death of workers whilst building skyscrapers, Lucy Wilkinson

Told through fragments, memoir, essays, poetry and epistolary reflection, death of workers whilst building skyscrapers is an intimate account of a small publishing press born in a small one-bedroom flat in Manchester. Woven from memory, poetry, family history, and political critique, it explores what it means to make books by hand while navigating abandonment, grief, illness, heartbreak, in the resonance of working-class histories.
 
 
The unravelling text follows my journey as a self-taught bookmaker and publisher, creating spaces of connection through ephemeral, affective, and often invisible labour and emotions. Publishing became mourning, healing, rebellion, and play for me. It is my way of showing respect to the legacy of human spirit behind the little magazines, ephemeral poets, and the poetics of survival that have come before. I insist that self-expression is not only a creative act, but an act of spiritual survival in a corrupt and delusive world.
 
 
Dr. Lila Matsumoto describes ‘If publishing is an embodiment of the political and material structures in which we live, then this book dreams and makes manifest new forms to bring to light the hidden practice and history of small press publishing. A wholly original exploration and embodiment of small press’s marginal, tangential, and anecdotal strategies, this book melds original research with memoir to situate small press publishing within the larger picture of emotional and material labour. I was moved by this rich and affecting book and its insights into the affordances of creative writing, friendship, and bookmaking.’