The current cull of unfunded, print-based, poetry publishing

Ok, ok, so I know full well the following is absolutely a first-world problem, but I do feel it’s worth putting on record that unfunded, print-based, poetry publishing in the U.K. is being decimated right now.

Here’s a brief, provisional list (please forward me further suggestions and I’ll add them) of the outfits we’ve lost so far this year. In under six months.

Publishers:

-         Maytree

-         Holland Park
-         Victorina

Journals:

-         Dreich
-         South
-         Planet

And the above is on top of major casualties last year such as Ambit. Oh, and recent urgent appeals to buy books from the likes of Longbarrow and Broken Sleep.

Moreover, online isn’t a magic wand. How many webzines have vanished from the internet once they ceased publishing new stuff? That’s the modern equivalent of going out of print, except nobody can buy second-hand copies of the mags in question. And then, only this morning, I read that One Hand Clapping seem to have lost their entire online archive, a huge blow both for them and for the poets involved.

At this stage of the game, there are grave doubts as to how many unfunded, print-based, poetry publishers, both of mags and collections, will still be alive and kicking by the end of the year. I see no point denying we’re in a full-blown crisis. What will emerge from the smouldering ruins…?