'A delightful book that combines the basic tug of the whodunit with the more elegant pleasures of the literary novel' Independent Sonokrom, a village in the Ghanaian hinterland, has not changed for hundreds of years. Here, the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and walk alongside the spirits of their ancestors. The discovery of sinister remains - possibly human, definitely 'evil' - and the disappearance of a local man brings the intrusion of the city in the form of Kayo, a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries. As old and new worlds clash and clasp, and Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba, delve deeper into the case, they discover a truth that leaves scientific explanations far behind.

A woman spots a stunning blue-headed bird at the edge of a Ghanaian village follows it. Sonokrom is a place that has not changed for hundreds of years; the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and commune with the spirits of their ancestors. However, the woman's intrusion and ensuing events lead to an invasion from Accra, the capital city, spearheaded by Kayo; a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries. But as events in the village become more and more incomprehensible, Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba are drawn into a world where storytelling is more powerful than any scientific explanation. Tail of the Blue Bird is a poetic fable, at once unsettling and heart-warmingly funny, that exemplifies the futility of trying to categorise Africa, reminding us that the boundaries of truth have never been clear cut.

Most migrants arrive at their destinations by a combination of serendipity and choicelessness. This has been Nii Parkes' own experience. The question - how did you arrive here? - is always answered with a convoluted mix of myth, love, family ties, budget, language, persecution, opportunity and interruption. In the answers to that question lie the connecting lines of his scatter points - Abidjan, Grimsby, Cape Coast, London, Accra, Manchester, Los Angeles, and Dijon. To further answer that question he has brought together a distinguished selection of contemporary writers who share parallel experiences and invited them to contribute short fiction to this anthology. With stories from Romesh Gunesekera, Zoe Wicomb, Nam Le, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Tahmina Anam, Brian Chikwava, Niki Aguirre, Junot Diaz and Naomi Alderman, this is a rich mix of writing re-imagining the constantly evolving dynamics of trans-national migration in the 21st century, exploring the complex fabric of the world that contemporary migrants negotiate.

'The mouthmark Book of Poetry' is an anthology of the individual-author titles published under the mouthmark poetry pamphlet series, comprising the work of Nick Makoha, Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jessica Horn, Truth Thomas, Denise Saul, Malika Booker, Janett Plummer and Warsan Shire. The series was conceived by flipped eye publishing's senior editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as a means to get poets from non-mainstream backgrounds - including performance - into print. It was revolutionary for two reasons; first, it was a pamphlet series developed with a specific aim (later, tall-lighthouse would launch its pilot series, and, much later, Faber would launch its New Poets Initiative); second, it was a finite series - to end after ten pamphlets. After some success with the first two pamphlets in the series, Nick Makoha's 'The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man' (2005) and Inua Ellams' '13 Fairy Negro Tales' (2005), the Arts Council of England provided funding for the next four. It took six years for the series to be completed, but its impact far exceeded expectations. Authors such as Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose (later editor of the last pamphlet in the series), Nick Makoha and Warsan Shire, have risen to international prominence; three of the pamphlets were cited by the Poetry Book Society pamphlet selectors for their quality; five of the poets have since been chosen for the ground-breaking national Complete Works development programme for UK poets of minority ethnic backgrounds; and Truth Thomas's from his pamphlet 'Party of Black' (2006) was chosen for Nikki Giovanni's 'The 100 Best African American Poems' (Sourcebooks, 2010). Crucially, the series retailed admirably as well, with over 10,000 copies sold at events - and through conventional retail channels. Now, with the release of 'The mouthmark Book of Poetry', readers can experience all nine individual poets published under the mouthmark poetry pamphlet series in this collectible volume that retains hallmarks of the iconic series, such as the distinctive brown paper-look cover with bold black designs.

Candid and sensitive, this collection journeys between Africa, Europe, and the Americas as the poet explores his family history. Told with wit and an engaging ambivalence, these narrative poems explore areas of imaginative fantasy, including a consideration of how the slave trade would have been different had its main mode of transportation been the hot-air balloon rather than the slave ship. Touching on both pain and rich rewards from the perspective of a black British poet, this volume's goal is to entertain, instruct, and encourage contemplation. Nii Ayikwei Parkes is the senior editor at Flipped Eye Publishing and a contributing editor at the Liberal. He is a performance poet and the author of Eyes of a Boy, Lips of a Man; M is for Madrigal; and Tail of the Blue Bird. He is the recipient of the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana Award for poetry and literary advocacy.

'The mouthmark Book of Poetry' is an anthology of the individual-author titles published under the mouthmark poetry pamphlet series, comprising the work of Nick Makoha, Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jessica Horn, Truth Thomas, Denise Saul, Malika Booker, Janett Plummer and Warsan Shire. The series was conceived by flipped eye publishing's senior editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as a means to get poets from non-mainstream backgrounds - including performance - into print. It was revolutionary for two reasons; first, it was a pamphlet series developed with a specific aim (later, tall-lighthouse would launch its pilot series, and, much later, Faber would launch its New Poets Initiative); second, it was a finite series - to end after ten pamphlets. After some success with the first two pamphlets in the series, Nick Makoha's 'The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man' (2005) and Inua Ellams' '13 Fairy Negro Tales' (2005), the Arts Council of England provided funding for the next four. It took six years for the series to be completed, but its impact far exceeded expectations. Authors such as Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose (later editor of the last pamphlet in the series), Malika Booker, Nick Makoha and Warsan Shire, have risen to international prominence; three of the pamphlets were cited by the Poetry Book Society pamphlet selectors for their quality; two of the poets feature in the new Penguin Modern Poets series; and Truth Thomas's from his pamphlet 'Party of Black' (2006) was chosen for Nikki Giovanni's 'The 100 Best African American Poems' (Sourcebooks, 2010). Crucially, the series has retailed admirably as well, with over 50,000 copies sold at events - and through conventional retail channels. Initially released exactly four years ago as a hardback that retained hallmarks of the iconic mouthmark series, such as the distinctive brown paper-look cover with bold black designs, this low-priced paperback edition seeks to introduce more readers to the work of the nine brilliant poets published under the series.