Debuts soar on Out-Spoken's new list

Debut poetry collections will dominate Out-Spoken Press' 2022 and 2023 list, with titles from writers including Helen Quah, Mukahang Limbu, Emma Jeremy, Katie O’Pray, Maria-Sophia Christodoulou and Oakley Flanagan.

The new list marks a step up in production for the press, which was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Small Press of the Year in 2021 for the second year running and recently received Arts Council England funding for its new publishing programme.

Its list has been commissioned by new editor Wayne Holloway-Smith, who succeeds Joelle Taylor. Holloway-Smith is the second editor to come on as part of the press’ model of rolling annual editorial tenures. The tenure structure is aimed at ensuring a plurality of editorial perspectives and that the diversity of UK poetries is represented in its list.

It also creates leadership roles and offers editorial experience for people from working class and other backgrounds underrepresented at higher levels in the industry.

Holloway-Smith said of the new list: "It's been hugely encouraging to see the amount of talent that exists among the emerging poetry community. It's also been a privilege to be able to choose these new voices to work with. I stand behind and 100%t believe in the poems these writers are producing — each one with something unique to offer — and I cannot wait to help usher the books into the world.”

Since it was founded in 2015, Out-Spoken Press has focused on platforming diverse new voices, particularly through early-career support of writers who have gone on to more mainstream success, including Raymond Antrobus, Sabrina Mahfouz and Harry Josephine Giles.

Founder and managing editor Anthony Anaxagorou said: “Wayne is a poet whose diligence and generosity has won him the affection and respect of both his contemporaries and those keen to establish themselves as writers. There is nobody I trust more with a poem, whose opinion and direction I regularly defer to. Out-Spoken Press is fortunate to be working with a poet of his range and calibre. I very much look forward to reading the books published during his time as editor.”