Writing in the Margins - Diamond Twig

Diamond Twig is a small press based in Newcastle upon Tyne, which is dedicated to publishing first collections of poetry by women writers living in the North of England and also female short stories writers who deserve a wider audience. The press was founded by writers Julia Darling and Ellen Phethean, who worked together for years on many projects, initially with The Poetry Virgins’ a poetry/performance group formed by Julia as a way of having some kind of social life as a mother with young children. Julia encouraged Ellen, who had just started to write, to join the group, as well as some resting actors, and the troupe spent some years touring the North East and beyond. They wanted to reach out to new audiences, in non-traditional poetry venues, such as Women¹s Aid AGMs, women¹s prisons, conferences, and community venues.

Diamond Twig was first formed to publish the Poetry Virgin¹s repertoire, which was mainly work by Julia and Ellen, with some other favourites by other poets such as Wendy Cope, U.A.Fanthorpe and Elma Mitchell. We now have three collections; Modern Goddess, Modern Riddles (Diamond Twig Press) and Sauce (Bloodaxe Book)

Although Julia left The Poetry Virgins to concentrate on writing fiction, Ellen and the two other performers have taken the poetry performance idea further and Ellen wrote Journey With A Golden Lady’ a verse play about mothers, daughters, memory and shopping, performed by the Virgins and recorded by the BBC on location in Ellen¹s back garden, broadcast on Radio 4 in May 2000.

Julia went on to publish a collection of short stories Bloodlines and two novels Crocodile Soup and The Taxi Driver¹s Daughter. She also wrote a number of plays for stage and radio, and much of her fiction was serialised on Radio Four.

Ellen has broadcast her poetry on Women¹s Hour, Loose Ends (Radio 4) and Poetry Proms (Radio 3).   In 1996 she won an Arts Council/BBC North writing award to develop a long sound/text poem about the West End of Newcastle Witnessing Westgate Hill’ which was broadcast on Stanza, Radio 4 in July 1997. She has written a number of plays for the University of Northumbria Drama Students, and Live Theatre¹s Youth and Community Groups.

Sadly, Julia died in April 2005. She is much missed as a lively force on Tyneside and currently the press is on hold.

However, the ethos of the press remains the same - both Ellen and Julia spent most of their writing lives teaching Creative Writing in many different kinds of settings, and managing the difficult balancing act between attending to one¹s own creativity and nurturing the talents of others. Although Diamond Twig (the name came from a line in one of Julia¹s poems)was originally set up to publish the Poetry Virgin¹s work, Ellen and Julia developed the press further in order to profile some of the women writers they saw around them who had interesting and different voices, and who they felt were ready to have a collection of their work made public.

The publishing world is a notoriously difficult one to break into, and many potential good women writers fail, partly because they lack confidence, and partly because many publishers are men, who perhaps unconsciously look for certain types of content and writing that are more ‘masculine’ in style. Statistics show that many more men get published than women. Diamond Twig is trying to redress that balance, raising the profile and confidence of new women writers.

Diamond Twig publishes about two or three books a year at small print runs of 200 - 300, in an attractive, reasonably priced series ‘Branchlines’. The books feature a black and white photo of the author on the cover, and each writer submits a short piece about how they came to writing, and their writing process, which is published as a foreword in each book. We have 17 small books in this collection - and have started a prose series alongside the poetry.

Unfortunately the press doesn¹t have a distributor. It¹s too small and the prices of the books are too low for a national distributor. Most Diamond Twig books are sold at readings, or by mail order, or when the poetry comes to the attention of the public through a review in a national magazine such as Mslexia or by having an individual poem published in a national newspaper.

Many famous poets were published by small presses first before they became well known enough to be picked up by Penguin or Faber etc.

The writers that Diamond Twig publish have usually been writing for some time, they will have submitted work to poetry magazines over the years, had it accepted and published in various places. Often they have come to the end of a creative phase and have a collection of thirty or forty poems that they are happy with, when a publication can bring a sense of completion.
It¹s important to emphasise that being published is not an instant result of starting to write.

The golden rules are

1. Read - you can never read enough. Go to your library, see what poetry books and magazines they stock. This will give you some idea of the range and standard of poetry and writing that is likely to be accepted.

2. Join a Group - support and critical help is most easily found in writing groups, where you can take your new work, read it out and get helpful feedback. You also learn by listening to how others write: their mistakes and successes.

3. Submit your writing - send poems to magazines, competitions, (always include an sae). When you have work regularly accepted, then you are getting it right and can begin to consider a collection.

4. Be prepared for rejections. Everyone¹s had work rejected in the past. You have to be committed and keep going.

5. Be prepared to rewrite: a first draft usually looks like a first draft. Have the courage to edit your work. Be critical and work hard.

Ellen and Julia always said Diamond Twig may be small, but it is extremely beautiful, and although the press is always interested in expanding its networks with other organisations and writers, we don¹t want to become part of the mainstream publishing world. We believe that without small presses the literary world withers and dies, and we know that the work we are publishing is important and special¹.

Please send an sae for their full catalogue, or write for more information to:
Diamond Twig, 5 Bentinck Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6UT
Email: diamond.twig@virgin,net

Or check out the website www.diamondtwig.co.uk