Up//Roar Poems of Queer Resistance anthology

Aim

LGBTQ+ poetry anthology - Up//Roar, Poems of Queer Resistance, edited by Cherry Potts and Jeremy Dixon, published by Arachne Press

Arachne Press has been publishing for over 13 years, with 65 books under our belt so far. We have long been a champion of LGBTQ+ writers, particularly poets, and our first anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry, Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy was funded by Crowdfunding, and went on to be a huge success, getting funding from the Arts Council to pay for a tour, which included a sell out event at the National Poetry Library on London's Southbank. We are now looking for crowdfunding support to publish a follow up poetry anthology, UP//ROAR: Poems of Queer Resistance! 

So what is Queer Resistance?

Coming out as Queer Resistance!

Living bold as Queer Resistance!

Pushing back as Queer Resistance!

Shouting out as Queer Resistance!

Showing up as Queer Resistance!

Knowing history as Queer Resistance!

Doing the work as Queer Resistance!

Politics as Queer Resistance!

Creativity as Queer Resistance!

The printed book as Queer Resistance!

The exclamation mark as Queer Resistance!

Now is the time for Queer Resistance!

Submitting your poetry to UP//ROAR is Queer Resistance!

We have run several successful crowdfunding campaigns before, but they are usually to cover match funding for a grant. As with Joy//Us, there is no grant this time so we have to find all the money through crowdfunding. Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy was a strange moment, publishing joyful poems, that celebrated all that is best about our community/ies and lives. Times have moved on fast, and although Joy is our abiding motivation, we want UP//ROAR to reflect this change and act as a rallying cry to the LGBTQ+ community! Now is the time for Queer Resistance so please consider supporting UP//ROAR! 

UP//ROAR: Poems of Queer Resistance will be published in October 2026. 

If you are a UK poet (at any stage of your writing journey) who identifies as LGBTQ+ then please send in your poems of queer resistance (in the broadest definition of the words – in fact the broader the better) to be considered for inclusion in UP//ROAR before 1st November!

Our existing Queer Books

Praise for Joy//Us

"An eclectic collection of poetry that illuminates and celebrates, who, how, why and where we are now."
Trudy Howson, LGBT Poet Laureate

"A gorgeous celebratory kaleidoscope of poems on the many joys of queerness."
James McDermott

Editors

Edited by Cherry Potts, Arachne Press owner and chief editor, and winner of the Quill LGBTQ+ prose prize 2023, and Jeremy Dixon, winner of the Wales Book of the Year English Language Poetry Award 2022, the team behind Joy//Us.

How your wonderfully supportive money will be spent

We've gone for the keep what you raise model to save our stress levels. Although that means we don't HAVE to get to our £2500 to receive any money, nonetheless we have to get there! this is the barest minimum the project needs to succeed.

We have, in principle, commissioned the cover from non-binary trans artist Frank Duffy who did the cover for Joy//Us, and has let us use their brilliant pink tiger as a holding image. 

The actual cover tiger will ROAR (obviously!) For that we need £300.

We need to pay the editors £500 each, they are working on the assumption we will get the money eventually. We also need to pay the typesetter £287, our marketing expert £1000 and the printers £940 for an initial print run of 1000 copies, and a further £40 will cover eBook conversion. For these we need the money available before we can commit to their work. Our proofreader is donating her time in return for home-cooked meals. (Thanks, Muireann!) Further basic media marketing will cost £726. Then we need to cover fees, and costs of producing some of the rewards - mostly they are donations or covered in the project costs, but there are a few where that isn't the case, plus, of course, the postage.

Poets

At time of writing we have had 60 submissions. Submissions close 1st November, and then we will longlist. If we can go straight to a short list we will, but it depends how many submissions we get. Apart from the poets themselves, we will announce long/shortlists here first, we want you to feel involved! Final choices will happen long after the crowdfund ends, of course. Our poets for Joy//us came from all over the UK and a couple from Ireland, and there was an excellent mix of age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, (dis)ability and identity; we had poems from well-known, award-winning poets who have been published many times, and we had poems which were the first outing in print for their poet. We hope for and expect a similar community for Up//Roar.

Distribution

We have proper trade distribution through BookSource and Sales representation through Inpress, so the books will be taken by sales reps to bookshops, and we have our own ecommerce site for selling direct to readers. This book has the advantage of a readily identifiable market and would really benefit from us getting out and selling it by hand through events at bookshops, libraries and other LGBTQ+ venues.

Outcomes beyond publication

One of the significant factors we noticed when putting Joy//Us together was that often Queer poets found it hard to access and communicate joy. Many of our poets (over half) self-described themselves as having some element of mental or social health problems, or as being Neurodiverse. This was unexpected, and we worked hard to make sure that our book tour (funded by ACE) was supportive, and that we created a warm inclusive community. While Up//Roar is focussed more on the rough time we as a community are having at the moment, we believe that, like Joy//Us, it can have a positive impact on the mental health of both the poets involved, and readers. Being seen, being heard, within our communities has incalculable value.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made