Rack Poets at Ledbury Poetry Festival

Ros Hudis

Ian Parks

Susan Grindley

Rack Press is delighted to be at the Ledbury Poetry Festival on Saturday 13 July.  Three of this year's poets will be reading in the Shell House Gallery and they have good 20 minute slots and are all superb readers so get along there if you are in Ledbury and meet the poets and Rack Press.  We have been promised a heat wave for July and we in turn can promise you some great readings.  It will be a special pleasure to be in Herefordshire, the adjacent county to Powys in Wales where Rack Press is based and it's our first visit ever.

Susan Grindley will be reading from her Rack Press pamphlet New Reader and other work from 12.15-12.35pm; Rosalind Hudis will be reading from 2pm to 2.20 pm from her pamphlet Terra Ignota with new work and Ian Parks will be reading from The Cavafy Variations which is a Poetry Book Society Summer Choice and other new work between 3.40 and 4pm.  All at the Shell House Gallery and all free of charge.

If you are staying on until Sunday, Rack Press founder Nicholas Murray will be reading from his collection Acapulco: New and Selected Poems (Melos) and from his new pamphlet of animal poems from Melos between 12.15 and 12.35.

ALL THE PAMPHLETS CAN BE ORDERED ONLINE HERE AND THE POETS WILL BE HAPPY TO SIGN COPIES ON THE DAY.

Rack Poets Reviewed in Latest Warwick Review

In these exiguous times for poetry reviewing when many major collections go unreviewed it is always nice to get good review coverage and two of the new 2013 Rack Press pamphlets, by Ian Pople and Susan Grindley [you can order both of these here] are warmly reviewed in the latest Warwick Review No 2, June 2013.  In addition to these two we published this year Rosalind Hudis's Terra Ignota and Ian Parks's The Cavafy Variations and also, this month, David Harsent's Songs from the Same Earth all of which are available for purchase here and have received a very good reception.

Ian Parks's Cavafy – a Poetry Book Society Choice

The Summer Bulletin of the Poetry Book Society has arrived and in it Ian Parks' Rack Press title, The Cavafy Variations, which is a PBS Summer Pamphlet Choice, is reviewed.  The anonymous reviewer says that Ian has "a fine ear for underplayed vowel music, and knows how to keep a line rhythmically taut" and makes some very interesting and perceptive comparisons with the work of other translators.  An excellent review of an excellent pamphlet which can be ordered here now.

You can join the Poetry Book Society by visiting their website www.poetrybooks.co.uk

Songs from the Same Earth Triumph at Aldeburgh Festival

Sir Harrison Birtwistle's setting of David Harsent's Songs from the Same Earth (the text published yesterday by Rack Press) was premiered last night at the Aldeburgh Music Festival at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and received a rapturous reception from the audience.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle (l) and David Harsent (r)
on stage at the Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape Maltings

At a pre-concert talk in the Peter Pears Recital Room, introduced briefly by Rack Press publisher Nicholas Murray, David Harsent read the entire sequence before taking part in a discussion with Harrison Birtwistle chaired by Tom Service.  Harry (as he appears to be universally known) revealed that he is a great reader of poetry but confessed with his dry Lancastrian humour that: "Poetry has to be a suitable case for treatment; it's only any good to me if it can be set to music." David Harsent said that Harry had a "great sensitivity to the text" and "a fantastic sense of theatre" which was clear from the subsequent performance given by the outstanding tenor Mark Padmore.  Both composer and poet admitted that they tended to work intuitively, without a pre-existing plan, and all the ingenuity of interviewer Tom Service was required to get the two to explain how they worked together.  That they did do so was clear from the piece itself. With a fine intuitive sense of the urgencies of product placement Harry waved his Rack Press pamphlet of the poems around as he tried to explain how he came to write the concluding musical section.  We were too bashful to photograph this moment. The concert was recorded for transmission later this year on Radio 3.

New David Harsent Pamphlet launched at Aldeburgh Festival

We are delighted to announce the publication of David Harsent’s striking new sequence of poems, Songs from the Same Earth, to co-incide with the Aldeburgh Festival première on 13th June of Harrison Birtwistle’s setting of the poems. 

The piece is a Royal Philharmonic Society/Britten-Pears Foundation commission to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the bicentenary of the foundation of the Royal Philharmonic Society. The piece will be performed by Mark Padmore (tenor) and Till Fellner (piano). 

The protagonist of Songs from the Same Earth is a woman in crisis. The sequence gives us glimpses of the uncertain and menacing world she inhabits.

 

David Harsent has published ten collections of poetry. The most recent, Night, was Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2011 and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Forward Prize (Best Collection), the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Prize. 

His work in music theatre has involved collaborations with a number of composers, but most often with Harrison Birtwistle, and has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Proms and on Channel 4 TV.

Songs from the Same Earth will be available here to purchase online from Thursday 13 June

Amazon Attack on Small Presses

We have just discovered that Amazon has started, unilaterally, without consulting anyone, to state that certain small press titles are "unavailable" when they are plainly in print and very much available.  This is a sinister and unpleasant move by Amazon because they consulted no one about it and are in effect putting out false information because people who use Amazon will assume that they are right and that the publications are unavailable.

When a new publication is given an ISBN number by a publisher details are automatically routed to Amazon and others.  The publisher has no choice in the matter.  I cannot remove this information from Amazon's site and if we depended on them for sales, which we don't, this would be extremely damaging, like a public and false declaration that our titles were out of print.

The moral is clear: when buying from small poetry presses buy direct from them and never from Amazon.  That way more of the income comes to us and we can survive longer.

Things are little better in the much-mentioned independent bookseller world.  Foyles refuse to stock our publications  even as they accept the award of Independent Bookseller of the Year.

Ledbury Poetry Festival and New Reviews

Several new Rack Press titles for 2013 are reviewed in the latest issue of the excellent New Walk magazine.  Victoria Field reviews Ian Parks' The Cavafy Variations which we are delighted to announce is the Poetry Book Society Summer Pamphlet Choice.  "I love what Parks has done," writes Field in her review.  We do too.

Two pamphlets from last year (poetry reviewers play a long game), The Heretic's Feast by Michèle Roberts and House of Blue by Denise Saul are also reviewed in New Walk by Philip Morre who praises both pamphlets, referring to Denise Saul's "wonderfully subtle touch with magical ingredients" and her "truly original voice".

If you would like to see some Rack Press poets reading come along to the Ledbury Poetry Festival next month where Rosalind Hudis, Susan Grindley, and Ian Parks will be reading from their new Rack Press pamphlets and other work. More information about this to be posted soon.