thought you knew, as they make you look then look again at who we are, how we live, and what we might be."

- Rishi Dastidar

About the Author
Rishi Dastidar's poetry has been published by the Financial Times and BBC amongst many others. He is a fellow of The Complete Works, and a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine. A poem from his debut collection Ticker-tape was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2018, and his second collection, Saffron Jack, was published in the UK by Nine Arches Press in 2020. He is also editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press), and co-editor of Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika's Poetry Kitchen (Corsair). Jane Commane is a poet, editor and publisher. Her first full-length collection, Assembly Lines, was published by Bloodaxe in 2018. A graduate of the Warwick Writing Programme, for a decade she also worked in museums and archives and in 2016 she was chosen to join Writing West Midlands' Room 204 writer development programme Jane is editor at Nine Arches Press, co-editor of Under the Radar magazine, and is co-author, with Jo Bell, of How to Be a Poet, a creative writing handbook (Nine Arches Press).In 2017, she was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. In 2019, Jane was commissioned by Historic England and the Poetry Society as part of the Where Light Falls project to write a poem alongside community groups which was projected onto the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and viewed by over 15,000 people over three nights as part of a music, poetry and light installation. Kym Deyn is a poet, playwright and fortune teller. They have a Legitimate Snack forthcoming with Broken Sleep Books, as well as work in Carcanet's Brotherton Poetry Prize Anthology. Otherwise, they have been widely published in a range of anthologies and journals including Butcher's Dog and the Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry. They are one of the winners of the 2020 Outspoken Prize for Poetry. Estelle Price is the winner of the 2021 Welsh Poetry Competition and the 2018 Book of Kells Writing Competition. Her poetry has been placed/ listed in the National, Bridport, Welshpool, London Magazine and other competitions. Poems have left home for Poetry Wales, Crannog, Marble Poetry, 14 Lines, Alchemy Spoon and the Stony Thursday Book. Before she knew she was a poet she was a lawyer, a classicist, a charity worker Fathima Zahra is an Indian poet and performer based in Essex. She is a Barbican Young Poet and a Roundhouse Poetry Collective alum. Her poems have won the Bridport Prize, Asia House Poetry Slam and Wells Fest Young Poets Prize. Her debut pamphlet Sargam / Swargam is out with ignitionpress.


Book Information
ISBN 9781913437442
Author Rishi Dastidar
Format Paperback
Imprint Nine Arches Press
Publisher Nine Arches Press