All profits from this international anthology of poetry published by Bennison Books will go to The Book Bus, a charity which aims to improve child literacy rates in Africa, Asia and South America by providing children with books and the inspiration to read them.
Published and previously unpublished poets from around the world have contributed to this anthology including the award-winning Carol Rumens, who also wrote the foreword.
In total, the work of about 40 poets from a number of different countries worldwide is featured in this anthology. They include the Forward Prize finalist, Beverley Bie Brahic; the inaugural winner of the John Knight Memorial Poetry Manuscript Prize, Vanessa Kirkpatrick; and winner of the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize, Katharine Towers, who was also shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. The poets have donated their poetry free of charge so that all profits will go to The Book Bus.
The following is an extract from Carol Rumens' foreword:
The title of this anthology, Indra's Net, was suggested by one of its poets, the late Cynthia Jobin. She explained: "Indra's net is a metaphor for universal interconnectedness. It's as old as ancient Sanskrit and as 'today' as speculative scientific cosmology. It's what came to mind when thinking about nets and webs and interconnectedness ... and jewels and poems."
There are many ways in which the metaphor suits the anthology. It's a book filled with poetic gems, of course, the work of a happy mixture of new and well-known writers, including prizewinning poets like Beverley Bie Brahic and Katharine Towers. The poems connect: poems always do. The poets may have shared their work and reached their global readership via the Internet. And then there's the most important net of all, described by Wallace Stevens as "The magnificent cause of being,/ The imagination, the one reality/ In this imagined world ..."
Readers will enjoy this varied and accessible anthology, and have the added satisfaction of knowing their purchase is helping to hand on the pleasure and power of language. They will have added another small jewel to Indra's net.