cocoon by Russell Jones – collection of poems and comic poems

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cocoon by Russell Jones – collection of poems and comic poems

A new full-length collection of poetry by Edinburgh-based writer & editor Russell Jones. Features comic poems illustrated by Sara Julia Campbell, Caroline Grebbell, Aimee Lockwood, Edward Ross & Mark Toner. To be published on 1 April, 2020.

About cocoon

cocoon is a unique collection of poems that explores the worlds we create, the transformations we undergo through life, and how “to keep the light / from leaving”. Through childhood memories of graveyards and racecourses, to family bereavements, Peruvian river myths and outer space exploration, cocoon’s narratives deliver a strong emotional sucker-punch while encompassing a wide range of poetic forms.

cocoon features 16 pages of full colour “comic poems”. Five artists have created graphic versions of Jones’s poems, which are interspersed throughout the collection. “Dark Horse” by Sara Julia Campbell is attached as an example. Mark Toner, Edward Ross, Aimee Lockwood, and Caroline Grebbell have also contributed their visual work.

Russell Jones

Russell Jones is an Edinburgh-based writer and editor. He is the UK’s first Pet Poet Laureate (as supported by Blue Cross and The Poetry Society) and the author of five published collections of poetry: Dark Matters (pamphlet, Tapsalteerie, 2018), The Green Dress Whose Girl is Sleeping (full collection, Freight Books, 2015), Our Terraced Hum (pamphlet in Caboodle, Prole Books, 2015), Spaces of Their Own (pamphlet, Stewed Rhubarb, 2013) and The Last Refuge (pamphlet, Forest Publications, 2009).

He is the deputy editor at Shoreline of Infinity, a Scottish science fiction magazine, is the editor of Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poems from the UK (Penned in the Margins, 2012), was a guest editor for The Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, is the co-editor of Umbrellas of Edinburgh: Poetry and Prose Inspired by Scotland’s Capital City and Multiverse: an international anthology of science fiction poetry.

“An official guide to Surviving the Invasion”

Jones’s poem “An official guide to Surviving the Invasion”, included in cocoon as a comic poem drawn by Caroline Grebbell, is currently being made into a short horror film scheduled for release in 2020. Trailers and more details.