The Profiles

Lapwing (est. 1988)

Publishers: Dennis and Rene Greig
Location: Belfast
Funding: None. Self-funded, dependent on sales.
Poetry collections published per annum: 25 titles on average.

Do you accept unsolicited submissions of manuscripts? Yes. Always unsolicited.

Is this limited to Irish poets? No. We publish people from all over these islands and mostly Western Europe.

Criteria for publishing: Quality of language is the primary skill writers must display in their work: spelling and grammar, to put it as simply as possible. After that, the aesthetics of the written language, the rhetoric or stylistics (modern term for that element of linguistics), the ‘how-written’ is important in terms of making the reader’s imaginative response.

What kind of publicity can a poet hope to expect after being published? Publicity! Bugger all, since review publications are damned by all sorts of limitations and the mainstream press tends to review their own ‘in’ people. However, we use Google, Nielsen, Issuu and the net in general to put work ‘out there’. The best publicity is still word of mouth. It is also important that poets get busy participating in events at local and regional level: readings, workshops and other fora. Although these may attract aspiring writers, they are also selling opportunities, not just for publications but the poets themselves (personality, persona etc). There seems to be a pick-up of poets we have first published in book, chapbook or pamphlet formats. We take the risk, others reap the harvest – but I am very happy that quite a few poets get second and third books published elsewhere.

Production and distribution: The logistical costs of getting stuff to the USA, Canada, Africa and Asia are almost prohibitive now and I may be forced to refuse work when this year’s commitments are fulfilled. That is a high cost element that we try to subvert by offering PDF copies online.

Do you work within any particular genre or style of poetry? All prosodic forms, though I reject anachronistic word usage such as contractions and word-order that forces the natural idiom to conform to some pre-fabricated line and verse-form. I reject propaganda of the worst kind and will not knowingly promote racism or religious sectarianism or any abuse of what may be termed human rights. No haiku, but anything else.

Anything or any poets you would like to mention? Everyone who we have published. I’m not interested in awards whatsoever; I don’t trust the mechanisms by which they operate. Muggin’s turn this year, Dolly’s turn the next. Since poetry accounts for 0.1% of the British Irish market, awards must be a pat on the back for the best failure in a failing marketplace. Can’t blame shopkeepers for dumping a slow-selling and low-volume product, which in turn places a question mark over the value of awards except as a recognition of artistic achievement.

The decline in bookshops – fewer than 2000 now, down from 4000 a year or two ago – has had an impact on poetry publishing, especially for the neglected and emerging writer. With shelf space vanishing publishers can’t take the risk or cost. The internet is the most democratic market yet poetry remains small – just a small spillage from the monsoon of online selling and publishing. That fewer than 5000 people out of a population of 315 million in the USA buy poetry books regularly (Association of American Publishers sales data) indicates the popularity of the art form and, in any case, women make up 80% of the customer base for poetry in these islands. Lapwing works against the economic grain – we neither seek nor take state grant aid. With Liberty, Equality and Fraternity being our ethos, we refuse to be the paid servants of cultural management systems and exist in impecunious liberty.

Doghouse Books (est. 2003)

Publisher: Noel King
Location: Tralee
Funding: Occasional County funding depending on poet’s domicile. Mostly self-funded and dependent on sales.
Poetry collections published per annum: Seven in 2011 and seven in 2012, but found that too much. In the future, it’s strictly four per year.

Do you accept unsolicited submissions of manuscripts? Yes. We like manuscripts addressed to The Editors.

Is this limited to Irish poets? Yes, and living full-time on this island.

Criteria for publishing: Quality of work. That they are ‘working poets’, out there doing readings, workshops, attending festivals, networking, getting into lots of good journals, etc.

What kind of publicity can a poet hope to expect after being published? He/she has to generate a lot of it him/herself. We do as much as we can: send out invites, review copies to approximately 60 outlets and we pass on details of each new poet to the likes of Ó Bhéal / White House, etc., to get them readings. But we don’t get involved; i.e. it’s between the poet and the organiser and we don’t/can’t follow up publications to solicit reviews.

Production and distribution: Local level. Nationally for readings and launches.

Do you work within any particular genre or style of poetry? No.

Any poets you would like to mention? It wouldn’t be fair to highlight one above another.

Bradshaw Books (est. 1985)

Publisher: Máire Bradshaw
Location: Cork
Funding: Occasional or no Arts funding.
Poetry collections published per annum: Eight titles on average.

Do you accept unsolicited submissions of manuscripts? Yes.

Is this limited to Irish poets? No.

Criteria for publishing: Quality of work.

Production and distribution: Local level. Nationally for readings and launches.

Do you work within any particular genre, or style of poetry? No.

Any poets you would like to mention? Our writer-in-residence, Kathy D’Arcy.

Arlen House (est. 1980, no website)

Publisher: Alan Hayes
Location: Galway
Funding: None. Self-funded, dependent on sales.
Poetry collections published per annum: Ten titles, English and Irish language.

Do you accept unsolicited submissions of manuscripts? No.

Is this limited to Irish poets? 99% Irish poets.

Criteria for publishing: Quality of work and ability to work with the poet.

What kind of publicity can a poet hope to expect after being published? It depends on the poet. Is it a début? Where does the poet live? We try to get poets overseas and create opportunities.

Production and distribution: Wide International distribution. We often publish in hardback.

Do you work within any particular genre or style of poetry? No haiku, but anything else.

Any poets you would like to mention? Martin Dyar’s début collection, Cathal O’ Searcaigh, Jim Chatson (Irish-American) – poet laureate of Milwaukee – and Emily Cullen (Irish, living in Australia/America).

New Island Press (formerly Raven Arts Press, est. 1977)

Publisher: Edwin Higel
Location: Dublin
Funding: Some Arts Council funding.
Poetry collections published per annum: Two titles, also publishes fiction and drama.

Do you accept unsolicited submissions of manuscripts? Yes. We have an open policy but receive far, far more than we could ever publish.

Is this limited to Irish poets? No.

Criteria for publishing: Quality of work. Some fashion of a profile is helpful, if only because it helps garner reviews. Especially for new poets, there is little hope for large sales, but there is great hope for reviews and building their profile in that way.

What kind of publicity can a poet hope to expect after being published? That very much depends on how they themselves are perceived and what stage their career is at. It also is essential that the collection is sold with a story to accompany it. That might be a simple one, around the circumstances of it coming together, or a bigger story about the why.

Do you work within any particular genre or style of poetry? Not one that I am qualified to describe. I think we have a fairly traditional bent in our poetry!

Any poets you would like to mention? It would be wrong not to mention Dermot Bolger, Tom Mac Intyre and Anthony Cronin but there are others we might just as easily include.

And anything else you’d like to say? We’d like to see New Island publish more poetry by rising poets in the years ahead. Our thinking is that we can balance those established names with newer voices – hence a debut collection in 2012 and a debut collection in 2013 with one targeted in 2014 as well. We think that, given the track record of our poetry publications, one debut and one established poet a year is not a difficult balance to maintain.