Michael Marks Award 2013 Shortlist Announced

A rich autumn harvest of poetry announced

Five poetry pamphlet publishers have been shortlisted for the 2013 Michael Marks Award and Rack Press is very pleased to be on that shortlist for the second year running and to be in such distinguished company as Flarestack Poets, Mariscat Press, Pighog Press and Shearsman Books.

The five of us will be present and correct at the British Library on 19th November to hear the winner announced and best of luck to everyone.

There is also a shortlist for Pamphlet of the Year which we won last year with Róisín Tierney's Dream Endings and 150 pamphlets were submitted to produce a shortlist of six: David Clarke, Kim Lasky, Kim Moore, Ben Parker, Neil Rollinson, and Chrissy Williams.

Poetry pamphlet publishing would therefore seem to be in a very healthy and vigorous state and we are all grateful to the Michael Marks Award for this annual recognition of the richness and diversity of this branch of poetry publishing.

Upcoming Events

We are pleased to announce two Autumn readings from Rack Press including an appearance as part of the Bloomsbury Festival on 19 October at the London Welsh Centre in Gray's Inn Road, Bloomsbury where five Rack Press poets will take part in a panel on Dylan Thomas starting at 5pm to 6 and then they will read from their own work from 6-7pm.


The poets are:-

• John Powell Ward, poet and former editor of Poetry Wales
• Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, poet whose last two collections have been shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year and whose new Rack Press pamphlet will be published in January
• William Palmer, poet and novelist who spent his childhood in Montgomeryshire who also has a new Rack Press pamphlet out in January
• Martina Evans, poet and novelist, author of Petrol, Through the Glass Mountain and Midnight Feast
• Katy Evans-Bush, poet and blogger, whose latest book is Egg Printing Explained

On 7 November at the Lamb in Lamb's Conduit Street, also in Bloomsbury, four more Rack and Melos  Poets will be reading at 7.30:-

• Róisín Tierney
• Nicholas Murray
• Michèle Roberts
• David Harsent

And in early January the new series of Rack Press pamphlets for 2014 will be launched. More details about all these events will appear here.