Any thoughts on this article, or any additions or alternatives to A-MF's Ones to Watch list?

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2281914,00.html

I'd certainly publish everyone on that list. I'd naturally want to include the 17 debuts I'm in the throes of publishing. I'd have added John McCullough from Tall Lighthouse. But where to stop! There's such great diversity and such an enormous range of new talent pouring out just now. All very exciting. Nice to see Anne-Marie draw some patterns in the sand. They're all super writers.

There are so many I'd like to add but I was happy to see the pilot series well represented. Not all of the following reflect my taste, which points towards the gaudy end of the spectrum, but I'd add Ahren Warner, Simon Barraclough, Camellia Stafford, Retta Bowen, Richard O'Brien, Heather Phillipson, Kate Kilalea, Diana Pooley, Kate Potts, Emily Berry, Wayne Smith, Imogen Robertson, Patrick Brandon, Michael McKimm - and these are in the main poets who've read (or will read) at the shuffle. I'd also like to see some stranger poets on the list - Mark Waldron, for instance.

Well, there are clearly loads of people who could be on that list. Me, for example! (she said, modestly.) Or Tim Wells, Tim Turnbull, Kei Miller, Catherine Smith, Isobel Dixon, Annie Freud, Kathryn Maris, Liane Strauss... Of course, there are some fabulous writers on the list. I'm really happy she included some of them, others I haven't read.

I agree with all your suggestions Katy but mine are people who (in the main) haven't yet published a first collection, so I'd go as far as saying I think Nick Laird and Luke Kennard shouldn't have been included in a 'ones to watch' list as their profiles are pretty hot already.

Yes Amy, I thought the criteria seemed a bit open on that list! On my list Liane Strauss doesn't have a collection yet, and Kathryn Maris hasn't in this country. But then again, as the article was in the Guardian, I think there's nothing wrong with including people the punters might actually be able to find in the shops.

Agreed, I don't begrudge anything that encourages people buy poetry, single collections in particular!

Caroline Bird, Richard Osmond, Jay Bernard and I'd second John McCullough.

I don't have a problem with anyone on AMF's list - all good poets. But I do wonder at the fact that there are no Scottish poets on the list! Unless you count Kapka Kassabova (excellent writer) who, although Bulgarian, currently lives in Edinburgh. Are none of us good enough to be poets worth watching?

The problem with lists like this, and the additions in this thread, is that they will inevitably be skewed in favour of the list-makers' nationality, geographic location and friendships. I think AMF has made some good choices but if you asked the organisers of poetry venues in Edinburgh or Glasgow for a similar list, the names would be very different, but no less justifiable.

I'd like to agree with you, Rob. But things haven't been great in recent years for new Scottish poets. My anthology looks like it will only have four or five Scottish poets (out of 75) - not a good haul out of 'debuts since 94' plus exceptional unpublished poets*.

I know I'm not in touch with the grass roots Scottish writing scene as I was in the 90s, but I'm just not hearing many names and tips - certainly no one who might fit my Pilot series of pamphlets by under 30s (though Charlotte R is partly Scottish). There has been no Scottish Eric Gregory winner in the last 14 years whereas in the previous 14, we averaged more than one a year.

Most of the best 'newer' Scottish poets this decade are a bit older, such as yourself and several people called Andy. I'd be happy to hear of more names, though a few Scottish names I've sounded out recently have offered few real contenders for a Ones to Watch list.




*Talking of which, if anyone (board members or lurkers) would like to suggest names for these which I may not know, can you please contact me by personal message here or at roddylumsden at yahoo.co.uk. Identity Parade will contain selections from ten or so unpublished (at end of 2009) UK/Irish poets alongside 65 published poets. Poets ought to be realistically close to a strong full first collection and not just a promising new poet, and have a realistic claim to being one of the ten best unpublished poets in the land (a status open to debate, of course!). No self-nominations please.

Diana was going to be my nomination for the POF / Salt first book competition. Is it still on? I hope so. Chris?

As for John McCullough, I don't think John feels quite ready for a full book yet - he's a writer who likes to take his time. But if I was a publisher, I'd be signing him up - British poetry lacks a prominent gay male poet, by which I mean one who writes quite a bit about gay subject matter. He's also a very amiable and able reader.

(sales pitch - you can all buy his pamphlet here along with the O'Riordan and Gamble ones recommended in the Guardian article! http://www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk/pilot.html and ones by others recommended on this thread!)

Hi Roddy, yes, it's still on. Looking forward to seeing those entries.

The comment on Scots is interesting. No one applied for the Scots or Welsh editors for Salt. Whereas we can get a few unsolicited applications a week for English editors. I wondered about national literatures in that context. Strategically, I think the Union will break up within 10 years.




Some folks on this board may know Salt (and me and Jen in particular) has had a very hard time over the past fortnight. Just a quick note to say everything's looking calmer now and we're going to be making some changes in the near future to grow the business again.

Maybe we're getting back to the tradition of late starters exemplified by some of our biggest names of the 20th Century (MacDiarmid, Muir, Mackay Brown, for instance). Shore Poets has found it a bit harder recently to sniff out good contenders for the new poet slot at the readings. I wonder whether it's partly down to infrastructure: there's nothing in Scotland like the Poetry School, for instance. Sure, university creative writing programmes seem to be a growth industry here as elsewhere in the UK, but their reach is necessarily limited.

Re the Welsh editor thing, Chris, a close friend of mine had seen the advert and told me he was interested and - I think - reasonably qualified to do the job - but was worried how much work might be involved. He's already got quite a lot on his plate this year, work-wise, and it's an unpaid position, isn't it?

If you're still looking though, I could possibly put the two of you in touch, unless you also think it's going to involve a lot of work? I don't want him keeling over!

I just heard this morning about the recent death of a very dear old friend of mine, the satirical poet and musician Roly Drower, and can really do without losing any more friends just at the moment.

Very glad to hear things are calmer, Chris.

I wonder whether, post devolution, Scots are looking a bit less to England for publishing opportunities. Pure speculation and I'm not at all convinced it's the case, not least because there aren't really that many strong Scotland-based poetry publishers. The pamphlet scene is strong here but, for books, there's not much. There's Polygon, of course. And there's Luath, but is it at all visible outside Scotland? There's also Two Ravens at the smaller end. Haven't read any of their books yet, but they've attracted attention in the Scottish newspapers.

I couldn't comment on the future of the Union, at least not in public, being an employee of the Scottish Parliament. However, there's certainly a greater sense of self-confidence in Scotland as a nation, seperately from the constitutional debate. As an observation, that seemed to be considerably stronger in the immediate wake of the election this year.

Supplementary to my earlier comment about infrastructure, and in slight contradiction to it, there certainly seems to be more happening in Glasgow than Edinburgh at the moment, what with St Mungo's Mirrorball and Vital Synz.

Sorry to hear about that Jane. I hadn't heard of him, I must confess.

Sorry to hear about that loss, Jane. Yes, we're interested in a Welsh editor, the work can always be tailored. It's unpaid (aren't they all!) but we're always happy to carve salary out of an editor's net profits. I suppose that's the challenge there. I'm very open to suggestions. We're also considering a Manchester regional office for Salt. In fact, anyone wanting to work with Salt should get in touch with me now. Jen and I are planning some refocussing and we'd be interested in hearing from folks.

We've begun to think of ourselves in part as a Scottish publisher, chiefly as half the staff are Scots! But we're seriously thinking about how we develop national publishing and some regional strategies, too. We're in discussions with someone fabulous for Ireland.

Interestingly, the best few things I've seen from Scottish poetry publishers recently have been by English poets - Patience Agbabi, Gregory Leadbetter and Sam Meekings with The Bestiary, a highly recommended debut from Polygon:

http://polygon.birlinn.co.uk/book/details/...-9781846970467/

There are some good relatively new poets around - people like Cheryl Follon (if Nick Laird and Kapka Kassabova can qualify, so can she) for instance. I was reminded by email today of Alan Crosbie. I haven't read Gerry McGrath's debut collection on Carcanet yet, but I'm told it's good. Same with Hazel Frew's debut with Shearsman.

But Hazel is about my age, probably Alan too.

Thinking more about it, beyond my gut reaction to the list, I'm forced to concede that you have a point, Roddy. I looked at my Great Grog readers' list and most of them are either old hands or not Scottish. The same with HappenStance - the best recent pamphlets have been with non-Scottish authors and that's (unfortunately) not because Scottish authors haven't submitted stuff! The Scottish-based HappenStance poets are all around my age.

We have some very good poets resident in Scotland, but they aren't Scottish - eg. Tim Turnbull, Jen Hadfield, Mike Stocks, Kei Miller.

This is something I honestly hadn't noticed before. Nearly all the quality younger poets up here aren't Scottish! Damn!

I may share a first name and premature greyness with Mr Jackson, but I'm only three years older than Cheryl. Born the same year as Nick Laird and Jacob Polley, me.

Not that I look obsessively at the dates of birth in first collections, you understand.

Anyway, what's this obsession with age about? It's all a bit too celebrity cultural if you ask me.

That is, if you ask me now. If you'd asked me five or 10 years ago, you might have had a different answer.

I'd better pack ...

You took the words right out of my head. Surely, what is written is of more importance than the age of the person writing it.

I completely agree, you won't be surprised to know. I forget how old I am at times (43, just to remind myself) - I'm sure that James W. Wood, on HappenStance, must also be a good bit younger than me. He's a good poet - and Scottish, I think.

Also, in AMF's list, she makes no reference to age, only to the idea that these poets are worth watching. I hope she doesn't kill me for revealing this, but I'm pretty sure that Kapka K. is a few years older than you, Andy (but younger than me).

We did discuss age in some other thread a while back.

I guess the reasons for why there are so few good emerging Scottish poets is for another thread. I think the lack of a 'Poetry School' has little to do with it. Anyway, sorry for (unintentionally) diverting the thread. I was pleased to see AMF's article and I hope it creates some interest in the poets she mentions.

The age factor here is important and relevant.

Not to A-MF's list in The Guardian, of course, and not to my own list of poets to watch which I posted last night and then deleted (there's too much complication as an editor and teacher for me to stick my neck out and name 12 names!), which contained six poets over 40, two or three of them over 50.

But it is relevant to this business of Scottish poetry - it worries me that no Scottish poet in my anthology of newer poets is under 40 (there were six in TNP). That there are (older) new poets around is not the point, it's the relative lack of younger ones at a time when young poets are thriving elsewhere. No Gregory winner since 94, no likely names for my Pilot series, few young poets available for Shore Poets, very few Scottish pupils commended in the FYP - that's all worrying for a country which has a strong tradition of poetry.

Oh, you're right there, Roddy. No doubt about that at all.

Thanks, Andrew.

No, Roly Drower was an exceptionally unambitious person in national terms, though a bit of a political agitator in his own local area - the Isle of Man - which landed him in court on one infamous occasion. He wasn't Manx but lived there to be close to his elderly father, a former BBC World Service guy called Denys Drower (one of the voices behind 'London Calling').

Roly is well-known on the Island, mainly as a satirical writer and folk-techno musician with connections to the Manx National movement, and will be hugely missed in creative circles. We were very close at one point, and it was a shock to hear of his death. He was only 54. :(

Worth a google!