We at Write Out Loud have noticed that a few poetry publishers have regretfully closed their doors to new submissions in the last couple of years. So it’s interesting and heartening to see a new, young poetry publisher on the scene. Tiny Fruit Press, based in Saffron Walden in Essex, was founded by Bethany Callaway and Charlotte Leatherland, and has emerged from a regular open-mic night in the town. 

According to its website, Tiny Fruit Press came into being “when Bethany published her first book and realised: why stop there, when you could build something more?” Bethany’s collection is titled A Long Want and follows a journey through a house where each room tells a different story, of love, loss, and personal growth. The press has also published a second collection, Eighteen Hours, by teenager Tom Rigby, which runs through the course of a day, from dawn to dusk and beyond. 

Bethany told Write Out Loud: “Tom found his voice through Vino & Verses, the grassroots poetry night I run in Saffron Walden, and his story has already taken some wonderful turns: his book launch was fully booked; his Year 9 English teacher travelled from Wales to surprise him at the launch; he has appeared on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire; and he has recently received a place at Cambridge University.

“For Eighteen Hours, we transformed Tom's own handwriting into a bespoke typeface specifically for the book so that his voice remains part of the collection itself. The two books are very different, but they sit at the heart of what we're trying to build: a tiny, independent press making beautiful, distinctive books while championing emerging poets and the communities where they first find their voices.”   

Bethany’s co-founder Charlotte Leatherland is “a recovering fine art student who works in the film industry, and who, a little late in life, learned to think of herself as a writer as well as a visual artist. She bonded with Bethany over sitting in cafés, writing in notebooks, and talking endlessly about poems, which led to her reading her work aloud at Vino & Verses.

“From there, the step to Tiny Fruit Press felt like a short and logical progression: a place to give written form to the voices emerging in that room, and a way to support writers and artists who deserve to be held, printed, and appreciated. Founded on a commitment to representing writers and artists in and around Saffron Walden, our roots are local, but our ambitions stretch far beyond that. This is, after all, only the beginning …”

Tiny Fruit Press has also published vino & verses: vol. 1, “a collection of voices that have passed through the open mic over the past year into a room full of strangers who later become friends”. It’s a curated anthology of poetry performed at Vino & Verses, with illustrations created by guests and photographs that capture the atmosphere. The next Vino & Verses night at Chater’s kitchen and bakery in Saffron Walden is on 7 October, doors open from 6pm.