14 / fern, ivy, marjoram
A release date! A cover reveal! A preorder link! A theatre review or two! A surprise portrait! A heart full of love!
Kia ora koutou,
Just a wee [EXCITING!] one today, mostly in images. First, though, some notes on theatre:
This past week, I reviewed Silo Theatre’s The Writer for bad apple. The play was a feast and then some. (If you would like similar fare to a traditional bouquet—sans footnotes, but featuring a side-quest into Portrait of a Lady on Fire—I would suggest giving the review a read. I managed to sneak in the world “stichomythic”, but for the most part it’s not too insufferable.)
Gay Death Stocktake is on for a couple more nights at Basement! K and I went on Tuesday and it was unpredictable and funny and openhearted and I found myself almost in tears by the end. Absurd and generous, and different every show,1 and a great night out if you’re in Tāmaki Makaurau.
In other news—Short Films has a cover,2 and a release date, and a preorder link:
The book will be out on October 27, seven weeks from today.3 You can preorder it by clicking on the cover image above,4 and/or you can scroll down to find out a bit more:
From We Are Babies Press [my publishers, the legends]—
Tate Fountain’s Short Films is a lush bouquet of poems. This stunning debut reads at times like a film script, a letter to a lover, or a series of richly pigmented vignettes. Desire blooms alongside a tender love of film, art, and literature. In this playful, punny book, Fountain experiments with form and feeling, with poems that are smart, evocative and full of heart.
From Emma Barnes—
These are poems I want to read in summer, near water, with ripe fruit and birds singing. I want to have them read to me as I fall asleep. In this difficult world, love poems bring us back to ourselves and to each other. This collection is full of poems to remind us why connection is at once so fraught and so wonderful.
From Leah Dodd—
I’ve been punched in the gut by Tate Fountain’s mastery of language, but to quote Wet Leg, I kinda like it cause it feels like being in love. Respectfully, you’d be a fool not to read this book. You’ll be thinking of these poems later, and later, and later.
And if all that loveliness weren’t enough, Of Crafts & Curios surprised me yesterday with a portrait of cartoon me, who is without doubt hotter than I have ever been, in front of a re-creation of my book cover, and all of the colours drawn specifically from the cover’s palette, and I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t go without sharing it here (and, shortly, anywhere anyone will view/listen):
So! That is all for now, friends. Short Films, premiering October 27,5 with that incredible cover I am still so stoked over, available for preorder now. God! My heart—and plate—is full.
All best,
T x
Short Films has a cover, and it is “Flower Arrangement” (2018) by the incredible Anna Higgins, plus the greatest font Ya-Wen [designer and typesetter extraordinaire] could ever have found, with a frame of reference and a thoughtfulness that flew straight to my heart and stuck there. More on all this in due course, kiss kiss.
[Laura Linney Love Actually stairwell dance dot gif]
The Babies came up with that line and it tickled me massively. Bit-committers, all.