Based in southeast England, Black Cat Press was founded in 2022 by Satya Bosman. In the space of a little over two years, the press has established a reputation for publishing exquisitely produced collections by talented emerging writers, with an emphasis on nature and eco-poetry. I had the pleasure of speaking to Satya and her co-editor Catherine Balaq about the joys and challenges of independent poetry publishing, their own poetry, and forthcoming projects.

– Satya and Catherine, please introduce yourselves and tell me what led to the founding of Black Cat Poetry Press.

Satya: Hello, I’m Satya Bosman, a poet and editor.  I’m originally from South Africa but have lived in several countries around the world including Australia, France and Portugal.  I founded Black Cat Press because I became frustrated at what felt like a limited amount of opportunities to be published as a poet who was not yet established. I wanted to contribute something to the poetry community and provide an opportunity to platform under-represented writers.

Catherine: I am a writer and body psychotherapist. My poetry centres around themes of class, gender and the politics of the body and its intersection with the arts. The mythology of underworlds, the subconscious and the creative process are areas of special focus. I also write novels and am represented by Donald Winchester at Watson Little. 

I joined the press as an editor around the same time that Satya took on my debut collection for publishing. I will always be grateful for the chance Satya gave me in publishing and working with the press. I adore working with poets on developing and editing their work ready for publication. I am a psychotherapist, so I have always loved the back and forth with people to achieve full potential. I have also been invited to judge on competitions; and Satya and I have become good friends through the connection of the press.

– How did you choose the name of the press, and how would you describe your publishing ethos?

Satya: The name of the press came about as I have a black cat called Lily who I’m rather obsessed with!  I also like the association that black cats have with the esoteric. I love reading poetry that touches on magic, myth and folklore, women’s stories and the environment. Our publishing ethos is we love to discover great writers but particularly those that also share our values of caring for the environment.

Catherine: Over to Satya as the founder of the press for this one, my role is more of a creative consultant. But I am also a black cat lover. I have three black cats! One of the first things I said to Satya was ‘If I ever had a press, I would have called it Black Cat!’

– Black Cat poetry books are beautiful productions, both visually and tactilely, exuding an understated elegance. The cover art serves as an invitation to open each book and read the poems contained therein with care, taking our time to contemplate themes and language and layers of meaning. 

This sense of care also finds expression in the poems themselves, for example in the delicate underwater evocations of Bex Hainsworth’s Walrussey; Corinna Broad’s sensitive, thoughtful responses to the ancient presence, personality and mythology of trees in Arboreal; or the fine, tender observations of Lisa Simpson’s Birdsong. 

At the heart of all these pamphlets is compassion. They convey a message that we should cherish our natural world, our relationships, and all that is meaningful  to us. Would you like to comment on this assessment, and on where Black Cat publications might fit in terms of nature poetry and eco-poetry?

Satya: Thank you. We really believe in ensuring our books are well designed with a high quality print. We want to ensure the whole experience from first seeing the book to picking it up, the touch of the paper and then of course the poetry is as good as it possibly can be.  I’m very drawn to nature poetry and we do encourage submissions of that genre however we are also open to other subjects.  We try where possible to donate to nature campaigns.

Catherine: Nature poetry and eco-poetry are very close to both Satya’s and Black Cat’s heart and way of working. It was these values that drew me to both work with and publish with the press. The books are art objects in themselves. Every cover has been distinct and beautiful.  And who can’t fall in love with a French flap?

– I love the fact that your books have French flaps! They are stylish and convenient.

Let’s turn now to the subject of independent poetry publishing. Many of the editors of small poetry presses I’ve spoken to have expressed their concerns about the challenges the sector currently faces, particularly in terms of marketing, sales, and costs. Several have also mentioned workload and the risk of burnout. Black Cat Poetry Press is a relative newcomer to the field of poetry publishing: what has been your experience so far?

Satya: We’ve been running for about two and a half years now. I think I’d agree with all of this. It is a very challenging environment financially, we receive far more submissions than we sell books!  Arts funding is very competitive and most presses are unsuccessful so the press has needed subsidy from my savings account!  Both Catherine and I are unpaid, all the work we put in is out of love for the art form.  I’ve noticed in our short time in the publishing world several presses/magazines closing their doors which is always sad. We hope to keep going as long as possible and be a consistent presence.

Catherine: All the work that the press does is unpaid. As Satya said, it really is a labour of love. But also an honour to help bring new voices into the poetry world. Poetry is, for both of us I think, a kind of devotion. Being so involved in a small press I have an appreciation for the work and time that goes into each and every manuscript. It’s useful to see that from the inside, it has deepened my respect for all the work small presses and journals do. As poets we do not gift our work to small presses, the gift is given in the press devoting their unpaid time, believing in your manuscript and making it a real book in the world.

– In addition to your role as editors, both of you are accomplished poets. Satya, you are currently working on your debut collection. Your poem “The Farm” which was recently published by The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society in their Poetry Folio #77, is a vivid description of childhood friendships on a farm in South Africa – “outdoors until dark, the night crammed with stars/ the sound of cicadas clicking clicking”.  Another poem of yours, “A Cooked Breakfast”, published last year in 14 Magazine, also draws on youthful reminiscence, with its memorable portrayal of your grandfather:

We’d drive to the beach, Sinatra blasting, going a little too fast.
He’d swim out so I couldn’t see him, my earliest taste of anxiety.

Is childhood a recurrent theme in your writing? What are your primary sources of creative inspiration?

Satya: Yes, my childhood in South Africa is a big source of inspiration. The poem about my Oupa (grandfather) is very special to me and I was thrilled it was included in 14 Magazine, along with one of your poems Marian! My poems normally start with an image, an idea or a feeling. Sometimes I do some exploration and research and other times I flesh out the image I see in my mind and try and add texture, imagery, metaphor etc. At the moment I’m quite keen to write a poem about the American war of independence and have purchased a book on the subject.

– Please share one of your poems with us and tell us something about the process of creating it.

Seapoint

My grandfather swam out to sea most days
He was a Cape Town boy, grew up by the docks in Seapoint

His father the ships’ doctor. 
The second son doesn’t inherit the farm. 

Seascapes complimented his rugged good looks. 
He had blonde hair into his seventies, always neatly combed

and checked in the reflection of shop windows. He thought that boys
didn’t make passes at girls who wore glasses. 

When his father died the whole town turned up to the funeral.
When my grandfather died, I.

I thought I’d share this poem as we were talking about this theme in my poetry. I stopped at ‘I’ as I often find it very difficult to express how much I miss him and my feelings about his death.  He died 25 years ago but it still feels very present.

– Thank you, Satya, for sharing this moving description of your grandfather with us.

Catherine, your pamphlet animaginary is “a journey through archetypes and animals of the subconscious…. [that] entwines nature and psyche with the intention of personal alchemy.” It’s a powerful collection, shifting through perspectives and states of being, with taut, unsettling images –– two magpies pecking at a crow, the sudden appearance of a doe on a lonely road, the moon that “cracks like an egg/ half way down my throat.” The poems are tightly interwoven. I’m interested in how the collection came into being. Did you conceive of it as an integrated body of work, or did the poems emerge separately and organically?

Catherine: The poems in animaginary came from long explorations over 5 years. I was writing plays at the time, and working on a novella alongside the poetry. The work moved through many incarnations before it settled into its current form. I became fascinated with hybrid writing. Each piece of work emerged individually and organically, and with the benefit of time and education in many forms, I was able to allow the collection to find its final poem, that of the structure, sequence and narrative drive. 

I had an amazing editor in Tamar Yoseloff. Tamar is also editor on my new collection Deathless which is publishing with Verve in October 2024.

– Please share one of your poems with us and describe its significance in terms of your evolution as a writer.

Catherine: I’ll share a poem from animaginary, “The nature of the female crow”.

The nature of the female crow                                              

                                                          in nest
is questioned by the smallest of the brood.

It’s baby corvus eyes so very blue
the oversized beak is monstrous on the head.

Red edges of the peck, a cut smile-wide 
ripped mouth agape, lipstick badly applied.

How does she find the wild drive to give, 
the daily slog of chicks be fed and filled.

Endless nesting cycles egged in her breast,
mouthing poop over the edge: but hungry

for change not growth, she kicks it off and out. 
Counts the mouths remaining large and gapping.

Cleans the clutch of sick— the drop-stained stench. 
Regurgitated guts—wipes slop from down.

How she glooms this play of chicks in power. 
For now at least it’s reached the final rest.

Bird head split back, brow flung open to reveal 
shocking pink gullet, insides of the throat

eager, appalling, strangely attractive
as the soft pink opening between a woman’s legs.

The poem was a favourite of mine in the collection and was written at the time I started to be deeply interested in animism, the belief that everything is inherently invested with soul/ worth, animation.  I realised that I was, in effect creating many varied animal poems, a poetry menagerie of the imagination, and there was born my book title.

– The imagery in this poem is so layered and powerful –– thank you for sharing it with us.

Finally, Satya and Catherine, are there any current or future projects that you would like to tell us about, both in terms of Black Cat Poetry Press and your own work?

Satya: I start my master’s in creative writing in October where I’m hoping to develop my first pamphlet. The current theme I’m considering is the bogs and peatlands of Ireland, where my father is from. 

Black Cat has a busy list this year!  Our next publication will be Immediately after and then later by Galia Admoni which explores heartbreak.

Catherine: The press recently had a wonderful nature competition that attracted a very high standard of poems from accomplished poets. It was a joy to read all of that work and arrive at a shortlist. The winner Alice Omalley had an extraordinary poem and I am excited to see what Alice might do next!

The press also has some amazing work publishing soon. I have just finished editing with Benedicta Norell on her pamphlet Terrible  Mother. The work is stunning.

– I look forward to reading these forthcoming pamphlets from Black Cat Press! Many thanks, Satya and Catherine, for taking the time to answer my questions. 

Link:

Black Cat Poetry Press: https://www.blackcatpress.co.uk