Cheerio appoints Sprackland as first poetry editor

Independent publishing imprint and production company Cheerio has appointed Martha Sprackland as its first poetry editor.

Sprackland joins the Francis Bacon-inspired firm, founded by agent Clare Conville and author Harriet Vyner last year, from fellow independent Offord Road Books, which she established and has led since 2016. Prior to this, Sprackland worked at Faber & Faber, where she was assistant poetry editor. She has also worked as an editor for Poetry London and Unbound, and as a freelance editor. Her appointment at Cheerio is effective from this month. 

In her new role, Sprackland will oversee the publication of two collections per year, working with poets editorially and in collaboration with Profile Books, Cheerio's sales and distribution partner. The poetry commissions will carry the line "published by Cheerio with Offord Road Books" on the title page.

Sprackland said: "I am delighted to be stepping into this new role. Together with Cheerio I am excited to seek out what is exhilarating and to bring it to the fore, both in English and in translation, and above all to work with talented authors to create a bold and exceptional list. Cheerio's ethos reflects the view of Francis Bacon, that ‘the job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery'. The poetry I most admire does exactly this. The energy and eclecticism of Cheerio's approach is evident here at the confluence of film, fiction, photography, non-fiction and poetry, and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.” 

Sprackland's own poetry, fiction, essays, translations and reviews have appeared in Poetry Review, London Review of Books, the Guardian, the White Review and the London Magazine, among others. Her debut collection, Citadel, was published by Pavilion Poetry in 2020, and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the John Pollard International Poetry Prize and the Costa Poetry Award. She is currently working on fiction.

Harriet Vyner, joint director at Cheerio, said: “Out of the hundreds of books found in Francis Bacon’s Reece Mews studio after his death, it was no surprise to discover that the vast majority were poetry collections. His acknowledgement of poetry’s power to illuminate, inspire and console is well known. It is a philosophy that all of us at Cheerio Publishing wholeheartedly share. We are delighted to welcome the brilliant Martha Sprackland as our poetry editor. Martha’s own poetry has been enthusiastically received, including multiple prize nominations for her debut collection in 2020. We look forward to Martha bringing her amazing skills to discovering remarkable and exciting poets for our new Cheerio poetry list.”

Sprackland’s appointment comes as the press'  first two commissions, Bacon in Moscow by James Birch and Michael Hodges and Big Snake, Little Snake: An Enquiry into Risk by D B C Pierre, are unveiled. Both will be published in the first half of 2022.

Bacon in Moscow, publishing on 27th January 2022, recalls Birch’s "extraordinary quest" to stage a Francis Bacon retrospective at the Central House of Artists, in Moscow in 1988, a sell-out show that had Muscovites queuing round the block and the first exhibition of a living Western artist in the Soviet Union for over 40 years.

Big Snake, Little Snake is a collection of true stories recorded by the author while on his way to make a short film with a parrot in Trinidad. It not only examines the nature of gambling, the love affair between gambler and game and the mindset of obsessive practitioners, but aims to shed light on the invisible odds and "outrageous chances" of everyday life on Earth.