Showing category "Reality Street" (Show all posts)
Posted by Ken Edwards on Tuesday, January 3, 2012,
In :
Reality Street
Reality Street's publication programme for 2012 has been announced. The books are: • Paul Brown: A Cabin in the Mountains - a long overdue collection of the 1980s poetry of one of the significant players in the British Poetry Revival • David Miller (ed.): The Alchemist's Mind - anthology of prose narrative writing by British & North American poets • Maggie O'Sullivan: Waterfalls - paperback reprint of a beautiful work previously only available in a very limited edition • Sean Pemberton: W... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, November 28, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
John Gilmore launched Head of a Man and Richard Makin launched Dwelling with readings at Stone Squid experimental art space, Hastings, East Sussex, UK on 5 November 2011. A video of part of John Gilmore's reading can be accessed here.A video of part of Richard Makin's reading can be accessed here.
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Posted by Ken Edwards on Saturday, November 5, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
This week Reality Street launches three titles in its Narrative series: Dwelling by Richard Makin, The Raft by Leopold Haas and Gero Nimo by Johan de Wit. We're also giving a belated launch to Head of a Man by John Gilmore, which was published earlier in the year.  The Narrative series does not represent a retreat from poetry for the press - rather the contrary, it's a bold venture, an opening out of poetry, by which I mean the art of language, into the realm of imaginative prose.
Narrative p... Continue reading ...
Well, I never - a review in The Guardian at last. Carol Watts' Occasionals is favourably reviewed by Carrie Etter this weekend. Thanks, Carrie. Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Sunday, September 25, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
That was the hardest week I can remember for a long time, including the time I had a day job too. It started on the weekend of 17/18 September with two Moors gigs - one a wedding in the heart of the Sussex countryside on the Saturday night and the other a Sunday afternoon performance in the open air at the Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival on a tiny uncovered stage where I feared we would have been both electrocuted and swept away had the rain and wind persisted (but fortunately the sun came o... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Friday, September 16, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
 On Saturday week - 24 September - Reality Street will take part in a poetry book fair at Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, London. The remarkable thing about this is the range of presses and organisations taking part - see above. From Anvil to zimZalla, from Enitharmon to Penned in the Margins to, well, Reality Street. And Mike Horovitz is opening it.Those reading this from outside the UK without first-hand experience of the stratification of British poetry may have little idea how unusual this is... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Saturday, September 3, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
I should have learned from last year, but I didn't - the announcement of the September sale resulted in a huge, immediate demand. But I have now managed to fulfil all the orders that came in during the first two days. Sadly, or happily, the previously unknown cache of Barbara Guest books is no longer available, selling out more quickly than anything else. Other stocks are depleting fast. I may put some additional items into the sale to keep it going - watch this space (or the space this links... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, August 31, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
This year's Reality Street sale takes place in the month of September. It's a chance to get your hands on some treasures from the past at bargain prices. Go to the sale page to find out more and to buy books. If you can't or won't buy online, and are in, or within reach of London, Reality Street will be at Free Verse, the Poetry Book Fair, on Saturday 24 September at Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE, where a selection of sale items will be available. There will also be short readings at that ev... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, July 27, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
The ripples created by The Reality Street Book of Sonnets are still spreading nearly three years after its publication. Robert Sheppard has just concluded a 14-part on-line dissertation on "The Innovative Sonnet Sequence" which is in large part an extended review of this excellent volume. I'm not sure it adds a great deal to Jeff Hilson's exemplary introduction to the anthology, but it's worth reading nonetheless. The anthology is not as readily available in the US as I would like, and I am c... Continue reading ...
It's been confirmed that Reality Street poets James Davies and Carol Watts will be on the last programme in the current series of The Verb (BBC Radio 3), to be transmitted on Friday 15 July at 10:00pm BST. Listen out for them! Continue reading ...
James Davies' Plants and Carol Watts' Occasionals have now been published and met with a gratifying response, including already a couple of online reviews of James' book and many viewings of the launch videos on YouTube. There have been a couple of glitches sending copies out directly from the printers to Reality Street's currently over 70 Supporters, but I hope they have mostly been resolved by now. 
Right now, I'm working on production of Leopold Haas' The Raft, in some ways one of the strang... Continue reading ...
Just heard that both the authors of Reality Street's most recent books will be on The Verb, BBC Radio 3's weekly programme about the written and spoken word. James Davies will be reading some of his "Unmades" from Plants, and Carol Watts, author of Occasionals, will interview him on air.The programme is scheduled to be recorded on Thursday 7 July - transmission date to be confirmed.More soon! Continue reading ...
Knackered today after last night's gig by The Moors at the Jenny Lind, Hastings. Sound problems in the first half, resolved by replacing a mic. I thought we played really well in the second half, boosted by the appearance of the Iceni Belly Dancers, but boy was it intense. Nice that we packed out the pub despite Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick performing just down the road! OK, I've posted short videos on YouTube, not of The Moors this time but of Carol Watts' and James Davies' readings to la... Continue reading ...
Excellent launch in London last night for James Davies' Plants and Carol Watts' Occasionals. There were maybe 30+ in the upper room of The Apple Tree, which I now am told is not after all the pub formerly called the Penny Black - that's another one in the vicinity, but both are/were traditional locals for posties at the now-doomed Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, and both are now converted into shiny gastro-bistro-winebaristico thingies. Though, having said that, I remember the pub we were in f... Continue reading ...
Reality Street's 2011 publication programme gets under way on Wednesday 11 May with the London launch of James Davies' Plants and Carol Watts' Occasionals. (James is also previewing Plants in Manchester the day before, at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Cambridge St, at 6.30pm.)The double launch takes place at The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant, London WC1X 0AE, the new venue for the Xing the Line reading series, and starts at 7.30pm. The pub is the former local for posties worki... Continue reading ...
The Reality Street Supporter Scheme has been operating for - I can't believe this! - twelve years now. It started with a casual exchange on the British Poetry discussion list in 1998 about what people could do to support small presses publishing innovative writing. I said I would welcome donations of £50 (I think it was) in return for which I would give the donors free copies of all the press's output for three years and acknowledge their help publicly in the back of the books. To my amazeme... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Sunday, February 13, 2011,
In :
Reality Street
20 questions mainly about Reality Street are answered by me as best I can on Rob McLennan's blog. I hope I got them right. Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, November 15, 2010,
In :
Reality Street
 It was great to meet people at the Small Publishers Fair in the Conway Hall, London, over the past weekend. Some of the usual poetry addicts were otherwise engaged at an Olson conference, but there was a good attendance nevertheless, undaunted by the competing attractions in the capital of the Lord Mayor's Show and the rugby international at Twickenham.  This is me taking part in a mini-Bill Griffiths showcase for the Collected Earlier Poems. My co-publisher on this book, Alan Halsey of West ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Saturday, August 21, 2010,
In :
Reality Street
Apologies if you tried and failed to access this blog or the Reality Street site on 18-19 August. We were offline for a couple of days. The website host, Yola, had apparently been subjected to a hacker attack, and for one heartstopping instant when I read the emergency announcement I thought we might have lost both the Reality Street and Moors sites. However, a small techno-tweak happily restored business as usual eventually. Meanwhile, let me take this opportunity to remind you that the Reali... Continue reading ...
First day of the month I announced a big clearout on the Reality Street website. The idea was (a) clear some bookshelf space here; (b) get people reading some of the excellent books the press has published over the years rather than have them gather dust; (c) generate some cash for the press in the doldrums of summer; (d) draw attention to our rather nice website. Two days later I was absolutely overwhelmed by orders. I just sent out a whole bunch of packets this afternoon and more will follo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
In :
Reality Street
In a rush this morning, as I have to travel back to London to catch up with old work colleagues (and in the process watch with trepidation England's last group match in the World Cup) - so just a brief message to report that Fanny Howe's Emergence from Reality Street was safely launched yesterday at a reading for the Blue Bus at The Lamb. London. Here's a rather poor photo snapped with my mobile phone:  Also reading was Tom Raworth, who prefaced his performance by reading a short selection from... Continue reading ...
It's been 15 years since Reality Street published O'Clock by Fanny Howe. It's hard to believe the press has been going that long (in fact, for 17 years in total). But anyway, it's high time we published another book by Fanny, and here it is, out this week and soon to be mailed out to Reality Street Supporters. 
Emergence doesn't contain much that is completely new - what it is is a complete reimagining of some of Fanny's poetry originally published in the 1970s, 80s and 90s and now out of print...
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Posted by Ken Edwards on Thursday, February 4, 2010,
In :
Reality Street
Yesterday (Wednesday 3 February) I travelled to BBC Broadcasting House in London to record an interview with the redoubtable Ian McMillan for Radio 3's The Verb about Bill Griffiths' Collected Earlier Poems. The poet Sean Bonney was also interviewed about what Bill had meant to him. I hope they'll also be broadcasting a snippet of Bill reading from a CD I took in.  We talked a bit about how Bill was just getting known towards the end of his life for his work on Geordie pit dialect - indeed, I... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, January 27, 2010,
In :
Reality Street
We interrupt this series to pose a question. Recently, a couple of authors who have Reality Street books forthcoming have enquired about e-book versions of their published work. Am I planning to make such available? Or if not, do they retain the right to do so? The answer to the first question is that I haven't given it much thought, but a moment's reflection suggests that there isn't (yet) a history of readers willing to pay for e-book versions of small press poetry collections and works of im... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, December 23, 2009,
In :
Reality Street
Santa Claus arrived early this week in the guise of the courier from Reality Street's printers, delivering eleven large packets containing brand new copies of Bill Griffiths' Collected Earlier Poems. It looks good, and it really is the first occasion on which Bill's poems (up to 1980) have been properly put into their historical context.  So I shall spend some time during and possibly after the holidays re-packing them to send out to all you kind people who have subscribed to it or have become ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, November 16, 2009,
In :
Reality Street
The Small Publishers Fair at the Conway Hall (13/14 November) was good, if not quite great. There seemed to be more presses exhibiting their wares than ever before, and it was encouraging to see more poetry presses to balance out the artists' book people - eg Shearsman, attending for the first time. I'd never been for the whole of the Friday before this year, and was surprised at how much activity there was throughout that day. It made me anticipate a truly overwhelming Saturday, but it never ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, November 11, 2009,
In :
Reality Street
Once again, I'm attending the annual Small Publishers Fair in London this coming weekend on behalf of Reality Street. As I don't have a day job any longer, I shall for the first time be able to man the stand on the Friday as well as the Saturday. I'll be bringing as much stock as I can carry on the train in a wheelie bag and a shoulder bag, which should include copies of most of Reality Street's titles published over the past five or six years - plus some oldies but goodies and slight seconds... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Tuesday, September 1, 2009,
In :
Reality Street
Today Reality Street publishes
Botsotso: an anthology of contemporary South African poetry. Here's what I wrote for the preface of the book:  In April 2004, at the Cambridge Conference of Contemporary Poetry (CCCP), I encountered Ike Mboneni Muila from Soweto. He had previously been compared by someone to Tom Raworth, for his high-octane delivery. Opening the Saturday evening session, he amazed me by riffing flawlessly and rapidly in several languages: Afrikaans, English and more than one nativ...
This Tuesday (12 May) I am travelling to London to host the launch reading at the Calder Bookshop of the latest Reality Street books - by Wendy Mulford and Peter Jaeger. Everyone is welcome - see the Reality Street home page for details. I am pleased that we are doing a book by Wendy. Although she is no longer involved with Reality Street, she is a co-founder of it - part of its heritage is Street Editions, which published Prynne, Raworth, John James, Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Denise Riley and... Continue reading ...
Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, April 1, 2009,
In :
Reality Street
Last week I announced Reality Street's forthcoming publication of David Bromige's Collected Poems. Work on that essential volume is only just getting going, but in the meantime our other major current project, a collection of Bill Griffiths' poetry from his earliest work up until 1980 - the period that roughly precedes the Salt collection The Mud Fort - has progressed apace. Bill (pictured above) died in 2007. You can read my obituary of him here. He was a poet of wonderful invention and ener... Continue reading ...
I'm delighted to confirm that Reality Street will be collaborating with New Star Books, Vancouver, Canada, to co-publish David Bromige's Collected Poems. The book is being edited by Ron Silliman with help from Bob Perelman. We're hoping to get it ready next year (2010).  David (pictured above by Andrea Auge) is not currently in the best of health but he's looking forward to this. There has been some confusion about whether the collection would be limited to David's later books, but I can confirm... Continue reading ...
Supporters and regular readers may like to know that The Land Between by Wendy Mulford and Rapid Eye Movement by Peter Jaeger, both featured on our home page, are now in press. I hope copies will be available within the next few weeks, in good time for the official launch on 12 May. I am very pleased with them, and I shall have more to say about them both before they are published. Meanwhile, Richard Makin's forthcoming book, provisionally titled St Leonards, now has the new title Dwelling. Ric... Continue reading ...
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About me
| Ken Edwards |
| Hastings, East Sussex |
I'm the editor and publisher of Reality Street, and a writer and musician.
More about me on my home page (click link on the left).
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