Amethyst Press publishes occasional books and anthologies of new writing engaging with the sacred. Submissions are CLOSED. Two titles are currently available: Labyrinth by Diana Durham and Heloise Speaks by Irina Kuzminsky
In 2022 Amethyst Press has published HELOISE SPEAKS, a new novel-in-verse by Irina Kuzminsky:
Pithy and poetic, this verse novel encompasses the whole of Heloise’s life and gets to the kernel of Heloise herself, her ill-fated love for Abelard, and her growth into one of the foremost intellectuals of her day. Even hemmed in by all the restrictions facing women in 12th century France, Heloise stood up and found her own path and her own voice. This is her story reimagined, in all of its passion and power, spoken in her voice.
‘Irina is absolutely a voice for our time, a voice in which the Feminine is exquisitely and burningly present in rage, depth, eroticism and tenderness…It is painful, ecstatic, erotic all at once: it is a complex response that is deeply feminine and has been rarely uttered in print, let alone understood … All Irina’s work lives and breathes in a spiritual context, in the great tradition reaching back to Mirabai and Lalla: she has that same abandon and passion.’
—Jay Ramsay, poet, author of Kingdom of the Edge, Monuments, The Dangerous Book
‘I am your Paraclete. Irina Kuzminsky captures with probing simplicity Heloise’s vision of love as she responds to Peter Abelard. Her verse novel gives voice to Heloise as she matures from being a student to becoming the voice of wisdom.’
—Professor Constant J Mews, Monash University, author of The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France
‘This is an exquisite and heartrending version of Heloise’s plaint in the face of Abelard’s denial of the holy tenor of their love, which she understood better than he did. Her entire response stems from her trust in her own truth. Her intellect was no less keen than his. But her heart was blood-red and eloquent, whereas Abelard had stifled his. Heloise Speaks presents an authentic recreation of their rapport from the pen of a poet and scholar masterfully sustained.’
—Gabriel Bradford Millar, poet, author of A Crackle of Almonds
Irina Kuzminsky (Irinushka) is widely published as a poet and writer; she is also a dancer, singer, songwriter and pastel artist who passionately believes in art as a bridge into spiritual consciousness. A Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford, Irina wrote her doctorate on the ‘Language of Women’ and was elected Junior Research Fellow in Humanities at Wolfson.
An inspiration behind her work has long been the rediscovery of women’s voices from the past. Alongside this, she has pursued a quest for the feminine faces of the Divine across spiritual traditions, and her desire has been to write and to create from the space of the Sacred Feminine as a woman.
Heloise Speaks is her fifth poetry collection.
HELOISE SPEAKS
ebook £4.99 paperback £10
Heloise Speaks: a Verse Novel at Amazon UK
Heloise Speaks: a Verse Novel at Amazon AU
Heloise Speaks: a Verse Novel at Amazon USA
In 2021 Amethyst Press published LABYRINTH, a new full-length collection of poetry by Diana Durham:
Through America’s uncertainty and the New England winter, Labyrinth takes the path inwards. The question carried through landscapes urban and natural is painful to formulate: are we lost, or can we find the way to new meaning? Spring and warmth bring sweetness, comfort but absolution does not birth in the psyche until the heat of late summer gives way to autumn. At the curve of the hill the view opens up: beauty and expansion are reaffirmed. Like the shaman, we return to the same place, bringing the renewal of compassionate vision.
Labyrinth is Diana Durham’s fourth collection of poems. Her other books include: The Return of King Arthur: Completing the Quest for Wholeness and Coherent Self, Coherent World: a new synthesis of Myth, Metaphysics & Bohm’s Implicate Order.
In all her work, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, Durham draws on both archetype and the numinous presence of the natural world to explore why our deeper identity is the root of creativity and the visionary power of imagination.
‘Diana writes with a particular crystalline clarity suffusing both her poetry and prose: it is her essential expression. At the same time, her philosophical cast of mind reaches the highest level as a result of her many years of training and inner work. She is truly in touch with Sophia: and at a time when the Feminine has never been more important in its embodiment on the planet, we would do well to hear what she has to say.’
—Jay Ramsay, author of Kingdom of the Edge, Monuments. Described by Caduceus magazine as England’s foremost transformation poet.
‘I loved the light in this one! And that slow large wave that moves through much of your poetry….where I end up existing in something huge, like a massive sense of space…’
—Jude Repar, Attunement Practitioner and healer.
‘Beautiful—your work speaks to me.’
—Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master & His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
LABYRINTH
ebook £5.99 paperback £10
Amethyst Review 