Wow - 2020. It’s been a bit intense hasn’t it? Coronavirus came roaring into our lives and many things that once seemed certain suddenly got turned on their heads. There’s been stress and confusion and separation from loved ones, and for many of us, sadly, illness and death have reared their heads too.
Amidst it all, we’ve come up with ways of coping – humans are resilient and I’ve been amazed by what people have achieved during these strange times. For me, creativity has played an important role in keeping me going. I drew and wrote my way through the early months of lockdown like my life depended on it. And I connected with others as much as I could too: people - friends and family - were a great source of solace and support to me, even from afar.
And when friendship collided with creativity there were some unexpected outcomes! The main one being setting up Birch Moon Press, a not-for-profit independent publisher along with five of my writing friends - Chrissie, Alice, Sophie Reneé and Nicola.
Although we had the idea for our press only a few short months ago, the roots of our story go back to 2014 when we were all bloggers juggling small kids, jobs, families and a shared dream to become published authors. We met through our blogs and soon formed our own online creative writing group to help us achieve our goals. Our community quickly grew to over fifty members so there was always someone on hand to offer advice, support and motivation.
In the years since then, many of us have met up multiple times in real life, books, poetry and stories of all kinds have burst from amongst us and great friendships have developed and flourished.
As a supportive group, naturally, when the pandemic hit and spirits were low, we arranged a zoom call. And so, early in lockdown, some of us found ourselves chatting about what we could do to make those times a little brighter. We came up with an idea to produce and publish a book of short stories and poetry together – something creative and cathartic to give us a positive focus during the pandemic. We weren’t sure how we were going to achieve it but we have a whole range of publishing, writing and illustrating experience between us so anything seemed possible.
As we wrote and planned and chatted over the subsequent weeks our little project developed to include more writers, potential further publications, a plan to donate profits to charity and then, well, we needed a whole new press to achieve this through!
As for the name – the Birch Moon is the first month in the Celtic calendar running from December 24th to January 20th. It is a time of new beginnings, of re-birth and regeneration, of planning for the future and embracing new potentials and opportunities. As we worked on our project we began to see our publications – present and future – as something good that could arise from the pain and grief of the pandemic. Our press was that new beginning, that possibility, that opportunity that the birch moon traditionally represents. And so Birch Moon Press it became.
The collection of short stories that started the whole adventure has become our inaugural publication – an anthology called Heartache and Hope: Voices of a Pandemic which was released on 3rd July. All profits from the book are going to Rosa, a grantmaking charity that funds grassroots women’s organisations to help make the UK a fairer, safer place for women.
In keeping with the times, we had an online launch party which was my first ever experience of Facebook live. It was a bit nerve-wracking but I ended up really enjoying it. You can watch the whole thing here if you’re interested in finding out more about us and our story. Naturally, as six mothers with seventeen kids between us there are cameos from children!
I poured my creative energy into the whole project, designing our logo (six birch trees to represent the six of us) along with the cover of Heartache and Hope and also illustrating each of the twenty pieces of poetry and prose that make up the collection. Those of you who know my style will recognise that the cover is a linocut. It’s all about taking broken hearts and making them into something hopeful. The illustrations inside are all only 3x4cm – miniature drawings have been a theme I’ve been exploring for years and it was nice to use that passion in this project.
I also wrote two pieces for the anthology – a poem and a very personal piece of prose that gives an insight into why I have found this year particularly difficult. All in all, publishing the anthology felt like putting my heart on the line. But it’s been that sort of year. A raw sort of year. The sort where you realise what’s important. And I know I’m far from alone in feeling that way.
This project, in many ways, has brought support, and a feeling of togetherness and purpose that I have found immensely valuable. My hope is that our anthology and the future projects of Birch Moon Press can provide something of that for other people too.
To find out more about the press please visit our website.