The Annual Convention of Most Gentle and Virtuous Saints by Heather Chapman

Description

You are smoothing our pillows and smiling, your lovely axe standing blue-white out from your neck, caught at its ancient angle. I am thinking of cigarettes, how if I were to smoke them you would forgive me for it, and thereby delete the action – and I would thank you, vivid in cleanness even as my tongue buzzed with ash. 

The Annual Convention of Most Gentle and Virtuous Saints by Heather Chapman is a tale of two saints who died many centuries apart, and what happens when they are brought together. Densely lyric and speculative, Chapman’s short story dives deepy into belief, trauma, and queerness.

Heather Chapman is a Durham University student. She was a 2023 Foyle Young Poet, was shortlisted for the 2024-5 Poetry Wales Award, and won the 2025 Hive Young Writers Competition. Her work is published in The Garlic Press, Bloodletter and Carmen et Error. Heather likes vampires, sestinas, and Edward II. She is on Instagram @heatherchapman4523.

Made from 100gsm ivory paper with 120gsm pearlescent endpapers and a 250gsm midnight blue cover stamped with The Braag logo.