R.M. Francis

New Towns R.M. Francis

New Towns is an anthology of poetry edited by R. M. Francis.

The collection offers a diverse range of perspectives and forms from established and upcoming writers.

How does place impact individual and communal identity?

This anthology is a glimpse at sites that all share similar histories, social and cultural make-up, and founding principles.




The writers in this collection are Helen Angel, Craig Austin, Jane Burn, Brian Comber, Sarah Davy, Murdo Eason, Harry Gallagher, Mark Goodwin, Steve Harrison, Sarah James, Alison Jones, Richard Lakin, Laurence Mitchell, Heather Moulson, Marcelle Newbould, Nick Pearson, Finola Scott, Billy Stanton, Rob Walton, Kim Wyshall-Hammond.

We're defining New Towns by those associated with the New Towns Act 1946, and the subsequent waves of development following the Second World War: the waves of 1946, 1961-64 and 1967-70. These towns were designed to alleviate housing shortages by expanding into the UK's Green Belt and areas considered "overspill" close to large cities. That said, some already existing conurbations were designated with New Town status during these waves, this included town planning and housing projects in keeping with the design and ethos of the wider projects. This anthology is a glimpse at a handful of sites that all share similar histories, social and cultural make-up, and founding principles.

This collection uncovers the eerie and haunting in these places - areas that promised release and relief, and still show the slightly faded signs of these promises. Towns that glimpsed at a possible future, but are caught in the defunct eddy of that glance.

The UK literary world is riding a wave of great place-writing at the moment. From the New Nature Writers like Robert McFarlane and Helen McDonald to writers like Paul Farley who rethink the postindustrial edges of our estates. From projects like Places of Poetry to the digital site-specific work of Birmingham's Overhear and Hull's QR Poetry. Writers have investigated coasts and rivers, hamlet and city, wild and tamed. This is the first creative anthology with singular attention to these important yet overlooked areas of the UK landscape, featuring writers from and who deal with these uniquely haunting places.

In these pages you'll find an array of perspectives and styles; from personal essay to short story, concrete poem to monologue. What they share is a focus on the disparate elements that make up place-identity in these places. There is a focus on outsider views from subcultures; as if the labyrinthine roadways and in-between economic and social status of these towns give rise to voices that are finding themselves and figuring themselves out, through contrasts and clashes in their surroundings. The poetic voices in this collection are both arriving and static, getting out and incapable of escaping. But this is not without tenderness. The poetry and prose on display here recognise the peculiar and overlooked beauty of these spaces - they say, we not just overspills and tagged-on parts of wider conurbations; they ask, importantly, how long do we have to be here until we're no longer still just "new".