Speculative autobiography from women

Verity Holloway approached Boudicca Press back in 2019 with an idea for the anthology following her scrape with a life changing operation. Verity, author of Psuedotooth, Beauty Secrets of the Martyrs and The Mighty Healer, started writing about her perception of pain in intensive care following her experience with open-heart surgery. Tanked up on morphine, Verity met a lot of people who turned out not to be real, time was warped and she felt that the sense of her body completely changed. After speaking with Georgina Bruce of This House of Wounds and Louise Kenward, artist and writer with a background in the NHS, working as a psychologist and psychotherapist, she discovered that they had all written creative non-fiction pieces in response to their unnerving experiences with their bodies.Verity says “Inhabiting a body is inherently weird. It’s a political statement you never signed up for. It seems you aren’t allowed to exist inside one without having a strong opinion on each and every component, and inevitably those opinions on the body grow monstrous legs and become opinions on the self. Our bodies will all be disrupted, by accident, design, misfortune or the passage of time. And when they are, we find ourselves in the absurd position of juggling mortality, the self, and what socks to pack.”Read more about the inspiration behind Disturbing the Body here.

We’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund Disturbing the Body: an anthology of speculative autobiography about misbehaving bodies from women in the UK. SUPPORT THE BOOK AND PRE ORDER YOUR COPY. Disturbing the Body is a collection of speculative autobiography centred around experiences of misbehaving bodies from women writers in the UK. It explores themes ranging from chronic illnesses, disability and major life changing operations, and puts before the reader moments where women can feel powerless and out of the ordinary from their own bodies.

Submissions were gained through an open call out process and Verity Holloway and Louise Kenward were commissioned to feature in the anthology. Submissions closed on 7th May 2020 so watch this space for an announcement of all the authors involved!It will be published by Boudicca Press in October 2020 (COVID19 dependent!) and we’d love your support to raise £2300 to fairly pay all involved in the book process. Why disturb the body? Verity Holloway approached Boudicca Press back in 2019 with an idea for the anthology following her scrape with a life changing operation. Verity, author of Psuedotooth, Beauty Secrets of the Martyrs and The Mighty Healer, started writing about her perception of pain in intensive care following her experience with open-heart surgery. Tanked up on morphine, Verity met a lot of people who turned out not to be real, time was warped and she felt that the sense of her body completely changed. After speaking with Georgina Bruce of This House of Wounds and Louise Kenward, artist and writer with a background in the NHS, working as a psychologist and psychotherapist, she discovered that they had all written creative non-fiction pieces in response to their unnerving experiences with their bodies.Verity says “Inhabiting a body is inherently weird. It’s a political statement you never signed up for. It seems you aren’t allowed to exist inside one without having a strong opinion on each and every component, and inevitably those opinions on the body grow monstrous legs and become opinions on the self. Our bodies will all be disrupted, by accident, design, misfortune or the passage of time. And when they are, we find ourselves in the absurd position of juggling mortality, the self, and what socks to pack.”Read more about the inspiration behind Disturbing the Body here.

What is speculative autobiography?

Speculative non-fiction, just like speculative memoir, harnesses the strange, eerie or weird to tell its story. These fantastical elements can be used to elaborate and reinforce truth and to capture the horror or absurdness of experiences.

What’s the money for?

We’re seeking to raise £2300 by June to be able to fairly pay:- All authors involved- The editors and proofreaders- The cover designer- The typesetter- The printers- Marketing and PR for the book launches- For some exclusive art work to be made for you lovely lot

Why now?

Our bodies are always under scrutiny. It’s almost impossible to have an experience of your own in your bodies that doesn’t have a public eye observing and judging it. How do we maintain control of our own bodies when they misbehave? By writing about it! Are bodies political? Abso-bloody-lutely.The crowd funding campaign comes at a time when many businesses, bookshops and independent publishers are striving to survive the wide reaching effects of COVID19. Boudicca Press hope that this campaign will ensure the fruition of a much deserving anthology and the fair pay of all involved.

Our timeline

Once we’ve successfully funded the anthology (fingers crossed all!) we will get our heads down to finish editing the pieces, working with our proofreader and typesetter to get the inside of the book looking spick and span, and working on getting the books out to bookshops and in to your hands!We’re currently working our way through the submissions which closed on the 7th May, so we can announce the authors, and we’re working up an amazing looking book cover, which you will get to see half-way through this campaign! We’re also working with reviewers and bookshops in this tricky time to establish stockists and publicity coverage.All being well, we hope to have all rewards, e-books and paperback books printed and in your hands by October 2020!

Who are Boudicca Press?

Boudicca Press is an independent publisher who celebrates the strength, courage and literary talents of women. They publish weird, literary fiction and non-fiction by women in the UK. It’s run by freelance writer, editor and workshop leader, Nici West, who publishes stories from her little London flat while looking after her 18 month old daughter.They published an anthology of weird fiction by women in the UK called Disturbing the Beast, which was successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign. Disturbing the Body is a sister book which looks to enhance and play on the feminist themes of the previous anthology. Read more about Disturbing the Beast here.

Risks and challenges

The biggest one to address is the affects of the COVID19 pandemic, which is mostly out of our hands. We know our printers are still open at the moment, and most freelancers are lined up to work on the book. We may delay a launch into the bookshops depending on where we are at with the lockdown, and there may be some delays with postage due to what’s happened. But who knows where we’ll be at in October 2020. We will keep you updated as to how this affects the books. We’re quite experiences with budgets and book publishing, so we don’t expect any other challenges with this project!SUPPORT THE BOOK AND PRE ORDER YOUR COPY.

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