Linen Press is a small, independent publisher run by women, for women. Our policy is to encourage and promote female writers, and to give voice to a wide range of perspectives and themes that are relevant to women. We display and rejoice in the...
“I’m a rare book librarian. I get to touch books every single day. My colleague and I have a joke that we are Defenders of Wonder. A physical book assigns a sense of reverence to the content inside. It’s the same feeling you get when you look at a painting or hear a piece of music. And I think that’s something worth defending. And just like a book gives reverence to it’s content, I think the library gives reverence to books. The building itself is a masterpiece. So many famous thinkers have come here to study and write. Just being here connects you to that lineage.”
“This was an interesting story, having such a close resemblance to what many people go through. It was a little difficult to follow with all of the flash backing, however, still intriguing. It definitely makes one thing about their actions and consequences and how they affect others. The author does a good job of pulling the audience in and keeping them so.”
What to read Lindsay Parnell’s Dogwood for yourself? Check it out in our online bookstore! http://linen-press.com/shop/
“This was an excellent novel about woman’s image and self perception. The whole book kept me coming back for more. It was interesting to compare insecurities of other woman with myself and how similar we truly are. The author writes so gently and passionately, making it hard to put the book down.”
Today is the debut of our new novel Sometimes A River Song!Congratulations to author Avril Joy for writing this beautiful, important novel about the domination, strength, and triumph of women.
Listen to what Kate W. has to say on Goodreads:
“There are many perks to being a book blogger, especially being contacted by publishers with titles you might not otherwise discover. All this is to say thanks to Linen Press for sending me a copy of Sometimes a River Song by Avril Joy in exchange for an honest review.
When I began reading this short novel and was introduced to the strong and distinct voice of protagonist Aiyana Weir, a young woman living in a river boat community in Arkansas in the 1930s, I was hooked immediately. Her voice was so melodic, her less than perfect English, compelling. The book follows the story of Aiyana and her life with an abusive father in a close knit community. The odd one out in the family, and rumoured to be the child of another man, she has never been allowed to go to school like her brother Lyle, and sister Hetty. She develops a fixation on learning to read in an attempt to gain her independence and free herself from the brutality of her father.”
(read her full review here: http://www.katejwilson.com/2016/04/book-review-sometimes-river-song-by.html)
The Queen of
Sheba first appears as an unnamed monarch referred to in the Old Testament (1
Kings 10:1–13, 2 Chronicles 9:1–12) as coming to Jerusalem to visit King
Solomon, to ‘test him with hard riddles’ and bring offerings of ‘spices, a
great quantity of gold, and precious stones’. Her real identity – or even
whether she existed at all – is unclear, but she continued to be remembered by
later cultures as a powerful, even dangerous, lady. In later writings she is
given many names, including Bilqis, Makeda, Nikaulis or just Sheba. To some
people she has become a powerful female role model, to others the focus of
sexual fantasy.
Bilqis is the
name by which the Queen of Sheba is known in Islamic folk legend and
literature. Many monuments and even geological features have been popularly
associated with her, including a mountain in Iran, a late medieval palace in
the United Arab Emirates and a huge ancient temple complex at Marib. This drawing depicts an important moment in the Koranic tradition (Sura
27:15–44) when the hoopoe
delivers a letter from Solomon to the Queen of Sheba who is named in this
literature as Bilqis (although she remains anonymous in the Quran). In the Quran Solomon
is regarded as not only a great and wealthy king with power over birds, animals
and jinn,
but also a Prophet of God.
This etching is based on a miniature by Holbein,
now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. The figure of King Solomon clearly
resembles Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), in whose court Holbein was employed, and
the work may have been intended as a gift. It is believed to be the first
occasion that Solomon was given a contemporary likeness.
The etching
was part of the 2002 British Museum exhibition Queen of Sheba: treasures of ancient Yemen. It included artworks
and film stills illustrating the elusive queen. These were used as a starting
point to tell the story of the richness of cultures in southern Arabia. It
featured many objects loaned from museums across Yemen which were seen for the
first time in the UK.
Everything here is yellow and green. Listen to its throat, its earthskin, the bone dry voices of the peepers as they throb like advertisements. The small animals of the woods are carrying their deathmasks into a narrow winter cave. The scarecrow has plucked out his two eyes like diamonds and walked into the village. The general and the postman have taken off their packs. This has all happened before but nothing here is obsolete. Everything here is possible.
Because of this perhaps a young girl has laid down her winter clothes and has casually placed herself upon a tree limb that hangs over a pool in the river. She has been poured out onto the limb, low above the houses of the fishes as they swim in and out of her reflection and up and down the stairs of her legs. Her body carries clouds all the way home. She is overlooking her watery face in the river where blind men come to bathe at midday.
Because of this the ground, that winter nightmare, has cured its sores and burst with green birds and vitamins. Because of this the trees turn in their trenches and hold up little rain cups by their slender fingers. Because of this a woman stands by her stove singing and cooking flowers. Everything here is yellow and green.
Surely spring will allow a girl without a stitch on to turn softly in her sunlight and not be afraid of her bed. She has already counted seven blossoms in her green green mirror. Two rivers combine beneath her. The face of the child wrinkles. in the water and is gone forever. The woman is all that can be seen in her animal loveliness. Her cherished and obstinate skin lies deeply under the watery tree. Everything is altogether possible and the blind men can also see.
Our book, The Making of Her by Susie Nott-Bower, has been selected for a
contemporary small press project run by the University of Westminster!
The project will feature a panel discussion with “Susie Nott-Bower and Lynn Michell, Linen Press and Alex Pheby and Sam Jordison, Galley Beggar [talking] about the experience of writing and publishing new work” at the British Library on February 20, 2016.
“Through
the diverse viewpoints of the characters, [Lynn Michell] vividly depicts the
contrast between British colonial interest and humanitarian feelings, managing
to show that public and private [realities] are always deeply interconnected. I especially
recommend White Lies to readers
looking for a convincing exploration of the female consciousness[,] able to show
us the extraordinary side of ordinary lives.”
Just off the coast of the Canary Islands Jason deCaires Taylor has installed some art you’ll have to swim to. His Museu Atlantico is Europe’s first underwater museum. To see the hundreds of submerged statues, including The Raft of Lampedusa (shown here), visit The Guardian.
guardian