Four New Titles Launched 21 October 2019

We are delighted to announce four new titles published on 21 October: If You Love Something, a début pamphlet by Kate Quigley, Not Funny Any More by Christopher Reid – a characteristically witty and skilful poem about A Certain World Leader – Michael Marks winner, Róisín Tierney’s new collection Mock-Orange and the rich Swimming Through a Painting by Bonnard by poet and novelist Michèle Roberts.

Christopher Reid, Róisín Tierney, Michèle Roberts and
Kate Quigley at the London launch of the new pamphlets

It’s a lovely quartet and you can order each title now at £5 post free in UK but if you are ordering from outside the UK please note the “overseas add” in the drop-down menu.

You can order the set of 4 each individually signed and numbered by the author for only £15.

Open Again to Submissions...But

Rack Press 2005-2018

We are now open again to submissions BUT PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY as failure to follow them will result in your submission being rejected automatically.

For most of our fourteen year life we have been open to submissions and some of our best ‘discoveries’ have come unsolicited from poets we didn’t know. But from time to time the sheer pressure of submissions has meant we have had to close to give ourselves a breathing space. This is not a submission window but an open-ended period and we can’t guarantee that we will not close our doors again for periods in the future.

HOW TO SUBMIT WORK TO RACK PRESS 

• It is important that anyone thinking of submitting a pamphlet collection follows the guidelines below. 
• Any submission which ignores the following guidelines will be deleted automatically.
• If you would like to submit work please obtain a copy of one of the pamphlets and study it carefully so that what you are submitting suits the format and style of Rack Press. You can buy pamphlets from our website (www.rackpress.blogspot.com). We urge you to do so.
• Rack pamphlets consist of 12 (A5) pages which means 10 pages of poems. Any submission that exceeds this length will be rejected automatically.
• Submit by email only to rackpress@nicholasmurray.co.uk with the text as a PDF attachment and a short covering note if you like. Blanket submissions will be deleted automatically.
• Rack Press has always tried to publish a range of different styles and voices so there is no such thing as ‘a Rack poem’ but we do want to see intelligent, well-crafted, articulate poems that have the vital spark that will give pleasure to our readers.
• Rack has no funding or grants or paid staff so we very much regret that we cannot provide any feedback on submissions or enter into discussion about your work prior to acceptance. You will receive just a simple yes or no within five weeks of submitting. 
• Because we publish only three or four pamphlets a year the harsh reality is that, given the volume of submissions we receive, the overwhelming majority of submissions will be rejected. Don’t be discouraged by this. We are well aware that necessity forces us often to turn down excellent work.
• The decision on what to publish is complex and isn’t necessarily a question of ranking submissions in order of assumed merit like a civil service examination list; a publisher will want to think about the nature of each submission, how it relates to others being planned for that year, and how it fits in with other ideas and commissioning plans we might have in order to maintain a rich and varied list. Another reason why you shouldn’t take rejection to heart.
• Thank you for your interest in Rack Press.

The Poetry Bookshop 100 years ago advising
poets on how to submit

Rack Poets Live at Lampeter

Dawn Morgan reading at the London launch of
Blood and Other Elements

Catch up with four Rack Press poets live at the Lampeter Book Festival on Sunday 12 May at 14.00.

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Kathy Miles,  Dawn Morgan and Ros Hudis will be reading with Gillian Clarke and if you are unable to make it you can order their recent pamphlets here (post free).

Kathy Miles in her pamphlet Inside the Animal House explores an anthropomorphic world where the lines are blurred. From a female praying mantis with a conscience, to a pig reflecting on its own execution, the sequence presents different viewpoints relating to the human/animal experience.

In Blood And Other Elements, Dawn Morgan finds poetry in the viscera of human life – and in particular its rich, audible contrasts: from gluttony to hunger, love to grief, fire to ash, and from the gurgling sound of plenty to the hollow knocking that remains when life and abundance fade away.

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch’s poetry collections have been shortlisted for Wales Book of The Year (Not in These Shoes, Picador 2008), The Roland Mathias Prize (Banjo, Picador 2012) and The Michael Marks Award (Lime & Winter, Rack Press 2014). Her latest Rack pamphlet is Ling Di Long (Rack Press, 2018) and she also contributed to the recent Rack Press pamphlet Speaking Again: poems for International Women’s Day alongside Michèle Roberts, Martina Evans and Denise Saul.

Ros Hudis’ pamphlet Terra Ignota explores the shifts in perceptual boundaries when
we are swung away from a known and comfortable reality into one that is darker and unmapped. Such 'ruptures’ or dislocations are themselves metaphors for the way poetry can shock us into unexpected re-imaginings of our interior and exterior terrains.

A New Poetry Film for International Women’s Day

Our latest publication is a specially commissioned anthology of new poems from four poets all of whom have published Rack pamphlets in the past, Speaking Again: Poems for International Women’s Day. This is a really attractive selection of poems and it can be ordered here post free, same day dispatch.

In addition, the launch reading earlier this month was filmed by Doorway Films and you can see the poets reading by following this link:
http://www.doorwayfilms.co.uk/iwd.html

Poems for International Women’s Day

Denise Saul

Samantha Wynne Rhydderch

Michèle Roberts

Martina Evans

Rack Poets Reviewed

An excellent review by Ian Pople of the three new Rack poetry pamphlets published in October has appeared in the latest online Manchester Review : 

Sherpas by John Barnie   

Inside the Animal House by Kathy Miles   

Blood and Other Elements  by Dawn Morgan     

You can order these titles from us online here.