Blood & Cord: Writers on Early Parenthood

By Elīna Brasliņa

A child is born and everything is made anew. In this blur of new beginnings there are tears and laughter, new words and new silences: this is an unmaking and remaking of the self.
From short stories about unnerved fathers and lost mothers, to poems about 'half-built Lego palaces' and friends who share their deepest secrets, Blood & Cord is a raw exploration of new parenthood. Voicing silenced conversations about loss, grief, and loneliness, as well as the joys and laughter that are part and parcel of becoming a parent, the stories told within offer a refreshingly honest account of life after new life.
This collection is a hand in the dark, offering comfort and solidarity to any new parent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Emma Press
• Release date: May 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781915628169

Elīna Brasliņa

Elīna Brasliņa studied Printmaking and Graphic Arts at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2014 she has illustrated more than twenty titles, including Moon Juice by Kate Wakeling, which was her international debut. She has been nominated for numerous awards in Latvia, and has won the Zelta Ābele (Golden Apple Tree) National Prize for Book Art twice. She was awarded the International Jānis Baltvilks Prize in 2017. You can visit Elīna’s website and see more of her illustrations here: www.elinabraslina.com

Book preview

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Many kinds of parenthood are presented in this superb new collection of poems and stories. Mothers and fathers convey the spectrum of ways in which the self is remade by parenthood, the 'complete subjugation' of this task – bodily, mentally, spiritually – tearing apart the boundaries of love for which new language is required. Thankfully, the writers herein are more than up to this otherwise monumental task. New and experienced parents alike will find solace and resonance in this wonderful book. – Carolyn Jess-Cooke

OTHER TITLES FROM THE EMMA PRESS

SHORT STORIES AND ESSAYS

How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart, by Florentyna Leow

Night-time Stories, edited by Yen-Yen Lu

Hailman, by Leanne Radojkovich

Postcard Stories 2, by Jan Carson

Tiny Moons: A year of eating in Shanghai, by Nina Mingya Powles

POETRY COLLECTIONS

Europe, Love Me Back, by Rakhshan Rizwan

POETRY AND ART SQUARES

The Strange Egg, by Kirstie Millar, illustrated by Hannah Mumby

The Fox's Wedding, by Rebecca Hurst, illustrated by Reena Makwana

Pilgrim, by Lisabelle Tay, illustrated by Reena Makwana

One day at the Taiwan Land Bank Dinosaur Museum, by Elīna Eihmane

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

We Are A Circus, by Nasta, illustrated by Rosie Fencott

Cloud Soup, by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa

The Bee Is Not Afraid of Me: A Book of Insect Poems, edited by Fran Long and Isabel Galleymore

My Sneezes Are Perfect, by Rakhshan Rizwan, illustrated by Benjamin Phillips

POETRY PAMPHLETS

Milk Snake, by Toby Buckley

Ovarium, by Joanna Ingham

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THE EMMA PRESS

First published in the UK in 2023 by The Emma Press Ltd.

Texts © individual writers 2023.

Selection and introduction © Abi Curtis 2023.

Cover design © Elīna Brasliņa 2023.

All rights reserved.

The rights of Abi Curtis to be identified as the editor of this anthology and of the writers to be identified as the authors of their texts have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978-1-915628-15-2

EPUB ISBN 978-1-915628-16-9

A CIP catalogue record of this book

is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books, Padstow.

The Emma Press

theemmapress.com

[e-mail]

Birmingham, UK

INTRODUCTION

FROM THE EDITOR

The birth of a baby is like a comet crashing into your living room, like a door inside yourself opening up, like being inside a tempest. Becoming a new parent is one of life’s greatest joys, and much of what we read and see on social media and in popular culture tells us so: blooming mothers flushed with love, adoring, doting fathers, proud grandparents. But there is an unedited side to the story: it is also full of other emotions, some of them ambivalent, and this storm of emotions is often under-portrayed. Becoming a parent can be a kind of un-making of the self. You lose your old life in many ways, both physically and emotionally. From the intensity of birth, to the strange hinterlands of sleepless nights, from the pain of baby loss, to the ferocity of love, to the sensation of having allowed a being into your world who will change it forever.

The remade version of the parent has undergone a profound transformation. The writers in this collection, some fathers, some mothers, explore this territory with searing honesty and originality. The introduction of a new baby rearranges a life, and this requires a new language and a new kind of engagement with the world. The fictions, memoirs and poetry within these pages will illuminate parenthood in unexpected ways. The title, Blood & Cord, is taken from a beautiful poem by Gail McConnell, ‘Talk Through the Wall’, which explores a form of parenthood where both parents are women, and the speaker of the poem seeks to situate herself as the partner who is not pregnant. This exemplifies how the anthology aims to represent many possible versions of parenthood. The writers here are already known and admired for their writing on parenthood, and with brand new work and work collected from award-winning volumes, they will move, surprise and console new parents everywhere.

ABI CURTIS, 2023

CONTENTS

NAOMI BOOTH

What is tsunami?

GAIL MCCONNELL

Talk Through the Wal

Now

Untitled / Villanelle

An Apple Seed

MALCOLM TAYLOR

To be where I am not

LIZ BERRY

The Other Mothers

Godspeed

Princes End

Blue Heaven

RACHEL BOWER

Flight

Continue on Loop

RUTH CHARNOCK

three tarot cards for the new mother

ABI CURTIS

September Birth

Ultrasound

On my son, falling asleep

Water Birth

JENNIFER COOKE

Inside the Eye

PAIGE DAVIS

This Too Will Pass

JANINE BRADBURY

Meridian

Stranger Days

Jellyfish

ELIZABETH HOGARTH

Animal Body

Shark Tooth

Injured Bird

SYLVIE SIMONDS

The bonds of love

ALEX MCRAE DIMSDALE

Bath

Disaster

Feeding the Baby

Things I have removed from my baby’s mouth

Covenant

DAISY HILDYARD

Waste

REBECCA GOSS

Other Mothers

CALEB KLACES

The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction

SANDRA SIMONDS

Bikram Yoga

Lace Clouds over House over House over House

Exploding Florida

TOMMY BRAD

Expectant father

Author biographies

Permissions

About The Emma Press

Also from The Emma Press

What is tsunami?

Naomi Booth

In the beginning, there were no words. You lay back in the hospital bed, stunned. The midwife went about her business in the background. There were low murmurs in the