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.

All the Fun of the Poetry Book Fair

The Free Verse Fair in full swing

Sue and I had a really good time at the Free Verse poetry book fair on Saturday 7 September at Conway Hall in London, now an annual event and brilliantly organised by Charles Boyle of CB Editions, Chrissy Williams and others, including lots of wonderful volunteers.

London publishing may be in a state of creative confusion these days but poetry publishers are proving that they are undaunted and the sheer range and variety of poetry on offer was astonishing.  Sue and I met many people and heard many poets read including our own Susan Grindley (see picture).  Thank you to everyone who came to our stall and chatted, bought books, or just nattered about poetry.

Susan Grindley reads from New Reader in the open
in Red Lion Square

Rack Press at Presteigne Festival

Left to right:
Roger Garfitt, Ros Hudis, John Barnie, Nicholas Murray

The Rack Poets had a very successful reading at the Presteigne Festival on 22 August and thanks to all who came to hear us read.  We are sorry that illness prevented a couple of our advertised poets from reading but we were grateful to local poet Roger Garfitt for stepping in at the last minute to read splendidly as a guest poet.

We will be at the Free Verse poetry book fair in London on Saturday 7 September so come along and meet us.

Rack Press Poets at Presteigne Festival

Phone box in village of Kinnerton, Powys,
home of Rack Press

Here in the Welsh Marches August is the month of the Presteigne Festival, a major and exciting part of the British music scene.

Rack Poets are delighted to have been invited to read on Thursday 22 August in the Assembly Rooms in Presteigne at 11.30 a.m.

The line up includes Ian Parks, Steve Griffiths, Rosalind Hudis, John Barnie and Nicholas Murray.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Ledbury Readings

Susan Grindley reading

The weather at Ledbury Poetry Festival this weekend was outstanding but it was as nothing compared to the Rack Press poets who read so well at the Shell House Gallery.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Ros Hudis about to read

The Ledbury Venue

Rack publisher Nick Murray
and poet Ian Parks
contemplating refreshment

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.