Faber and Wonderbly pioneer new personalised poetry platform

Faber and Wonderbly have joined forces to create a new digital platform offering readers personalised poetry collections which are printed and delivered to customers.

Created in partnership with Wonderbly Studios, a division of the personalised books publishing company, Pagesmith will enable readers to choose and curate their selection from eight themes: love, loss, companionship, family, nature, wellbeing, new horizons and women's voices.

The customer will also be able to add a dedication, pick a cover and choose their own title. The custom-made book will then be printed on demand, as a hardback, and shipped straight to the receiver's door, for a retail price of £30 plus shipping.

Stephen Page, executive chair of Faber & Faber, said of the launch: "For many years at Faber we have been exploring ways to use technology to reach readers in new ways with literary work, leading to such innovations as The Waste Land app and our partnership with Bloomsbury on Drama Online. Meeting Asi [Sharabi, c.e.o. of Wonderbly],and his team at Wonderbly, we knew we had found a brilliant partner in pursuing an ambitious, new, high-quality way for readers to give poetry to others. The result is Pagesmith, which we are so proud to be launching today, and which we look forward to evolving as one of the most innovative digital platforms in the world."

The platform will launch with a repository of around 160 poems, featuring classic poets including Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, Derek Walcott, Gwendolyn Brooks andRainer Maria Rilke plus contemporary work from Simon Armitage, Mary Jean Chan and Carol Ann Duffy.

The original selection of poems was made by Daisy Goodwin, editor of multiple bestselling poetry anthologies, a former chair of the Poetry Book Society and a contributor to the BBC and the Sunday Times, alongside screenwriter and poet Ottilie Wilford. 

Commenting on the partnership, Sharabi said: "We cannot be more excited about this partnership with Faber and the opportunity to take part in making poetry more personal, relevant and meaningful to many more audiences around the world."

A K Connor, head of Pagesmith, said: "Poetry is a powerful way to make our feelings known, through the words of others. With Pagesmith, we wanted to create a high-quality, personalised gifting experience, to convey your feelings to the people you care about. Pagesmith is for everyone looking for a thoughtful and unique gift for any occasion, from birthdays to anniversaries, housewarmings to weddings and beyond. I’m so proud and excited to be launching Pagesmith in the UK and can’t wait to see how customers respond to this new way of sharing poetry."