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Animal Heart Press

@animalheartpress.bsky.social

1.6K followers 510 following 280 posts

A small, feminist press with a big heart. Subscribe for your free ebook and early access to the good stuff! linktr.ee/AnimalHeartPress Posts by @judemarr.bsky.social

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 8

Wildlings! Zoe Mitchell's excellent new collection, Untold Fortunes, will drop on September 23rd. Pre-orders are open!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...

#poetry #NewTitle #ComingSoon #witchcraft #women

The hand over young Medusa's mouth
wasn't shame - it was the venomous snake
of a story that turns people to stone.

“With scintillating lyricism and incisive wit, Untold Fortunes pivots the ancient European trope of the witch to face itself in a moon mirror. Embracing the mutable light of myth and history, Zoe Mitchell seeks the painful truths behind the eldritch lore, drawing into her lunar orbit unruly women from Medusa to Tonya Harding; WWII engineer Beatrice Shilling to a modern British office-worker. Alive to the realities of political violence, yet disavowing faith in supernatural remedies, these curious, nuanced, metaphysical poems chart their own fearless rise to the challenge of meaning-making in a seemingly indifferent universe. While tenderly grounded in the poet’s lived experience of economic precarity, maternal love, friendship and self-sufficiency, Mitchell’s feminist poetry plucks on nerves drawn taut across millennia of nihilistic patriarchal power. Skillfully lineated in stanza forms suggestive of terse ballads and medieval infernos, her lucid music will have you believe that ‘the moment’ is still ours to grasp.”

—Dr Naomi Foyle, Reader in Critical Imaginative Writing, University of Chichester

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 2d

Wildlings, we'd love you to join us tomorrow evening, Wednesday 29 October @ 7pm GMT, to celebrate the launch of Zoe Mitchell's Untold Fortunes. Sign up here to get the zoom link: forms.gle/Vo7BhGt5YH5f...

Join us on Wednesday October 29th @ 7 pm GMT on zoom

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 3d

Wildlings! We'd love to see you, Wednesday at 7 pm GMT, for the online launch of Zoe Mitchell's excellent, witchy collection, Untold Fortunes. With guests Kate Garrett and Dean Rhetoric. Sign up for the free link here forms.gle/Vo7BhGt5YH5f...

Witches, bats, and the cover of Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell.
Wednesday 29 October, 7 pm GMT
Join us on zoom for an evening of spooky poetry to celebrate the publication of Untold Fortunes

Meet the guest poets
Kate Garrett's poems are a doorway into a world of strangeness and magic that shimmers with the possibility of something just beyond the human eye." - Steve Nash

"Dean Rhetoric's poetry shakes things up. The phrase-making of [his collections] Foundry Songs is visceral and passionate, forging from trauma and poverty a pulsing shield of anger." John McCullough

Zoe Mitchell
"With scintillating lyricism and incisive wit, Untold Fortunes pivots the ancient European trope of the witch to face itself in a moon mirror." Dr. Naomi Foyle

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 6d

Wildlings! Sign up here for your free zoom link forms.gle/Vo7BhGt5YH5f... to join Zoe and the Animal Heart team for an excellent evening of poetry and conversation with special guests Kate Garrett and Dean Rhetoric. Wed October 29 @ 7pm GMT!
#poetry #BookLaunch

Book cover for Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell.
Book launch on Wednesday October 29th @ 7pm GMT on Zoom

Author photo. A white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, smiling.

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 11d

Wildlings! Come join us on Oct 29 @ 7pm GMT to celebrate publication of Zoe Mitchell's Untold Fortunes!
Get your free link here: forms.gle/Vo7BhGt5YH5f...

Cover art.
Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell.
Zoom Launch on Wednesday October 29 @ 7 pm GMT

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 16d

Wildlings! Join us to celebrate the birth of Zoe Mitchell's Untold Fortunes.
An evening of feminist poetry, mythology, and connection with guests Kate Garrett, Dean Rhetoric, and more!
Sign up here for free link: forms.gle/Vo7BhGt5YH5f...

Cover art.
Wednesday, October 29 at 7 pm GMT on Zoom. Link in post

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · 21d

Prime Day is an excellent day to buy poetry straight from the source! Check out our most recent titles - and our back catalogue :)
animalheartpress.net
#poetry #NewReleases

The covers of Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell, A Letter From the Mountain and Other Poems by Tom Snarsky, and Dark Way Down by Lauren Parker

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 23

Wildlings! Today's the day we welcome Zoe Mitchell's excellent collection, Untold Fortunes, into the world. Congratulations, Zoe!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...
#poetry #NewTitle #PublicationDay #women #witchcraft

Reposted by Animal Heart Press

River River Books @riverriverbooks.bsky.social · Sep 20

Found friend of the press @tomsnarsky.bsky.social’s new at @animalheartpress.bsky.social along with @bethgordonpoet.bsky.social 🥰🙏💙🎉🎉

Photograph of A Letter From The Mountain
& Other Poems by Tom Snarsky, published by Animal Heart Press (2025), held by editor Han of River River Books in front of RRB table

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 18

Out next Tuesday, Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell explores the experiences of women of the past, both mythological and real, giving voice to many who were so often silenced.
Pre-orders are open! animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...
#poetry #NewTitle #women #witchcraft

The moon will know the right moment.
Let sleep curl against your spine
and keep you warm in dreamless sleep.

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 14

Wildlings, we have a new and timely collection for you. Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell explores the experiences of women of the past, both mythological and real, giving voice to many who were so often silenced. Pre-orders are open!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...
#poetry #witchcraft #women

"She mustered in me a mute defiance, a cure
for petty regulation and arbitrary limits
and she did it all without ever saying a word."

“Zoe Mitchell’s Untold Fortunes is part rumination on what the world may promise, and part realisation of what it delivers. In this ethereal, yet deeply grounded poetry collection, the moon’s ever-changing roles as supporting character, critic, silent protector, and indifferent lover are observed like a morality play set in the theatre of the self.
Despite exploring its share of darkness, the true beauty of this collection is in its core message that while the moon cannot make its own brightness, we each possess the ability within to create our own light. This is poetry that makes you want to run at life full bore. A love letter to individuality and carving out a new path when the one set out for you isn’t good enough.”

—Dean Rhetoric, author of Foundry Songs

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 8

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 3

Coming soon! Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell. Pre-orders are open!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...

#NewTitle #NewBook #poetry #witchcraft #women

We light candles against our fear of the dark,
spill blood, shuffle cards, kiss the crystals,
watch the skies and above all, we dream.

“Untold Fortunes unspools in bruise-coloured ribbon around women condemned by the world for summoning the very magic needed to survive it. Through these injustices, Mitchell considers the promise inherent within the title’s double meaning—what undreamed lives might exist beyond the ones taken or denied? The poems in Untold Fortunes are bathed in cold lunar light and, like life itself, offer no easy answers. Instead, reading them is akin to defiantly pressing two fingers against the beating jugular: I am still here.”

—Glenn James Brown, author of Ironopolis and Mother Naked

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Sep 1

Wildlings! @feralpoetryandart.bsky.social is delighted to announce our nominations for Best of the Net!

#BestOfTheNet #poetry #art

Presenting our Best of the Net nominees!

Poetry
From Issue 20:
All and After - Merril D. Smith
From Issue 21:
Jonas Brothers - Alexus Erin
(doom) scrolls - mk zariel
From Issue 22:
I Came to This Walmart Parking Lot to Fight God - Lauren Parker
Redacted memory #045 (censored in revolt) - Gordan Struic
The Art - Natalie Easton

Art
From Issue 21:
Seafloor Mystery - Katie Hughbanks
Invocation - Rachyl Nyoka
Hindsight - Patrick "Rowan" Roughan

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Aug 27

Wildlings! Check out our next title, Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell. Pre-orders are open!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...
#poetry #NewTitle #Forthcoming #witchcraft #women

“In Untold Fortunes, Zoe Mitchell shows us the unflinching magic of women. Whether those women are placed in the modern everyday, the historical or mythical, there is power in every one of their stories. Mitchell never turns away from the difficult or disturbing, while bringing unsung achievements and new perspectives into the light – all of which makes this collection a very rewarding read.”

—Kate Garrett, author of To Feed My Woodland Bones

"Accept that the future has you
in an unbreakable contract.
Sign your name and mean it:
the price of any alternative is your life."

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Aug 20

Wildlings! We are excited to announce our final publication of 2025, Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell. Pre-orders are open!!
animalheartpress.net/untold-fortu...

Cover art. Untold Fortunes by Zoe Mitchell, in gold on a dark brown background, with a border of magical imagery also in gold.

Women have long been connected to mythology and witchcraft, often as cautionary tales. Untold Fortunes explores the experiences of women of the past, both mythological and real, giving voice to many who were so often silenced. In history both ancient and modern, these poems tug women from the footnotes. Some are heroines, some monsters…or are they products of the circumstances society forced on them? And how do these echoes shape womanhood even now?
In this powerful collection, poet Zoe Mitchell examines what it means to be a woman in the world, through lenses of past, present, and future.

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Pat Foran @pdforan.bsky.social · Aug 4

“In the normie yarrow of waking life
my body is an industry

secret, how do you guard
what you don’t know …”

Sturgeon Moon by @tomsnarsky.bsky.social in A Letter From The Mountain & Other Poems, published by @animalheartpress.bsky.social

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · Aug 19

A Letter From The Mountain has been out from @animalheartpress.bsky.social for a month!

thank you so much for any way you’ve engaged with this collection—I’m so grateful it’s in the world :’)

every book for me has at least one little weirdo poem I couldn’t imagine the whole without—here’s ALFTM’s:

Sheep in the Pyrenees

It’s a fucks-given medley, arranged
by a jealous man with a terrible misprision
of who has done him wrong
and why. I will do the laundry tomorrow
and hear some of the same tunes
coming from the machine and
from my phone, scrolling through the cycles.

There is a heaviness to friends.

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Aug 2

Wildlings! Our journal @feralpoetryandart.bsky.social is open for submissions of poetry and art on the theme of JOY! Let’s clap back at the trashfire. Give us poems and art about the things that make you unbelievably happy.
feralpoetry.net/submissions/

#poetry #art #submissions

A pebbled beach. Four long green leaves lie horizontally on the pebbles. Each one has a word painted on it in white. Find Joy In Everything.

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · Jul 18

the video of our launch reading for A Letter From The Mountain & Other Poems is now up!! this was such a delightful & special reading and it was so beautiful to share space with the brilliant authors & editors of @animalheartpress.bsky.social — hope you enjoy :) youtu.be/Qlut6A_Z2Hg

A screenshot of Beth Gordon from the July 2025 Night Light poetry reading event.

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Aug 2

Thank you, Stephanie :)

Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Jul 18

We had a fabulous time at last night's launch for @tomsnarsky.bsky.social 's new collection, A Letter From The Mountain and Other Poems Check it out!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlut...

Night Light poetry reading series #23 (July 2025 — A Letter From The Mountain Launch w/Animal Heart)

YouTube video by Poetry Books On Tape

www.youtube.com

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Animal Heart Press @animalheartpress.bsky.social · Jul 14

We hope you can join us for @tomsnarsky.bsky.social 's zoom book launch party this Thursday, July 17th, at 9 pm Eastern. Sign up here for the link!
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#BookLaunch #Poetry #ZoomEvent

Infographic for the launch of A Letter From The Mountain and other poems. Thursday 7/17 9 pm Eastern.
Readers: Lauren Parker, Jude Marr, Zoe Mitchell, Amanda McLeod, C.T. Salazar, Beth Gordon, and Tom Snarsky

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · Jul 10

Tom Snarsky 💙

from A LETTER FROM THE MOUNTAIN & OTHER POEMS (Animal Heart Press)

@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
@animalheartpress.bsky.social

Tree of Life

One day, the sadness will end.
— Margaret Lanterman

On days when it's looking up
life insurance payout restrictions bad,

think of a little patch of bluebells in the shade: it's dark, yes,

now, but the sun
is already beginning

its morning transit, will shift
the lattice of shadow

& light until those flowers,
too, see their moment of warm attention.

It will pass, yes,
that moment.

Do not mistake this
or be afraid. The stems'll shiver bluely again

in evening, for a brief time, but then
the moon will appear, its low glow giving

everything a dim & constant light

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · Jul 12

More from Tom Snarsky 💙

in A LETTER FROM THE MOUNTAIN & OTHER POEMS (Animal Heart Press)

@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
@animalheartpress.bsky.social

Prose Poem

Another day in the ruinous world, eating peanut butter off a knife.

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Reposted by Animal Heart Press

Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · Jul 13

More from Tom Snarsky 💙

in A LETTER FROM THE MOUNTAIN & OTHER POEMS (Animal Heart Press)

@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
@animalheartpress.bsky.social

William Blake

& what could the imagination say
of the torturer's horse, that it knew the meaning of eating? that it threw

crumbs in the path of the king?
the leavening agent, beset
on all sides by traitors

cracks the proverbial bitter pill
& will rise, on the last day.
I pray, as ever, for the shape

of clean water
on which the last two or three
Tyrants have been silent.

do you remember
what the painter said
he'd do if he found the right blue

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