Fox and Star Books
Fox and Star Books publishes original chapbooks of poetry and fiction with at least 50% of publications by global majority or otherwise marginalised authors.
Founder/Editor: Carrie Etter
Co-Poetry Editor: Kaycee Hill
£8 includes shipping and handling in the UK
Inaugural Winner
of Our Debut
Chapbook Competition
'June Wentland's Factory of Light explores the liminal spaces evoked by literature, dream states, and our own consciousness. The unknowable lives of houses, gardens, animals, and the dead become palpable, rendering the familiar both strange and intimate. Poem by poem, Wentland reveals the interconnected nature of our lives, how our existence is illuminated in myriad ways by other presences. Immersive, intelligent, and original, Factory of Light is a compelling debut.' --Carrie Etter
'I have been an admirer of June Wentland’s poetry for several years so was delighted to hear she had a chapbook coming out and it’s so good. In fresh language that dances off the page ('Air pasty as a nun’s legs/ afternoons the colour of stewed tea.’) or Madame Heger stitching 'Miss Brontë’s je suis tightly to her délaissé.’) Wentland wears her knowledge lightly and her literary poems are a particular treat. The more autobiographical poems are also a delight - witty, wise, self-deprecating but ultimately triumphant. I loved it.' --Carole Bromley
Our 2025 competition winners
Our 2025 competition winners are Soledad Santana and June Wentland. As Sol has decided to publish elsewhere, we'll be having a call for submissions solely for poets of colour in Autumn 2026--watch this space!
June Wentland is proud to have been born and brought up in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The vagaries of life then took her to Bath, Manchester and Bristol. She currently lives in Wiltshire. Her poems have been published widely in magazines and literary journals
including PN Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand and Poetry Salzburg. Her debut novel Foolish Heroines was published by Valley Press in 2021. You can find out more about her at
www.junewentland.com.
June says, 'I had some early successes in poetry publication and competitions as a teenager but I was married and a mum by the time I was twenty. Bringing up a family, studying and working
full-time meant that for much of my life writing was, by necessity, squeezed to one side. Since taking early retirement, in 2020 I’ve finally managed to find the space to concentrate on writing. The publication of this chap book is the achievement and celebration of a very long-term ambition.'
About the Editors
Editor and founder Carrie Etter has been writing and publishing for over forty years. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in Boston Review, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New Statesman, The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, The Times Literary Supplement, and many other journals and anthologies internationally. Her five collections of poetry include Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and Grief's Alphabet (Seren, 2024). She also edited Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010), a TLS Book of the Year, former student Linda Lamus's posthumous collection, A Crater the Size of Calcutta (Mulfran, 2015), and Claire Crowther's Sense and Nonsense: Essays and Interviews (Shearsman, 2024). (Photo credit Clara Langrick)
Co-poetry editor Kaycee Hill is a mixed-race, working-class poet. She was co-winner of the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize and has published poems in Five Dials and Poetry Review. Hot Sauce (Bloodaxe, 2023) is her first collection.
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Events
Thursday, 25 June, 7 p.m. Our very first launch with June Wentland's Factory of Light! The event will open with fellow poets reading a poem each, followed by June reading a short selection from the chapbook. The Grapes, 14 Westgate Street, Bath BA1 1EQ. The Grapes offers the space in exchange for a donation to the mental health charity Mind, so please bring along some change if you can. Copies of Factory of Light will be available for sale by card, and June will gladly sign your copy.
Submissions
We hope to publish some of the best debut poetry and fiction in the UK. Could you be one of the authors we're looking for?
Our next call for submissions in Autumn 2026 will be for a UK- or Ireland-based poet of colour. Details will be posted here soon!
We have finished our inaugural call for poetry chapbook submissions in autumn 2025 and are delighted to announce our shortlist:
Angela Cheveau Nadia Yahlom
Nick Currass Victoria Punch
Ian Irwin Soledad Santana
Bridgette James Laura Tansley
Rachel Jeffcoat Ceri Morgan
June Wentland
Thanks to everyone who submitted!