NEW!! Reveal: The exclusive limited edition of 'Mrs Death Misses Death' and my FRSL announcement

 

Good morning, 

How are you today?

I hope you're all ok. I hope you're safe and warm.

I have been keeping some secrets from you and biting my tongue online for weeks. I have some lovely booky news to share with you today. November was such a tough month for everyone so I'm delighted to look to December and finally have some good news and something exciting to share today. Thrilled to share this... Look!! Look!! Look!!

There's a new blonde in town. . . 

So happy to reveal this: This is the Exclusive Independent Bookshop Edition of Mrs Death Misses Death. This special hardback edition is signed and will have this gorgeous cream and gold cover designed by Gill Heeley, thank you Gill. I love the iconic design, I love the beautiful pattern on the endpapers and the font and soft touch feel of this.

As we all know, we need to boost traffic to local businesses. Our beautiful bookshops in our local communities need all of our support, especially right now in the run up to the busiest time of the year, so I hope this is one tiny incentive to use your indie and shop local this Xmas. 

The Independent Bookshop Edition will be sold exclusively in small bookshops. It can be pre-ordered from today at your local (or indeed any!) independent bookshops. 

For one example, if you are in my neighbourhood and around east London, you'll find the limited edition version of Mrs Death Misses Death at Pages of Hackney or Newham Bookshop. 

Support your indie bookshops!!

More big news: Today it has been announced that I have been made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, FRSL. This is a great honour and a huge surprise. I'm a bit blown away by this to be honest. This list is amazing and features so many friends and writers I look up to and love and admire. This moment  feels like something that gangsters say, I have been made a fellow, I mean in my head I imagine this is a bit like Goodfellas but books, so Bookfellas. 

Happy 200th Birthday to the Royal Society of Literature. I am sad we cannot all be together to celebrate this birthday and party. Follow RSL on instagram and twitter to check out the amazing list and the work of all the other new fellows and to follow all the exciting news and announcements - Join in the celebration of 200 years of literature and fellowship all online!!

Read all about the RSL here

 

Lastly: The latest November episode of Roaring 20s Radio is now out! Find us on Soho Radio, Spotify and Apple and all your other podcast providers. We have been loving making this show in my kitchen during lockdown and this new episode is so warm and wonderful. We have great work from artists and writers such as Lovers Rock, Courttia Newland, Gwenno, Daniel Cockrill, Cat Hepburn, Sarah Manvel, Nina Simone, Charlotte Adigery, Edward Carey, Parliament, and many more. Plus Amah-Rose shares an exclusive and candid interview with artist Mahtab Hussain. We hope you're enjoying the art and culture, books and poetry, music and activism we bring to you from our bunker to yours. Time is flying! This is our 12th episode, Roaring 20's Radio is a year old now!!

Tune into Roaring 20s Radio here

Ok that's all the juicy booky secrets I'm allowed to share for today. More news soon. Thank you for following the Waiting For Godden blog and for all your support in these adventures in fierce and independent publishing and poetry. Happy full moon, Frost moon, Beaver Moon. Wishing you all safe and warm. Here's to a shift in energy, November was so hard, I wish for health and happiness for us all. Please stay safe, wash your hands, eat your greens and love each other xXsg

 

'Mrs Death Misses Death' Author Interview in The Bookseller + Andi Oliver & Idris Elba endorsements

“For a book about death, which it is, it is sombre and deeply moving, But also playful and exuberant ... Part of what makes Mrs Death Misses Death so original and exciting is Godden’s freewheeling from prose to poetry to non-fiction. There are accounts of the deaths of real people woven into the narrative: These real deaths that Mrs Death speaks of are those of people whose murders have been left unsolved or whose deaths were not seen as a priority.” Alice O'Keeffe, The Bookseller

Read more here: 

https://www.thebookseller.com

Just a quickie post today to say thank you to Alice O'Keeffe in The Bookseller for my first Bookseller interview and author profile this month. So generous and kind about my work and my intention in all of this, thank you Alice.

Thank you to the legendary Andi Oliver for your endorsement and for mentioning both 'Pessimism is for Lightweights - 13 Pieces of Courage and Resistance' and 'Mrs Death Misses Death' on the fabulous Sky Arts Book Club Live. Love this new show, awesome books and authors, insightful and inspiring conversations, such great book telly! We need more of this sort of thing, most especially in lockdown. 

Mrs Death Misses Death is going to print any day now. There are all sorts of plots and plans, decisions and bookings are being made. My phone is a hive of busy bees buzzing, so much work is happening behind the scenes right now, thanks to all the Canongate team, you're amazing. 

All is left to say is a huge thank you to my heroes Alan Moore, Nikesh Shukla, Irenosen Okojie, John Higgs, Courttia Newland and Idris Elba for your stunning book blurbs and quotes. THIS Idris Elba quote came in yesterday, I admit I danced in my kitchen a bit, so brilliant, thank you Idris. I'm humbled and excited, I so look forward to seeing and sharing the beautiful finished hardback books soon. 

Ok lovelies, thanks for following these adventures. 

More soon, please take care, read books and play safe, sgxx

Mrs Death Misses Death

published by Canongate January 28th 2021

debut novel is now available to pre-order 
order now from your  local indie bookshops,
plus all Waterstones, Amazon, etcetera 
Read books! Stay safe and sound! 

Click here to pre-order at Amazon

Click here to pre-order at Waterstones

Poetry: 'Birds' New spoken word collaboration to raise funds for Black Minds Matter UK

 

NEW SINGLE: BIRDS

a new release to support

Black Minds Matter UK

Birds is a collaboration between the renowned Tongue Fu collective and three leading poets: Salena Godden, Vanessa Kisuule, and Hollie McNish. The single will be released by Nymphs & Thugs – the UK’s leading spoken word record label. It will be available to stream or download from Friday 13 November, with 100% of all profits being donated to Black Minds Matter UK. 

The artwork for Birds is this stunning starling illustration by Leeds-based artist Saifur Rehmaan Manzoor-Khan - check out all his brilliant work here

Black Minds Matter UK’s mission is to connect Black individuals and families with free mental health services – by professional Black therapists to support their mental health. To make this happen, they want to make mental health topics more relevant and accessible for all Black people in the UK, removing the stigma and remodelling the services to be relevant for the Black community.

Olivia Weigel, Marketing Manager at BMM UK, said: “We're extremely excited to be able to collaborate with Tongue Fu and three incredible poets for this beautiful piece Birds which will help us to raise funds at Black Minds Matter. The poem manages to articulate the many difficult and unfamiliar emotions that we have all experienced in some way this year; giving us a sense of comfort in this shared experience and hope for brighter days ahead.”

Salena Godden, one of the featured poets, said: “2020 has been a time of communal mourning and grief and anxiety. The poem we have written seems to underpin all of that, and it’s an honour to be releasing it in support of BMM UK.”

The single will be released on the Nymphs & Thugs Bandcamp site on Friday 13 November 2020 and will be exclusively available on Bandcamp until the New Year. It will be priced at £5, with the option to pay more, and a download of the music video will be included.

The video of the track will receive its world première as part of a Nymphs & Thugs x Tongue Fu event, which will be streamed live on Facebook this Thursday (12 November) from 8-9.30pm UK time. We’re over the moon to have live performances from Amyra León and Chris Redmond as part of the event, which will be available to view on both the Nymphs & Thugs and Tongue Fu pages.

Last month Rough Trade Books published Emily Cotman's translation of 'Pessimism is for Lightweights' in Old English as a collectable broadside. You can find this in the Rough Trade Books shop now.  

In an act of unity we are inviting people from all over the world to translate ‘Pessimism is for Lightweights’ into  their chosen language. If you fancy giving it a go, please head to the Rough Trade Books Extra Curricular page where you can find the poem as it is displayed at its residency at The People’s History Museum, Manchester. We’d especially love it if you could send in a short video of yourself reading your translation.

If you go to Rough Trade Book - instagram you can meet some of our international friends, so far we have the poem translated in Russian, Welsh, Norweigan, Turkish, Polish and so many more voices on the way ... I love this, thank you. 

Love will conquer hate in any language! 

Thank you Xxsg

Finally, talking of work in translation my poem “Every disaster movie begins with the government ignoring a scientist” was published in Poland this week. Thanks to you Bartosz Wojcik and Pismo Magazine, check them out on instagram @magazynpismo  

Read more here: https://magazynpismo.pl/autorzy/godden-salena/

The live performance of this poem “Every disaster movie begins with the government ignoring a scientist” features on ‘The Lockdown EP’ one of 5 poems released May 2020 with @nymphsandthugs - Thanks and love to all who have downloaded the EP since May, as we continue into this 2nd lockdown we are still giving 50% profits to nurses, to #NHS #nhsstaff + @nhscharitiestogether  

The Lockdown EP: https://nymphsandthugs.bandcamp.com

THANK YOU 

STAY SAFE, STAY HUMAN

Current Read: PLATYPUS 

I have a new piece titled ‘chapter’ published this month in the latest 

Wildness Literary Journal @platypuspress - readwildness.com - 

I’m honoured to have a piece published here for the first time. 

I've been reading this and loved discovering new work and this selection. 

Really great way to start the day. Highly recommend.