Help Broken Sleep Books Publish New Poetry in 2027

Aim

Help Broken Sleep Books, an award-winning, working-class run, independent poetry press, publish its 2027 list of new books.

Who we are

Broken Sleep Books is an independent, working-class run, poetry press. We started in 2018 in an effort to degentrify the creative arts. Too often work from low socioeconomic authors and artists was ignored or disregarded because they didn't have the connections or finances needed to get through the gates. So, we decided to dismantle that system, and open the gates. 

Since then we've been publishing poetry, pamphlets, prose and hybrid work, with a focus on writers from low socioeconomic backgrounds who are too often overlooked by mainstream publishing. We're proud to have won the Michael Marks Publishers' Award, the Saboteur Award for Most Innovative Publisher, and Small Press of the Year for Wales.

Our 2027 list

Next year's books include new work from Sean O'Brien, Penelope Shuttle, Niall Griffiths, and Matt Abbott, a new edition of Percival Everett's Abstraktion und Einfühlung, selected poems from David Stavanger. We've also got books by Adam Price, Verity Spott, and Beatrice Garland. Alice S. Yousef, Zeyad Al Nahas and Aysar Ghassan. Kexin Huang, Elijah Sofoluke, and Hana Aoke. There's Jane Campbell, Stephen S. Mills, Caleb Parkin, and Scout Tzofiya Bolton. Closer to home, there's Grug Muse, and Iestyn Tyne, and many more books alongside these!

It's a list of collections, pamphlets, prose, and anthologies, from established names and new voices alike.

Why we need your help

The cost of printing books has risen steadily, and every new title now costs us more to produce than it did a few years ago.

At the same time, we've taken a big step forward. We've moved to a new distribution model that will put more of our books on bookshop shelves, giving our writers the chance to reach readers who might never otherwise find them. The catch is that bookshops need stock before they can sell it, so we have to supply those books up front, months before any of the money from sales comes back to us.

We also want to keep doing this on our own terms. Rather than depending on grants and subsidies that can disappear from one year to the next, we'd like the press to be sustained by the people who read and care about our books. Your support helps us publish the writers we believe in, without waiting for permission or funding to do it.

Where the money goes

After platform fees and costs, everything raised goes towards publishing the 2027 list, helping to cover print, design, and typesetting costs, distribution and stock runs, and the various administrative tasks that take place behind-the-scenes.

Rewards

There's something at every level: lucky dips from our backlist, slightly battered 'Misprints & Mishaps' books, new 2027 books of your choice, a year of books, and one-to-one feedback on your own poems.

Thank you

In 2022, 178 of you backed our last crowdfunder, and it made a real difference. We'd love to have you with us again.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st December 2026 at 5:20pm