Carcanet Press launches audiobook series

Carcanet Press is launching an audiobook series featuring recordings of poetry collections read by the authors themselves.

The Manchester-based indie has teamed up with Colin Still, founder of production company Optic Nerve in south London, to produce the first in the new series of audiobooks, featuring unabridged recordings of collections read by the poets themselves.

Gilgamesh Retold by Jenny Lewis is first audiobook to be released, the press said. It was originally published as a Carcanet Classic in October 2018. It will be available on all major platforms, including Audible, iTunes and Scribd.

Further titles include Pearl by Jane Draycott (September 2019) and Now We Can Talk Openly About Men by Martina Evans (2020).

Founder and editorial director of Carcanet Press Michael Schmidt said: “We’re lucky to have poets who are also wonderful readers and who bring so much formal understanding to their work. The readings enhance and extend the print text. We are going to go to audio with books which are wholes and where the poet reader adds value and scale to the work."

He added: "We are also very lucky to have a long history of working with Colin Still, whose Optic Nerve audio publications of poets reveal how brilliantly he can produce poets and help them bring their work alive on the ear.”