Jacob SamLa Roses Communion Wins PBS Pamphlet Choice

Jacob Sam-La Rose has won the Poetry Book Society (PBS) Pamphlet Choice for Summer 2006 for his debut chapbook, Communion. The recognition, voted for every quarter by a specialist panel is given alongside awards for full collections, translations, and a Special Commendation for outstanding work that is not eligible for other categories. PBS selections go back to the 1950s, and previous winners include Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Anna Robinson, Roddy Lumsden, Daljit Nagra, Frances Leviston, Paul Muldoon, Sylvia Plath, and Derek Walcott. Communion will be featured in the Autumn 2006 PBS Bulletin. The PBS Choice award is a major coup for Jacob'ss publishers, mouthmark (an imprint of flipped eye publishing), who were given support funding by the Arts Council just three months before the award to continue the pamphlet series.

Jacob Sam-La Rose studied drama, performing arts, and dance before becoming a writer, and has since gained an international status for performance and teaching, appearing at literature and arts festivals including The Word: London Festival of Literature, The Portobello Festival and as a 'sdistinguished attendee's at the 2005 Gwendolyn Brooks Writers's Conference in Chicago. The former poet in residence for BBC broadcast show London Live, Jacob placed second in the London Poetry Society'ss Poetry Slam in 1999 and has had his poems played on a Gilles Peterson Worldwide Poetry Special (BBC Radio 1).

mouthmark was founded in 2005 by Ghanaian writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes to serve as a vehicle to nurture emerging poets towards the publication of a full collection of poems. Communion, by Jacob Sam-La Rose, is third in the mouthmark series. Other titles are: The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man by Nick Makoha, 13 Fairy Negro Tales by Inua Ellams and Handmade Fire by Malika'ss Poetry Kitchen; future releases include Party of Black by Truth Thomas, Speaking in Tongues by Jessica Mkakyera Horn and Walk Home by Denise Saul. The series will be launched officially in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Please direct any enquiries as follows:

Press & Publicity:
Nii A. Parkes
nii.parkes [at flippedeye.net

Events:
Sally Strong
admin [at flippedeye.net
Orders:
James Foley
books [at flippedeye.net

PBS Enquiries:
Christopher Simons
christopher [at poetrybooks.co.uk

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:
Gravity by Jacob Sam-La Rose

When we were young, we worshipped stars.

Our symbols of faith were ticks and stripes
endorsed by gleaming long-limbed gods
frozen/framed in the act of impossible flight,
plastered on our walls. For a time we tried
to follow, find the staircase, learn the trick,
to rise, to carve out our own piece of sky
with a butter-smooth arc of an arm
and a Spalding ball glued to the fingertips.
We thought we knew. Sooner or later,
for each of us, gravity came calling
to shackle our ankles and dreams.

But, for a time, we were free.

Jacob SamLa Roses Communion Wins PBS Pamphlet Choice

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Jacob SamLa Roses Communion Wins PBS Pamphlet Choice

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