Tony, Thanks for the correction. I first wrote "all" then added "most"
precisely because I suspected Shearsman wasn't currently being funded.
Though I don't at all share this despair at it, I can't really offer a
defence of the Faber list as it will only look like vested interest.
Whatever the motive, I'm pretty sure that a number of dismissive comments
(like a couple I gave) betray absolutely no knowledge of what's there.
In terms of the future, it's hard to say. Hard times for most publishers at
the moment. I do remember well, though, that OUP's declared reason for
shutting down its poetry list in 1999 was an economic one. They weren't
especially candid even about that: the list was doing ok. Had they kept it
going a number of their poets would have subsequently brought in
considerable revenue, notably Alice Oswald whose book sales, I believe, are
really substantial.
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Frazer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: "The Conspiracy Against Poems" by Adam Fieled at The Argotist
Online
On 8 Sep 2010, at 03:32, Jamie McKendrick wrote:
> Smaller presses like Shearsman, even smaller like Barque - most if not all
> of these I believe funded by the Arts Council. (In this context of public
> funding, it's always surprised me that the unfunded larger presses should
> be the particular targets of vituperation among certain poets, as though
> the covers themselves stamped something official and conservative on their
> contents, obviating any need to read them.)
A small correction, Jamie. Shearsman is unfunded, although it did have an
ACE grant from 2005-2007. I'm not sure who's funded these days, but Carcanet
and Bloodaxe each get just over 100k p.a. from the Arts Council.
I know what you mean about the vituperation towards the larger presses (i.e.
the Fabers of this world): some of this stems from envy and some of it from
despair at the unadventurous lists they offer. On the other hand very few
poetry books sell enough to justify the employment of an editor and so (with
a business hat one here) I can't see why commercial firms would want to
support them anyway, unless they can see some kudos accruing to them for
having published them. I do wonder how many big-name London poetry lists
will still exist in 10 years. Faber will, but the rest?
Tony Frazer
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