Adventures in poetry
Neon Manila
Troy Cabida
Troy Cabida is the author of Symmetric of Bone (fourteen poems, 2024) and War Dove (Bad Betty Press, 2020). His recent work appears in State of Play, Bi+ Lines,100 Queer Poems, and Tiffany & Co., as well as being shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for Poetry 2024. An alumnus of the Barbican Young Poets, he currently works for the National Poetry Library and holds a BA in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. His debut full-length collection, Neon Manila, will be published by Nine Arches Press in 2025.
ISBN: 9781916760301
eISBN: 9781916760318
Price: £11.99
Publication date: 30th October 2025
Format: Paperback / eBook
Territories: World
Extent: 72pp
DCF: Poetry Collections
Neon Manila is an exploration of the queer Filipino body in all of its skin and glitter. Looking at pop music, fashion, jewellery, dating mishaps, and everyday London life, the poems in this collection seek a better grasp of the relationships we build with ourselves, of the internal as constantly contoured by the external.
In Zebra, a boy steps tentatively from the shadows onto a strobe-lit dancefloor. Ian Humphreys’ much-anticipated debut shimmers with music, wit and humour while exploring mixed identities, otherness, and coming-of-age as a gay man in 1980s Manchester. These acutely-observed, joyful poems pay homage to those who took the first steps – minority writers, LGBT civil rights activists, 70s queer night-clubbers and the poet’s own mixed-race parents.
Find out more about Zebra
The Nine Arches Press blog features poems from many of our poets, as well as interviews and articles.