New Titles Launched in London Next Week

The new titles described in the post below are launched next week, Thursday 14th January, at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury at 6.30pm and all are welcome.

Look at our new website for all the details of the new poets.

And don't worry about the snow. We had it last week (as you can see from the photograph) at Rack Press HQ in the Welsh Marches and we survived.

Four New Poets in Exciting Line-Up for 2010

Four new titles from Rack Press Poetry are being launched on Thursday 14th January in London at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury at 6.30pm. More details to follow.

The Press will be celebrating the 5th birthday of its relaunch in 2005, since which date sixteen poets have appeared in the characteristic Rack Press grey livery in finely produced limited editions.

The new year's poets are Katy Evans-Bush with Oscar & Henry, David Kennedy with Mistral, Philip Morre with Here's to the Home Country, and Ian Parks with A Paston Letter.

All pamphlets are priced at £4 and can be pre-ordered now direct (postage free) from:-

Rack Press, The Rack, Kinnerton, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2PF.

Cheques payable to Rack Press.

Date of Publication: 14 January 2010

ALL RACK PRESS TITLES ARE AVAILABLE IN LONDON FROM JOHN SANDOE BOOKS, 10 BLACKLANDS TERRACE, CHELSEA

The View from Rack Press Corporate HQ

We are having a London launch in January but Rack Press is a Welsh press based in the beautiful Radnor Valley in the Welsh Marches.

This was the view on the last day of British Summertime.

The New Rack Poets Are Coming

We will soon be announcing the poets in the new 2010 series to be launched in January. Because this is to be the fifth birthday of the relaunched Rack press there will be more poets, a special London launch, and lots of special offers so watch this space!

We are also redesigning our website which we hope will be active in a few weeks.

Poetry Wales Salutes Us

Thank you to Poetry Wales for a nice mention of Rack Press in its latest issue (Spring 44 (4)) in the context of a discussion of the current fashion for poetry pamphlets. In a sense it is a mixed blessing from big poetry publishers like Seren and Faber who have both announced new pamphlet initiatives in the past year, because we look to them for a more substantial commitment to new poetry in book form. But every little helps.

Poetry Wales writes: "In Wales, Powys-based Rack Press has established a well-produced series frequently reviewed in this magazine..." Not strictly accurate because Poetry Wales consistently ignored us until a splendidly generous review last autumn of the third annual batch of poets appeared there. Getting anything reviewed these days in the poetry magazines is a struggle so we are grateful for all these notices.

While on the subject of pamphlets we recommend the following:

Towards a Pamphlet: a practical course

Tutor: Roddy Lumsden

Venue: Poetry School, 81 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6DX

Day / Time: Fridays, 6.45-8.45pm

Duration: 6 weeks

Start Date: 6 November

Price: £65 (£46 concs)

You’ll look at how to put together, order and edit a pamphlet of poems; considering publication options, range, theme, the editorial and selection processes, design, layout and fonts. This short course, aimed at advanced poets who feel their work is now strong and original enough to be successful in a busy market, is taught by a poet who has edited many pamphlets

as well as writing both pamphlets and full collections of his own.

To book: call 0207 582 1679 or book online at www.poetryschool.com

New reviews of Rack Press pamphlets

The latest issue of Planet magazine carries reviews by Lyndon Davies of the 2009 series of Rack Press pamphlets. He praises John Powell Ward's "witty and inventive sequence" Variations on Four Places, finds Siobhán Campbell's language in Darwin Among the Machines "revels in the lexicon of mechanical paraphernalia" and describes William Palmer's poems in An Instruction from Madame S. as "elegantly wrought and mellifluously gratifying to the ear".

Issue 195 of Planet is available from www.planetmagazine.org.uk

The current issue of Agenda, a Welsh issue, also reviews Rack Press pamphlets under the slightly disconcerting heading of "Omnium Gatherum of Welsh Books". John Powell Ward's sequence is praised again and there are reviews of Steve Griffith's Landing and Byron Beynon's Cuffs.

Agenda is available from www.agendapoetry.co.uk.

Rack Press at Hay Festival of Literature

Rack Press pamphlets and poem cards will be available during the three day Hay Poetry Festival 28-30th May, a fringe event to the main Hay Festival, taking place at Oriel Gallery, Salem Chapel, Bell Bank, Hay on Wye with a range of poets appearing including Peter Finch, Wendy Mulford, John James, Chris Torrance and David Greenslade.

Information from goodbard@yahoo.co.uk