The Poetry Book & Magazine Fair

Inside the hall

 Yesterday was my day to stock up on poetry books and do a little networking. I'd missed this fair for the last couple of years for one reason or another, now it was in a different venue to the one I remember. So I set off for Knightsbridge in London and St Columba's Hall (St Columba's Church of Scotland).

The Free Verse Poetry Book & Magazine Fair is a great place to meet people running small press magazines and books and is sponsored by The Poetry Society. Expect a crush of people and the heat! To be honest, it is always hard to know where to start. There are so many stalls (there were 69 this year) and lots of nice people to chat to. I recognised some publishers like Two Rivers Press, Shearsman Books, Magma and The Long Poem Magazine, yet others I had never come across. Even though I had a programme I still managed to miss Out-Spoken and Poetry London.However, I have the list and can look them up.

When I first attended this event hardly anyone took cards. I remember having to get cash out and carefully keeping an eye on what I spending, and watching the cash run out far too quickly. Now nearly everyone has a card a machine (only one publisher preferred cash yesterday). But as I told one exhibitor, paying by card you lose track of what you are spending!

So who did I speak to? Well, I met Tommaso Olivero who runs Osso Prints. He makes little booklets, some of which are sewn up by hand. I like the approach, and we had a chat about how he runs his business with the personal touch. I also spoke to Tuba Press and Paekakarisi Press, the latter from whom I bought two books of poetry about London (they offered me a deal!) I also managed to pick one free book of poetry from another publisher. It's not often you get something for free, but the guy was moving and couldn't take everything with him.

I had to limit myself to what I bought. I think I ended up with six books and a freebie, something like that. When I used to attend this event there would be sessions of events, discussions, and poetry readings going on throughout the day. I arrived too late for the first event on Publishing New Poetry and the talk following, The readings were not until 7pm and I couldn't stay that long. So, I was a little disappointed. Listening to poetry is always evocative and can pull me enough for me to want to purchase a book by that poet. 

My poetry book haul!

It was a great pleasure to meet a lady from Banshee Press. They have published a couple of my flash stories. Based in Ireland, they publish writers from across the world. We had a lovely chat, and of course I bought one of their books, though they had already run out of their journal.

Having not written any new poetry for a while, I thought visiting the fair might kick-start my creative juices. I've certainly accumulated enough material to read, and nice to see so many tiny presses still hanging in there, as so many have gone to the wall over the last few years. For some small presses, these fairs are a lifeline as they cannot afford publicity, and are often run by volunteers who dedicate their time to the love poetry. They need our support.

So, I think that's my poetry reading sorted for another year! I hope all the presses had a good day yesterday. I certainly did. If you want to know what's being published and have the chance to chat to those running the presses, this is a good place to start. I shall try to remember to post the date for the next fair when it comes around again.

The venue for the book fair