I
originally founded Moormaid Press in 2013. The name came from a poem of mine,
imagining a woman flying over my local moorlands, swimming in the air as a
mermaid swims in water. Illustrator Jonathan Chadwick created a wonderful logo
for me. After four publications in as many years I realised my life was too
full of other stuff and so I let the moormaid lie dormant for a while. I awoke
her from her sleep in 2023 and have published four pamphlets in the last year:
- How Do You Do In Devon, by SJ Fowler
- Propositions. Autobiography., by Martin Wakefield
- Time Cracks, by Beverly Frydman and Rochelle Scholar
- Have Time, Will by Laura Davis
The pamphlets have been launched with readings in person and online, both of which have been very enjoyable. While I always enjoy meeting up with other poets and readers ‘in real’, I’ve also loved seeing the online poetry events bring a short injection of good words and good people straight into the vein of a normal Sunday evening at home.
I have three further pamphlets lined up definitely and many more floating around in the cloud of possibility created by conversations with colleagues and friends.
It is really important to me that Moormaid doesn’t have a ‘house style’ of poetry: that each pamphlet is an expression of its poet and as individual. Two of the above pamphlets include visual poetry, two are solely text. The publications have involved me as editor to differing degrees but I’ve enjoyed working with all the authors to find the best way of structuring and designing the pamphlets to present their work in a way that feels authentic to them and is engaging for the reader. I hope the pamphlets are both experimental and accessible to a wide range of readers, whether they would consider themselves ‘poetry readers’ or not.
I have no plans to move into book publication — big projects! too pricey! — but I do intend to branch out into some letterpress pamphlets and cards, maybe at the end of this year or the beginning of next. I want Moormaid to remain the joyful thing that it is, publishing work I like and respect, from people I like and respect. In my dual role of poet/publisher, I see writing as a way of loving myself and publishing as a way of loving the world.
Ailsa Holland is a poet and writer with a varied practice. Her first collection, The Bodleian and the Bottle Ovens (2023) contained poems made of clay as well as poems of words. Her pamphlet, Twenty-Four Miles Up, was published in in 2017 with support from ACE. Ailsa was the winner of the 2019 Manchester Cathedral Poetry Prize and the runner-up of the 2014 Hippocrates Prize. Her poems have also appeared in anthologies and journals. Ailsa is co-creator of the feminist history Twitter project @OnThisDayShe and co-author of On ThisDay She (2021). She runs Moormaid Press, a publisher of poetry pamphlets. www.ailsaholland.co.uk; www.moormaidpress.co.uk
