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brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Broken Sleep Books
@brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
5.3K followers 2.9K following 370 posts
Award winning indie publisher | Poetry | Essays | Fiction | Lay out your unrest | Widening access to the arts | Editor: @godzillakent.bsky.social | For reviews: stuart@brokensleepbooks.com | Founded: 2018

Website: brokensleepbooks.com
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Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · 15h
We didn’t get Books Council Wales funding, it would've meant 5 years of stability. It’s a blow, and it means a rockier road ahead, but our commitment to ambitious, inclusive, working-class publishing stays firm. If you want to help: buy a book, spread the word, or donate:

ko-fi.com/brokensleepb...
Dear friends, I’m writing with some difficult news. We recently applied for long-term revenue funding through the Books Council of Wales, support that would have secured stability for Broken Sleep Books for the next five years and helped us continue publishing the ambitious, risk-taking, inclusive work we believe in so deeply. Unfortunately, we were not successful. It’s disappointing, of course. We put forward a strong application, had a positive interview, and genuinely believed our publishing programme where we champion low socio-economic status authors, working-class authors, and marginalised authors, while widening access to the arts and degentrifying the arts, reflected the cultural values Wales should be proud to support. Clearly, our idea of cultural value doesn’t fully match the Books Council’s. Sometimes decisions go another way. What hasn’t changed is our commitment. Broken Sleep Books will carry on publishing with the same determination, ambition, and care that has always sustained us, just with fewer resources and a much harder road ahead. If you value what we do, there are meaningful ways you can help us weather this moment: 📚 Buy a book, or a few Every purchase directly supports the press. Browse the catalogue here: https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/books 🎁 Consider our books as gifts With the holidays approaching, this makes a real difference. 💬 Spread the word Tell a friend, share our books online, recommend us to a bookshop, or forward this newsletter. ❤️ Make a donation (if you’re able) Some readers have asked how they can help directly. If you’d like to support our work with a small donation, we’ve set up a simple option here: https://ko-fi.com/brokensleepbooks (Please only give if you’re in a position to do so, we know times are hard for many.) Broken Sleep has always been a community effort, powered by readers, writers, booksellers, and supporters who believe in literature that takes risks and makes space for voices that don’t always find a home elsewhere. Thank you, sincerely, for sticking with us. Your support means everything, especially right now.
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
We didn’t get Books Council Wales funding, it would've meant 5 years of stability. It’s a blow, and it means a rockier road ahead, but our commitment to ambitious, inclusive, working-class publishing stays firm. If you want to help: buy a book, spread the word, or donate:

ko-fi.com/brokensleepb...
Dear friends, I’m writing with some difficult news. We recently applied for long-term revenue funding through the Books Council of Wales, support that would have secured stability for Broken Sleep Books for the next five years and helped us continue publishing the ambitious, risk-taking, inclusive work we believe in so deeply. Unfortunately, we were not successful. It’s disappointing, of course. We put forward a strong application, had a positive interview, and genuinely believed our publishing programme where we champion low socio-economic status authors, working-class authors, and marginalised authors, while widening access to the arts and degentrifying the arts, reflected the cultural values Wales should be proud to support. Clearly, our idea of cultural value doesn’t fully match the Books Council’s. Sometimes decisions go another way. What hasn’t changed is our commitment. Broken Sleep Books will carry on publishing with the same determination, ambition, and care that has always sustained us, just with fewer resources and a much harder road ahead. If you value what we do, there are meaningful ways you can help us weather this moment: 📚 Buy a book, or a few Every purchase directly supports the press. Browse the catalogue here: https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/books 🎁 Consider our books as gifts With the holidays approaching, this makes a real difference. 💬 Spread the word Tell a friend, share our books online, recommend us to a bookshop, or forward this newsletter. ❤️ Make a donation (if you’re able) Some readers have asked how they can help directly. If you’d like to support our work with a small donation, we’ve set up a simple option here: https://ko-fi.com/brokensleepbooks (Please only give if you’re in a position to do so, we know times are hard for many.) Broken Sleep has always been a community effort, powered by readers, writers, booksellers, and supporters who believe in literature that takes risks and makes space for voices that don’t always find a home elsewhere. Thank you, sincerely, for sticking with us. Your support means everything, especially right now.
November 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
rickyballboy.bsky.social
Proud to have my poetry included in the Broken Sleep Books Anthology 2025, which gathers together standout, risk-taking writing from the award-winning independent press.

Support vibrant, compelling contemporary literature and discover your new favourite writers now!
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · 14d
The Broken Sleep Books Anthology 2025 gathers standout, risk-taking writing from every publication of the year, spanning poetry, non-fiction and fiction.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimal dark teal cover with clean white typography; large title “Broken Sleep Books 2025” at the top left; a smaller line reads “Edited by: Aaron Kent & Stuart McPherson”; publisher credit “Broken Sleep Books” sits subtly at the bottom left.
November 13, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
danielghinds.bsky.social
You will be able to read an excerpt from my debut poetry collection New Famous Phrases in The @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social Books Anthology 2025. A great way to sample the exciting writing the press published this year & to see what kind of thing they like if you are thinking of submitting work.
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · 14d
The Broken Sleep Books Anthology 2025 gathers standout, risk-taking writing from every publication of the year, spanning poetry, non-fiction and fiction.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimal dark teal cover with clean white typography; large title “Broken Sleep Books 2025” at the top left; a smaller line reads “Edited by: Aaron Kent & Stuart McPherson”; publisher credit “Broken Sleep Books” sits subtly at the bottom left.
November 13, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
betarish.bsky.social
A hobby of mine is reminding you that you can find my nonsense nestling alongside some wonderful writing from wonderful poets in this anthology.
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · 14d
The Broken Sleep Books Anthology 2025 gathers standout, risk-taking writing from every publication of the year, spanning poetry, non-fiction and fiction.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimal dark teal cover with clean white typography; large title “Broken Sleep Books 2025” at the top left; a smaller line reads “Edited by: Aaron Kent & Stuart McPherson”; publisher credit “Broken Sleep Books” sits subtly at the bottom left.
November 13, 2025 at 11:53 AM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
The Broken Sleep Books Anthology 2025 gathers standout, risk-taking writing from every publication of the year, spanning poetry, non-fiction and fiction.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimal dark teal cover with clean white typography; large title “Broken Sleep Books 2025” at the top left; a smaller line reads “Edited by: Aaron Kent & Stuart McPherson”; publisher credit “Broken Sleep Books” sits subtly at the bottom left.
November 6, 2025 at 10:18 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Alanis Morissette by Jake Wild Hall is a sprawling, tender, and formally inventive collection that weaves fatherhood, friendship, grief, and masculinity into a shifting, polyphonic tapestry.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Sky-blue, textured background scattered with colourful confetti (purple, yellow, white, green); a pale blue title band at the top left reads “Alanis Morissette” in bold black with “Jake Wild Hall” beneath in purple; “Broken Sleep Books” appears small in green at the bottom left.
November 6, 2025 at 10:14 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Elle: A Verse Novel by Robert Sheppard is a fierce, densely layered détournement, refashioning Joseph Kessel’s Belle de Jour through splices, warpings, and an unnerving overlay of 1960s Brighton scandal onto a surrealist template.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimal white cover with a thin mustard outer frame and double pink inner border; centred grey author name “Robert Sheppard” at the top; large magenta title “ELLE: A VERSE NOVEL” below; a sketched black circle sits mid-page; “Broken Sleep Books” appears centred at the bottom.
October 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Patrick Davidson Roberts’ Divided Tongues is a structurally expansive and thematically intricate collection that navigates national identity, violence, myth, and displacement with tonal precision and rhetorical urgency.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Clean white cover featuring a detailed black-and-white scientific illustration of a scorpion with tiny lettered labels; title “Divided Tongues” appears in dark green at top left, author “Patrick Davidson Roberts” in warm tan beneath, and “Broken Sleep Books” small in green at bottom left.
October 31, 2025 at 2:05 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Mohamed Hassan’s National Anthem is a layered, politically charged collection that moves between lyric intimacy and cultural critique with clarity and force.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Close-up grey-black wood grain split by a jagged vertical gold seam; bold title “NATIONAL ANTHEM” straddles the seam with alternating grey and yellow letters; author “Mohamed Hassan” appears in gold near the top; “Broken Sleep Books” sits small in white at bottom left. When they ask you where you are (really) from Tell them you are an unrequited pilgrim two parallel lives that never touch a whisper or a window to what your country could be if only it opened its arms and took you whole tell them about the moon how she eats at your skin watches you pray and fast and cry while the world sleeps how she gives birth to herself and dies and you wish upon her children how you wander her night plant cardamom in your friends’ eyes cumin in their teeth zaatar on their brow lick the rest off your fingertips it tastes of visa-on-entry heaven with no random checks round the iftar table everyone speaks of politics and God trans rights and colonialism we forget we didn’t speak the empire’s tongue once
October 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Anticulturalist Manifesto by Joe Shooman is a volatile, confrontational tract that gleefully atomises authorship, culture and interpretation in favour of a self-cancelling absolutism.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Textured purple cover with mottled orange undertones; title “Anticulturalist Manifesto” in muted orange at the top left, author “Joe Shooman” in bright red below it; “Broken Sleep Books” appears small in pale grey at the bottom left. Here we find accuracy but it is not the legal truth until it is so decreed Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of the contents of this book, by technology extant or yet to be invented, is strictly encouraged Any part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher Every part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author or publisher, and fuck U.S. copyright law No rights reserved No effort has been made to trace or contact any copyright holders, because the concept is completely unworkable in the Internet age and those conglomerates developing AI/LLM systems are rapacious cunts who don’t care about the actual content they’re hoovering up, so why should we The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity, i.e. never The moral right of the author has not been asserted because every text is at best an aggregation of previous and existing texts and the influence of every single piece of work the author has
October 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
SUBMISSION CALL: We are open for poetry pamphlet/chapbook submissions until 30th November.

A very small percentage of people who submit actually buy a book from us. If everybody who submitted bought a book it'd be a massive boost to us.

Full guidelines here: www.brokensleepbooks.com/submissions
Poetry pamphlet submissions open! 1st October - 30th November brokensleepbooks.com/submissions
October 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
pdevonald.bsky.social
Wonderful new poetry book from one of the best poets around --- coming at the end of the year
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social Broken Sleep Books @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social · Oct 21
Stuart McPherson’s The Aureate Trophies of Profit & Loss is a furious, darkly surreal excavation of life under late capitalism, rendered in a language that seethes, mocks, and mourns.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Beige cover with bold black sans-serif text; author “STUART MCPHERSON” top left and “Broken Sleep Books” top right above a thin rule; large centered title “The Aureate Trophies of Profit & Loss (and other lyrics for a cold world)”; below, a wide graphic of tightly spaced horizontal black bars forming an equalizer-like grid with three taller central columns. Anti-Poem You are here and so is that rope. Not to advocate for it, but against it, like inverse policing or the way coordinated rocket launches might dislodge a guillotine sharpened by the ceiling of the sky. It is arguable if this is the best way to start a poem, but so too it can be argued that the best way to calculate waste is to watch hungry pigs wallowing frictionless in their own slurry. If this is outrage then let it be climbed inside, into the uneaten remnants by the butcher’s block, the lungs, the heart. Many breaths have been stolen and so has our love. I’ll send it to you in the form of an empty street full of fool’s gold, or the light of a kitchen where knives in a drawer vibrate and feet drag across the laminate. If you thought a basement was the lowest place, then you’ve never stood upon a skyscraper, with its urinals and well-tailored suits. Ghosts, flesh, or figments of our imagination. To cast generalizations on the top percentile is a survival tactic learned by those who have lived in the grips of a vice, its mechanism, often observed by the wielder as heavy metallic object, is unilateral, or said differently from a tongue of specific tastes, is best used when tightened in one specific way.
October 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Stuart McPherson’s The Aureate Trophies of Profit & Loss is a furious, darkly surreal excavation of life under late capitalism, rendered in a language that seethes, mocks, and mourns.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Beige cover with bold black sans-serif text; author “STUART MCPHERSON” top left and “Broken Sleep Books” top right above a thin rule; large centered title “The Aureate Trophies of Profit & Loss (and other lyrics for a cold world)”; below, a wide graphic of tightly spaced horizontal black bars forming an equalizer-like grid with three taller central columns. Anti-Poem You are here and so is that rope. Not to advocate for it, but against it, like inverse policing or the way coordinated rocket launches might dislodge a guillotine sharpened by the ceiling of the sky. It is arguable if this is the best way to start a poem, but so too it can be argued that the best way to calculate waste is to watch hungry pigs wallowing frictionless in their own slurry. If this is outrage then let it be climbed inside, into the uneaten remnants by the butcher’s block, the lungs, the heart. Many breaths have been stolen and so has our love. I’ll send it to you in the form of an empty street full of fool’s gold, or the light of a kitchen where knives in a drawer vibrate and feet drag across the laminate. If you thought a basement was the lowest place, then you’ve never stood upon a skyscraper, with its urinals and well-tailored suits. Ghosts, flesh, or figments of our imagination. To cast generalizations on the top percentile is a survival tactic learned by those who have lived in the grips of a vice, its mechanism, often observed by the wielder as heavy metallic object, is unilateral, or said differently from a tongue of specific tastes, is best used when tightened in one specific way.
October 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Christopher Horton’s Clutter Jar is a taut, emotionally charged debut that explores masculinity, violence, memory, and technology with formal clarity and restrained lyricism.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Olive-green cover with three speckled seahorses—black, coral, and gold—lined up across the center; the title “Clutter Jar” appears in deep red at top left with “Christopher Horton” beneath it in dark grey; “Broken Sleep Books” sits small in gold at the bottom left. Before the Clinking of Glasses To us – the first to eclipse the moon, to re-arrange the stars, to peer into the open mouths of baited copperheads, to howl across the frozen tundra with packs of hungry arctic wolves, to sip sweet nectar from Hebe’s golden cup. Forget the try-hards, the fakes, the closeted fools of modern youth, who would sooner have their brains frozen, their tissue cryogenically revived, than learn the ways of jellyfish. Recall the promises we made, the songs we sang to keep us warm on the most unforgiving nights. How we thought ourselves immortal, that we could transform base metals into gold and split the subatomic particles left in light and air with nothing more than words, as if our lives depended on it.
October 21, 2025 at 12:46 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Bilie Na Ntụ / Rise from the Ashes by Catherine Okoronkwo is a bilingual collection of extraordinary range and emotional depth, rooted in grief, faith, protest, and cultural inheritance.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Taupe book cover with cream serif title “Bilie Na Ntụ / Rise from the Ashes” and author “Catherine Okoronkwo” at the top; a large rough black ink brushstroke forms a loose infinity loop across the center; “Broken Sleep Books” appears in small cream text at the bottom.
October 21, 2025 at 12:34 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Geoff Hattersley’s Collected Poems brings together over three decades of work, mapping a singular voice grounded in working-class experience, dark wit, and sharply observed detail.
Bright yellow cover featuring a crumpled blue balloon centered; title “Collected Poems” and author “Geoff Hattersley” appear in blue at the top left; “Broken Sleep Books” sits small at the bottom left. He Dreamed He Burst Balloons He dreamed he burst balloons for a living and was his own supervisor. He worked twelve hours a week, made a good wage. He was never exhausted, never bored. He was calm like a cat full of tuna, calm like a yacht in a sunlit harbour. His past life had been forgotten like a dull episode of a cop show. There were no scars on his body. Broken Sleep He indicates with open palm a vacant seat at his table Even though my legs are broken I opt to stand, drunk in shorts and a vest. "I never thought I'd win!" he says loudly. Not one person in the place could care less My wife turns over in her sleep. I place my arm around her waist and my thighs against her buttocks but it's hot and sweaty and I soon move softly away and lie flat on my back, my chest conversing with itself loudly.
October 8, 2025 at 2:41 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Róisín Ní Neachtain's I, bird is a fragmented, lyrical reckoning with grief, trauma, and the porous boundary between body and voice. @roisinnineachtain

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Minimalist book cover for “I, bird” by Róisín Ní Neachtain; the coral-red title sits at top left above the author’s name; below, a dark, sweeping tree branch with sparse red leaves spans the page, from which a simple wooden swing hangs on thin ropes; “Broken Sleep Books” appears small at the bottom. THE WHITE ROOM MEDUSA This is a square, empty room in which there is one window. You can’t see a door and you have no idea how you got in. The window is too small to have entered through. You are not in your usual clothes but it’s not in a straitjacket either. You find no relief in this. You are frozen against the floor. The floor is strangely soft but provides you with no comfort. This is a clinical space and not the type of hospital you have been forced to stay in. For a moment you think it is no different to White Cube. This isn’t a hospital. This is not an experiment. You are part of an exhibition. You are the exhibition. All eyes are on you and you must perform. It would be something not to perform. It would be something to lie here perfectly still and immobile, both in body and mind. You would not think about solitary confinement. You would not recite poetry in your head. You would not try to count time. You would not try to stay sane. How different would it be from outside of these walls really?
October 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
pierototo.bsky.social
Did a little translating! @betarish.bsky.social now speaks Italian on the Atelier Poesia website atelierpoesia.it/rishi-dastid...

Big thanks to @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social and Offord Road Books for their generous concession.

#poetry #translation #traduzione
A stylized, blue-toned portrait of the author wearing glasses and a dark shirt, looking directly at the camera. The background is softly blurred, emphasizing his face. Overlaid text reads: “Rishi Dastidar, ‘The Break of a Wave’ & ‘A Hobby of Mine’,” “echoes,” and “Traduzioni di Piero Toto.” Italian translation of some verses from A Hobby of Mine. A visually styled Italian text excerpt in blue font on a white background. The name “Rishi Dastidar” appears in bold blue, followed by “tradotto da Piero Toto” in italic blue, indicating the translator. A stylized letter “A” is positioned in the bottom right corner, representing the Atelier logo. A blue-background promotional excerpt featuring a poem titled A Hobby of Mine by Rishi Dastidar. The author’s name appears at the bottom, followed by “from A Hobby of Mine.” A stylized letter “A” is in the bottom right corner, indicating the Atelier publication logo.
October 8, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
gitaralleigh.bsky.social
Beautiful poetry post today from
@brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
#ukpoets #poetrysky
October 8, 2025 at 12:13 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
The Vitalist Sees the Signs is a sly, searing, and spectacularly inventive sequence from GB Clarkson, where each poem casts its eye on the absurd, the divine, and the intimately strange.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
A realistic illustration of a silverfish insect is centered on a stark white background. The title The Vitalist Sees the Signs appears in bold serif font at the top, with the author’s name, G B Clarkson, beneath it. “Broken Sleep Books” is printed small and grey at the bottom.
October 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
PREORDER:

Gareth Farmer’s What’s That: Instead of Ego II: Acrostic Aftermaths & Other Poems is a structurally intricate and linguistically dense exploration of autism, neurodivergence, and the burdens of normativity.

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
A matte black background is patterned with dozens of small, angled black security cameras pointing in various directions, creating a grid-like visual texture. The title, What’s That: Instead of Ego II: Acrostic Aftermaths & Other Poems, is printed in a light serif font at the top left, with the author’s name, Gareth Farmer, beneath it in a slightly smaller size. “Broken Sleep Books” appears discreetly at the bottom in the same muted grey I. What’s This Little Evening Impossible? [Lachrymose] Learned in the day’s margins is the standard-flop’s overachieve, As the chastening reminders of routine perma-prick with harry. Calloused by constant call to alarum at others’ sleight-moves. Harrow through shopping aisles with mumbling mire miasma. Rigmaroles of order-ardour emote in the soft patters of walking. Youth no longer and subject to the pathological fantasies of finality. Maudlin in a mordant mesmerism of life un-earned, these Otiose incidentals track their unfathomable way down cheeks. Simpering in simple exasperation at the car’s steering wheel; Engaged in hope to hold off a public display of becoming unfettered.
October 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
roisinnineachtain.com
This happened just now.

Pre-orders up!!! Deeply grateful to @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social and all my teachers at UCD and the kind writers who wrote the blurbs including @gagebybell.bsky.social and @martinadalton.bsky.social and so many others …

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Róisín Ní Neachtain - I, bird | Broken Sleep Books
Róisín Ní Neachtain's I, bird is a fragmented, lyrical reckoning with grief, trauma, and the porous boundary between body and voice. Structured in poetic prose and verse, the collection moves between ...
www.brokensleepbooks.com
October 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
gdemonology.bsky.social
Don't forget that DEVASTATION SONGS, a gorgeous collection of weird, whimsical, and wondrous kaiju writing by loads of amazing writers, is available from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social! Learn more here: www.atadamswriting.com/devastation-...
October 6, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
cclarklewes.bsky.social
Collected Works by F. van Dixhoorn translated by @astridalben.bsky.social from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social
Green cover
October 2, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Broken Sleep Books
stoneandthestar.bsky.social
On National Poetry Day the theme is 'Play' so I'd like to recommend Hit Points by @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social , an anthology of poems about video games. My poem about Ultima IV is one of them. share.google/rOTLs3R7qnQ6...
Hit Points, An anthology of video game poetry | Broken Sleep Books
Released May 31st 2021 // 100 pages // Red or green variants Video games and poetry may be an unlikely seeming match, if video games are one of the most popular imaginative forms in contemporary cultu...
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October 2, 2025 at 11:32 AM