Diamond Twig is a small press launched in 1992 by Ellen Phethean and Julia Darling, to publish vibrant new writing by women in the North East of England. Our publications include The Ropes, a collection of poems chosen to appeal to young people, and nineteen titles in the Branch Lines series: pocket sized books in stylish black-and-white livery, launching new women writers into print.
Our books have a reputation for style and quality and our authors have a reputation for going far — keep track of them from our site! We are proud to act as a launch pad for our authors, many of whom have gone on to have further work published elsewhere.
Each month the Diamond Twig Editors select a poem that they find wonderful, interesting, challenging, and fresh. February's poem takes us for a winter walk, with The Quartz in Your Valley by S. J. Litherland.
A room somewhere (else)
Ellen Phethean will be reading from Breath on Saturday February 20th, 4 to 6pm, at the Inkwell (used to be Shoulder of Mutton), 31 Potternewton Lane, Leeds, LS7 3LW.
The schedule is:
4.00 pm: arrive, enjoy tea and cakes
4.30: First readings from Ruth Steinberg and Clare Wigzell
4.45: Reading from Breath, Ellen Phethean
Questions and discussion
Followed by more tea and cakes
6.00: close
Donation of £5, money goes to cover costs and expenses; Ruth and Clare ask that you e-mail to let them know that you are coming, so they know how many cakes to make. More information from the same address.
Breath, the title poem of Ellen's collection, was our January Poem of the Month.
On the Poetry Channel
The Poetry Channel is the place to listen to poetry podcasts from the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - classic material from the archives, and new, specially recorded programmes too. Diamond Twig's Ellen Phethean is there, talking about Wall, her novel-in-poems - find her podcast in the archives.
Hold on to The Ropes
We now have our full complement of poets and poems all safely gathered in for our anthology of new poetry for young people - The Ropes: Poems to hold on to. Out of 40 poems, 34 are newly commissioned, never before seen on this earth! What's more, this anthology like no other has two front covers, both shown here.
In the months leading up to publication date, we featured poems from The Ropes in our Poem of the Month section: for a taste of the good things packed into this little book, have a look at our poems for January 2008, March 2008 and now April 2008.
Or read more about The Ropes: Poems to hold on to, including how to order a copy.
The Ropes was shortlisted for the CLPE Poetry Award. REad Ellen's account of the awards ceremony in her online diary.
Use the diamonds to find your way around this site: and if you can't find what you are looking for, check the Site Map, which includes a full list of our authors, and our publications, which we hope you'll buy.
Diamond Twig regrets that we are unable to accept new submissions, until further notice. We also started the Blue Room, encouraging new women – and men – writers to read their work, and promoting new audiences for live poetry and prose.
