Rock, Paper, Scissors by Ella Duffy & Adam Horovitz
Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice Summer 2026
Dialect Press
‘A beautifully conceived wee gem of a chapbook’ – Jackie Kay
There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when a book is born out of conversation, when ideas are shaped in the lively, generous space between people. Ella Duffy and Adam Horovitz have collaborated on a poetry pamphlet - Rock, Paper, Scissors began as a gesture, a shared impulse toward play, risk, and the unpredictable pleasures of collaboration. When two poets decide to write through a game, they inherit its rules, its rhythms, and its surprises. They also inherit its intimacy, the suspenseful moment before revelation, the quiet thrill of not knowing what the other will throw next.
In this project, the game became both method and metaphor. Each round shaped the poems that followed; each ‘win’ or ‘loss’ nudged the sequence into new territory. What emerged was not a competition but a conversation – one that moved from hand to page, from constraint to invention, from the familiar triad of rock, paper, scissors into a widening field of images, echoes, and shared imaginative leaps. The results are playful, rigorous, and full of the unexpected.
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