Save The Poetry Business! 33 years & more...

Dear Friends

You may have noticed we live in crazy times. Though small by the side of Brexit and the Donald, we have just heard of our own bit of madness, which is a failed bid for Arts Council support over the next year. 

A loss in funding is a serious issue for the Poetry Business. Ironically this is at a time when we have never been more successful – when we have never reached as many poets through book and magazine sales and through our teaching, and crucially when we have an outstanding staff team. 

We have been fortunate in our projects, not least working with the best new writers – Mary Jean Chan, Kayo Chingonyi, Andrew McMillan and Helen Mort – to find the best younger writers for our New Poets List, while at the same time collaborating with Carol Ann Duffy on our Laureate's Choice series of pamphlets – and we hope a forthcoming Laureate's Choice anthology. In among we continue to publish new and established writers with the same care that has characterised Smith|Doorstop for over thirty years and which prompted Alan Jenkins, Chair of the Michael Marks Awards, to single the Poetry Business out as 'a by-word for excellence'. 

Then there is, which we love maybe even more, the writer development side – our writing days above all and occasional residential courses (for the PB and with the Arvon Foundation), and not least a record number of applications for what will be our ninth Writing School for published poets. It is such a pleasure to work with so many talented poets, and this engagement will, we hope continue. 

The International Book & Pamphlet Competition will go ahead this year, with the winners announced in May and published in February 2020, whatever else happens to the Poetry Business. We are also committed to ensuring that The North magazine will honour its subscriptions and all of the writers whose work we're delighted to have accepted. 

Thank you to all of our readers and writers for your support over the last 33 years. We have a wonderful team at our office, we collaborate with many splendid organisations and we feel very much part of the wider literary community. Above all, we feel very warmly in touch with so many poets and readers across the country and internationally. Thank you for being there for us. 

We hope to continue delivering all of this fantastic work, but as you will know, all of this means an appeal for your support. Any donation you can offer will help us to continue our work over the coming months, and for us to move into a more stable position later this year.

We are confident that we can make a good case for our future work, and we hope that we can continue our relationship with the Arts Council who have supported us financially and in other ways, since the business was founded over 30 years ago. 

Best wishes

Ann and Peter Sansom & The Poetry Business office team