Second Home to open poetry bookshop

Second Home is to open a new poetry bookshop at its Holland Park collaborative working branch in London, at the same time as launching a "bold and joyous" five-day poetry festival.

Second Home Holland Park is the latest addition to the collaborative workspace programme co-founded by Rohan Silva. Working in partnership with Faber and other independent publishers, Silva has created an outpost of its Libreria bookshop, dedicated solely to poetry.

Silva said: “People thought we were crazy when we opened our first bookshop Libreria in Spitalfields. In reality, it’s been so successful that it was a no-brainer for us to create a poetry-focused outpost at Second Home Holland Park. It might be small, but it’s perfectly formed.”

Coinciding with the opening of the bookshop, the Second Home Poetry Festival will run from 5th to 9th June 2018. It will bring together big names and emerging talent including Andrew McMillan, Malika Booker and Yrsa Daley-Ward at the site that was once the studio of the influential photographer John Cowan and the architect Richard Rogers.

Silva said: “Poetry and spoken word is the coolest creative scene in London right now, and we’re so thrilled to be bringing together some of the most exciting voices for this festival. Second Home is all about supporting creativity, which is why we always want to help people escape from digital noise and distractions – whether by losing yourself in a poetry book, or listening to a spoken word performance.”

Poet, model and LGBTQ activist Daley-Ward will open the festival with a reading from her new memoir, The Terrible, while McMillan, whose debut collection, Physical, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times/Peters, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award, and Faber New Poet Jack Underwood, will headline showcase events.

The full programme of the Second Home Poetry Festival will be announced in mid-May.

A recent Poetry Summit at The London Book Fair, convened by National Poetry Day and Inpress Books, found that the poetry market is booming as audiences for the genre, as well as poets themselves, are diversifying. Last year marked the best sales on record for poetry books in both volume and value.