I've been away for a couple of weeks and am only just catching up on 
this thread. I seem to be in agreement with a number of the comments 
already made, but I think one point has been missed and that is that 
editors (moi inclus) can carry inadvertent biases. My own publishing 
set-up is open to all-comers, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, 
social background, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc etc. 
However, a cursory analysis of the people I publish would reveal a 
preponderance of middle-aged white males. Being one such myself, I 
suspect I respond best to work from this quarter, but I do TRY to 
suspend that automatic judgement response when faced with work from 
other genotypes. (Is that the right word?)

To get even a half-way respectable selection of work from women, I have 
to actively cajole and encourage, even plead. For the 
testosterone-fueled section of the community, all I have to do is sit 
here and wait to be hit by the blizzard of paper. Most of it is 
dreadful. And don't tell me that it isn't. My inbuilt poetry taste buds 
might be defective at times but, at the very least, there is 
poetry-which-is-not-right-for-this-particular-publisher, which my radar 
often classifies as "bad". There is also a small percentage of work 
which ain't right, but which is actually good of its ilk - good 
bloodaxe, if you like - which I direct to more appropriate targets, 
where it will have a better chance of acceptance. But what do I do with 
the residents of India and Pakistan who write pseudo-Victorian 
extravaganzas on the Meaning of Life? (A gentle rebuff, actually.)

There is a Canon. There always has been and there always will be. Taste 
changes; the canon will change. Judgement constructs which exclude the 
work of women or ethnic minorities, or non-standard social groups, will 
alter. And, horror, they will be replaced by new constructs that also 
act to exclude certain works, certain writers, which do not ft the new 
prevailing constructs. Tough shit. All you need is a pair of open eyes 
and an open, inquisitive mind. It's not worth complaining about it. It 
is worth doing something about it yourself.

This thread started with Geraldine's message about Glen Storhaug's Arts 
Council difficulties. As a publisher who gets some help from that 
quarter and who operates in an area of the country which is positively 
encouraging to small presses and the kind of poetry that we often 
discuss here, I'm fortunate. BUT, I'm afraid that it's naivety to think 
we all deserve funding all the time, and it's a mistake to have a 
set-up which cannot operate without this drip-feed. You have to 
remember that the Arts Council officers - and they are not all cold 
managerialists with no idea about literature - have to answer to their 
masters. If they cannot demonstrate that they have added value of some 
kind, they are not doing their jobs. They also have to account 
somewhere up the line for the expenditure of tax funds and/or 
lottery-derived funds. I think government departments and their 
offshoots ought to be able to account for the funds they dole out. Some 
of them will do it better than others; and some will fund sensible 
things, some will fund nonsense.

I note that the latest Poetry Review complains about the Arts Council's 
withdrawal of their grant to Peterloo Poets in Cornwall. Harry Chambers 
has long been a recipient of such funding, and has built a 
well-respected operation (not that I have much time for his authors 
mind you) which has now been pulled. But his supporters don't mention 
that he actually didn't do what he said he was going to do with at 
least one of his recent grants - although matters may have been beyond 
his control (ill-health, etc). I have the same literature officer here 
as does Peterloo (not that I've discussed that problem with her) and 
she's been most helpful and supportive. In return I provide her with 
regular financial reports, updated business plans, etc etc, plus copies 
of all new titles, so she & her team can see where the AC's money is 
going. I expect them to withdraw or reduce the funding if I don't do 
what I said I was going to do, or if I waste their money.


Tony
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Tony Frazer
Shearsman Books Ltd
58 Velwell Road
Exeter EX4 4LD
England

Tel / Fax: (+44) (0) 1392-434511

http://www.shearsman.com/
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