Christmas Special Offer on Rack Press Editions

Looking for that special literary gift idea? For a limited period only (until 6 January) we are offering all our titles in the Rack Press Editions series at half price (£4, normally £8 each) and the complete set for a bargain £10.  We promise same day dispatch so if you order this week or next you will comfortably be in time for Christmas.

Submission Window Closing 27th November

At the end of September we announced that we were open again to submissions, having been closed for a few months. During the last two months we have been inundated with submissions which in one sense is very encouraging as it is a sign that a lot of poetry (and we would say, from the overall quality of submissions, good poetry) is being written and also we are pleased that people have chosen us.  On the other hand, it is disappointing for poets to find that their excellent work is being turned down for no better reason than that we are “full up”.

So we have decided to close to submissions again from Monday 27th November until further notice.

When we are ready again to consider submissions we will announce it here and on our Twitter account. What we said in our earlier post about the desirability of opening oneself to the unexpected from time to time still stands and we look forward to being able to do so again in the future.

Thank you to all those who have submitted and those of you who have not yet had a response from us will receive it by 27th November.

Poetry Tonight in Mid Wales

If you are in the Welsh Marches tonight we’d love to see you at a Rack Press reading for Poetry in Presteigne.

All details here on the poster.

Our Submissions Policy

Earlier this year we temporarily closed the Press to submissions in order to give ourselves some breathing space given the volume of submissions we were receiving. Most poetry publishers, large and small, tend to have similar policies but we imposed ours with reluctance because we felt that a publisher whose front door is closed to unsolicited submissions is in danger of simply letting its friends in through the unlocked door at the rear of the premises. Some of our best pamphlets over the past decade have come unexpectedly to us in the post from people we didn’t previously know though equally many have been commissioned.  That is likely to remain our policy for the future.

That's the good news. Now for the bad. Given our very small output (four or five pamphlets a year at most) NO! is likely to remain our most used word when faced with new submissions. It is great fun running a small poetry press but the the bit we never like is having to say no, and we have to do so frequently.

If that hasn’t put you off, read our submissions policy which is on this site but reproduced below. Failure to follow these guidelines will automatically mean a rejection.

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CAN I BE PUBLISHED BY RACK PRESS?

• Rack Press publishes only four or five short poetry pamphlets a year which means that the scope for publishing unsolicited work is very limited and the overwhelming majority of unsolicited submissions are, regrettably, turned down.  
• This is no reflection on the quality of work submitted and no one submitting work should be discouraged.  Often we would love to publish your work but we simply don’t have the capacity.
• Rack Press resources are such that we cannot comment in detail on submissions. We regret that you will receive only a standard reply.
• 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.
• That’s another reason why a rejection doesn’t imply a negative judgement on the quality and distinction of your own work.
• 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. 
• Poets retain full copyright of their work and will naturally want to include the contents of pamphlets in future collections but if you are planning to publish a book-length collection containing the work, within 12 months of the publication date of your proposed pamphlet, we cannot make an offer to publish.
• Submit only enough poems for a pamphlet not a full-length book collection. 
• Rack Press pamphlets are normally 12 pages long which means 10 pages (A5) of poems 
• Individually tailored email submissions (but not blanket mailings which are automatically binned) are perfectly acceptable
• Postal submissions should enclose return postage or an email address at which you can be contacted
• Any submission that ignores these guidelines will be rejected.

The Poetry Book Fair 30 September

Chris Kinsey reading from her new pamphlet Muddy Fox
 in January

Welcome back after our much needed long break here at the Rack Press blog. We are looking forward to the Poetry Book Fair in London on Saturday 30 September where two of our poets from Wales will be reading during the day: Chris Kinsey and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. If you are in London on 30th September come and talk to us on our stall where there will be lots of bargains.

We will be announcing shortly our arrangements for the future for submissions to the Press.

Samantha Wynne Rhydderch, who will be reading from
Lime & Winter
seen here with fellow Rack Poets (L-R)
Deirdre Shanahan, Samantha, Hazel Frew, and
Martina Evans at an event at the London Irish Centre
celebrating our Irish, Scottish and Welsh poets

The Water Steps: a new title from William Palmer

This year Rack Press published its 50th poetry pamphlet and we are pleased to announce the publication on 31st May of our first book-length poetry collection, The Water Steps, by William Palmer. This fine collection is available to order now (£9.95, post free) using the Paypal button on this page.

Later reviews include Ian Pople in The Manchester Review: "This is a book of beautiful poems, each of which catches a different facet of the light and uses it to shine upon a different corner of a singular, and beautifully achieved world. It is a book to be noticed."

William Palmer has had three books of poetry published; the first, The Island Rescue (2007), was awarded the Collection Prize at the Listowel Writers' Festival. Poems and stories have appeared in many journals including London Magazine, Poetry Review, The Rialto, Stand, The Times Literary Supplement, and Warwick Review. He was awarded a Travelling Scholarship by the Society of Authors in 1997.  He is also the author of six novels, the latest of which is 

The Devil is White (Jonathan Cape 2013)

‘There is a kindness in William Palmer's poems: a generosity of perception, language and melody (read him aloud), but he is also generous in his poems' precision and economy. William Palmer's poetry never excludes readers, but it does challenge them at the same time as it charms them. He is one of our most interesting poets...’
David Morley

‘These shapely, profound poems...It is hard not to love a poetry whose rhythms seem to finger the pulse of the world outside and the beat of its time.’
Alison Brackenbury

Rack Press Editions Special Summer Offer

Our summer offer means that if you order any of the Rack Press Editions titles you can see here you can have them for £5 each. Just specify which other title you would like when ordering by Paypal here.

Small but perfectly-formed our ‘little green books’ pack an original punch.

Rack Poets Launched

Kathryn Gray reading from “Flowers"

A fantastic crowd turned out in Bloomsbury at the end of January to meet the four new Rack Poets of 2017 and here they are going through their paces.

We have copies of the individual pamphlets available to purchase here online as well as some of the bargain packs of the full set of 4, each signed and numbered by the author, at a reduced price of £15.

    

                                                                                      We hope you enjoy them.

Rory Waterman reading from
“Brexit Day on the Balmoral Estate"

Martha Sprackland reading from “Glass as Broken Glass"

Chris Kinsey reading from “Muddy Fox"

Rack Press Poets of 2017 launched on 27th January

It is, we hope, one of the early highlights of the poetry year: the annual launch of the new Rack Press pamphlets with this year another great quartet lined up.  The event at the Art Workers’ Guild in Bloomsbury is always a great party and we look forward to seeing you there.

If you can’t make it you can order the pamphlets here and now.