You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
2024’s poetry releases reflect an artform rich in originality, activism and experiment.
In 2024 poetry publishers are leading the way through their risk-taking. This year, dozens of poets will have their first book published and the trope of "new" signifying "young" will be debunked. There is also an exciting strand of long-established poets moving publishing houses, building fresh relationships at a later stage in their career. In addition, poets are addressing huge and challenging themes – from alternative angles on the climate crisis to queerness and Islam – making poetry a unique artform for gaining knowledge of human experience. The flexibility and fleet-footedness of poetry publishers provides plenty for fiction and non-fiction publishers to learn from.
A huge loss for literature in 2023 came with the unexpected death of Gboyega Odubanjo at just 27 years old, making his highly anticipated book Adam a posthumous debut, building on his pamphlet While I Yet Live which is out with Bad Betty Press. Odubanjo’s voice is distinct in poetry, one that we’ll be hearing again and again over the years to come: fizzing with linguistic energy, singular in its vision, political, funny and memorable. "London is the world until it sings all the wrong hymns in your church."
One of the big movements in poetry over recent years has been towards collective activism, either through shared solidarity between poets, sometimes resulting in new anthologies and events, but also through the creation of collectives in which poets meet to develop their work. Sometimes these collectives emerge organically, like multi-species fish shoals, sometimes they come with a structure and professional development, such as Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective which is open to poets from 22+ with no upper age limit. This year shows publishers backing the talent emerging from these collectives, putting their resources behind both their fledgling promise and already fully formed great work. Two poets from Southbank Centre’s past collectives will see their debut collections published this year. Bloomsbury Publishing will release Sanah Ahsan’s I Cannot Be Good Until You Say It – a poetic mediation on queerness and Islam – and Tim Tim Cheng’s brilliantly titled The Tattoo Collector will appear with Nine Arches. It’s exciting to see poetry publishers embracing the grassroots culture of the artform, providing that crucial next step for poets to find new audiences.
It’s also encouraging to see poetry publishers taking risks on established authors who are coming fresh to their press. Bloodaxe will be launching Dzifa Benson’s long-awaited debut, Monster. Benson is a poet who’s been exciting audiences with her cross-genre work for decades but is yet to publish a full collection. Based on the poem recently commissioned for Mary’s Kuper’s "A Birthday Garland" exhibition (currently on view at the National Poetry Library) Benson’s debut is set to be a heady and visionary experience. It’s also exciting to see Tamar Yoseloff publish her seventh collection Belief Systems with Nine Arches after publishing her last two books with Seren, whose list this year includes new books from Carrie Etter, Maggie Harris and Taz Rahman.
Poets are addressing huge and challenging themes – from alternative angles on the climate crisis to queerness and Islam – making poetry a unique artform for gaining knowledge of human experience
Poetry publishers are leading the way with content too and 2024 is set to be a year of activism. Poets are no longer simply poets; try asking one to stick to a 10-minute set – how will they fit in the Ted Talk? There’s a long history of political, campaigning poetry but this feels different – no longer poetry about politics but poetry as politics. To breathe on this planet has never been so political and poets, attuned to the language living in their bodies, know how to use their breath to throw fire.
Isabel Galleymore’s Baby Schema (Carcanet) challenges the buzz around eco-poetry through its unusual poetic angle, probing into the human fascination with anthropomorphising animals and natural elements. Rather than heading into poetry’s wild places with John Clare and Alice Oswald, Galleymore explores "Kindchenschema" – those Disney-tropes of large eyes and round cheeks – that stimulates caregiving in humans. Do we need to say "ah" to care for our planet? With so many other artforms focusing on the immediate aim to "save" and novelists holding a fascination with the apocalyptic, this is a welcome angle that takes us that bit deeper towards understanding the strangeness of our human psyche in relation to the environment.
Broken Sleep Books are led by editor and poet Aaron Kent whose book with the87press, The Working Classic, interrogates the gentrified culture industry that often sets the rules for working-class participation. Alongside Fran Lock’s White/Other, the87press is one of the poetry publishers making far more space for working class voices than is generally found in the fiction industry. With an ambitious programme of publishing over 60 books a year, Kent’s Broken Sleep provides a platform for poets of all stripes and intersectional powers, breaking down the traditional hierarchies that have prevented poets with "protected characteristics" from finding a platform in poetry. A real standout in their list for 2024 is their UK publication of trans poet Jos Charles, whose second US collection A Year and Other Poems will be given fresh wings within our shores. Charles is a poet breaking traditional form to create a dazzling lyric experience.
What would risk-taking in publishing mean without translation and non-English language in the mix? Broken Sleep will publish Astrid Alben’s epic 300-plus page translation of the Collected Works of Dutch poet F van Dixhoorn. Shearsman continue their epic series of translations of Chilean modernist Vicente Huidobro, who was a contemporary and associate of Picasso, Miró and Apollinaire. We’re treated to three new books, including his visual and experimental work, translated from Spanish and French into English by Tony Frazer and Terence Dooley.
For readers the message is clear: break boundaries within yourself by reading more poetry this year. For publishers: take note of the artform’s ambition and aim higher for 2025. More new writers! More radical content! More risk-taking!