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Publishers and poets set out their stalls at day-long bazaar

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A feast of poetry is promised at Free Verse: The Poetry Book Fair, a free, all-day bazaar that includes readings, workshops, and more than 50 poetry publishers setting out their wares. It takes place from 10am to 5pm at the Conway Hall, in Red Lion Square, Holborn, London on Saturday 7 September. Publishers will include Bloodaxe, Burning Eye, Carcanet, Eyewear, Faber, Five Leaves Press, Flarestack, Grey Hen, Happenstance, Knives, Forks and Spoons, Nine Arches, Picador, Seren, Shearsman, Smokestack, Stairwell, Two Rivers and Valley, to name but a few. Among those reading during the day are Lorraine Mariner, Geraldine Monk, Mark Burnhope, Matthew Hedley Stoppard, Bethany W Pope, Hilda Sheehan, Nichola Deane, Ian Parks, and Adam and Michael Horovitz. 

There’s a Poetry School workshop with Simon Barraclough on Poets and Beasts, plus an additional event in the evening at the nearby Square Pig and Pen pub, from 6-9pm, when readers will include Marianne Burton, Chris McCabe and Jeremy Reed, and Bang Said The Gun’s Dan Cockrill, Martin Galton, Peter Hayhoe, and Salena Godden.

* Small press publishers Valley Press and The Emma Press have announced a link-up in which they will pool resources and some expenditure, and run stalls together and share events. The move was described as a “marriage, but not a merger”.  Both presses will be at the poetry book fair. More details  

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Comments

<Deleted User> (11409)

Wed 4th Sep 2013 09:41

The Free Verse poetry book fair was set up by myself of CB editions and Chrissy Williams of the Poetry Library in 2011. The fair is for readers and listeners and (we hope) buyers, just as much as it is for publishers – because without the former, there’d be no publishers at all. Most poetry publishers are ignored by most bookshops, and the fair was first set up to provide a platform for poetry publishers to make their work known directly to readers. In the first year 23 publishers showed their work; last year and this year, more than 50 publishers are participating, and the book fair is the only platform in the UK to present the full range of contemporary poetry – from traditional to experimental, and including performance – to an interested audience. Poetry publishers from throughout the UK – and this year guests from New York and Belgium also – show their work.

The book fair is not really configured for individual poets to read or perform their work – all the reading slots are taken by the participating publishers, who have paid for their tables. But for any poet who is looking for a publisher who might be interested in their work, there is no more comprehensive a range to search among – and the fair IS for making contacts and new discoveries. This year the free readings will extend beyond the closing time of the fair itself, in the pub on the opposite side of the square, until late into the evening. Please do come, if you are at all interested (there’s no entry charge) - we’d really like to welcome you.

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Greg Freeman

Thu 29th Aug 2013 17:25

I've been to the London book fairs for the last two years, Andy. It certainly is a publishers' thing, but I don't think there's anything wrong in that. After all, it's not that easy selling books of poetry! The readings are set up in advance, as you'll see from the programme, so in that sense it is the publishers promoting their own poets, or published poets publicising their books. You get a chance to talk to individual publishers manning their stalls, of course. But there's no open mic free-for-all. The event has a real buzz all the same, in my experience. So much poetry in one space! And the whole thing is free, including the readings.

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Andy Humphrey

Thu 29th Aug 2013 16:40

I was told by someone in the trade that there was no point attending the Poetry Book Fair if you were a casual poet looking to find a publisher or to promote your own work - and that it's only really for the publishers. This seems at odds with the write-up here.

Does anyone have any experience of this event who could comment?

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