Maria Stadnicka’s latest poetry collection Buried Gods Metal Prophets is inspired by the experiences of her brothers, who lived in a Romanian children’s home between 1978-1987. This was the period of Romania’s Communist Party’s disastrous ‘Decree 770’, which banned contraception and abortion, at the same time as awarding women with more than five children an ‘Order of the Heroine Mother’. As a result, an estimated twelve million illegal abortions took place between 1967 and 1989 and over 250,000 children were placed in orphanages or care homes.

Maria Stadnicka is a Romano-British writer and journalist based in Gloucestershire, whose previous poetry collections include Somnia and The Geometric Kingdom. Maria is a PhD researcher at the University of the West of England, exploring psycho-social aspects of socio-cultural trauma and migration in Britain. As well as writing in English, Maria has won numerous national awards for her poetry in Romanian, including the Porni Luceafarul, the Convorbiri Literare, and the T. Arghezi.

Buried Gods Metal Prophets has been illustrated by Antonia Glücksman. Antonia is a German-Canadian designer, writer and illustrator based in Cornwall, UK. Using drawing, collage and photographic processes, she aims to create books that are haptic and visual landscapes for the text to inhabit. She has worked on books with the National Trust and with Guillemot Press. More of Antonia’s work can be seen on her website here.

Collection / 104 pp / Illustrated / ISBN 978-1-913749-10-1
Printed on Mohawk Superfine papers with Heidi Kraft cover and Tintoretto end papers.
February 2021