Essex Writers House: Book Launch for 'Little Estuaries'

Join us at Chalkwell Hall for the Southend launch of Daniel Kramb’s new book of poetry — Little Estuaries, published by the brand new UK imprint of Amsterdam’s HetMoet, HetMoet-Menard, and featuring cover art by Louisa Albani.

“Gloriously spare and strange and compendious and tender, like a hymn.” — Sara Baume, author of Seven Steeples

In Little Estuaries, Daniel Kramb goes in search of what’s fleeting between the shores. Amid a constantly shifting sense of what can be seen, sensed or experienced, the poet probes the estuary as sphere: an opening up, a possibility.

Whittled down, like sea to stream, his poems emerge, in their own distinct form, estuary-shaped on the page. Intricate, at times playful, always open, these unassuming, small pieces reach beyond the confines, always returning to what’s undeniable, as the body.

Silt-smeared and salty, this is poetry not on landscape, but through it: formed not by what exists, but from what’s washed up within.

“What emerges, through and around these gentle and effective poems is a different sense of the estuary, a place of quiet and shifting landscapes, from the experience of walking out, then letting go.” — Rachel Lichtenstein, author of Estuary

About Daniel

Daniel Kramb is a writer and poet. He is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and his prose history of the collective is out in Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different (2021). Other work has appeared in The London Magazine, Prototype, Popshot and elsewhere. His fiction includes Central (2015) and From Here (2012). Look at Us is a stage collaboration with JJ Bola. Several Little Estuaries make up a poetry intervention at Thameside Nature Reserve commissioned for SEEPARK (South Essex Estuary Park) by URBAN landscape architects and arts organisation Metal Southend. danielkramb.com

About Louisa

Louisa Amelia Albani is an artist, educator and small press publisher. Night bird press pamphlets are stocked at London Review Bookshop, Poetry Pharmacy (Shropshire Hills), Seven Fables (Exmoor), Charleston bookshop (Lewes), Treadwells Bookshop, Tate Britain Bookshop, Much Ado Bookshop (Alfriston, East Sussex), Kim's Bookshops (Arundel & Chichester), Boekhandel Livius de Zevensprong, Tilburg, The Netherlands. nightbirdpress.com

About Metal

Metal is currently active in Essex, Peterborough and Liverpool. Founded in 2002, we aim to help build stronger, healthier and happier communities, through art, culture and creativity. We believe that everyone deserves a rich and cultural life, and where you live should not be a barrier to this. We hold time and space for artists of all ages and backgrounds to forge new ideas and realise their potential. Our approach celebrates place, builds local connections and nurtures talent, encouraging experimentation, collaboration and co-creation.