Carmel fall

Poetry book publishers – outside of contests


It’s that time of year: when I update my webpage that lists Non-Contest Poetry Book Publishers. Every year the list shrinks, sorry to say. New publishers replace the old, but always a few less replacements than the publishers who cave in to the contest mania. Small presses are doing the math and realizing that few buy poetry books. Contests are increasingly the only way to fund operations.

Where does the contest frenzy leave those of us who publish our poetry in book-form? With a diminishing audience. Of course, it’s quality, not quantity, that counts, right? I can’t solve that equation here, it’s beyond quadratics and the human mind. And I have no crystal ball. But I doubt poetry is disappearing. Maybe morphing into an online venture.

Please take a look at my list and let me know if:

(a) you find it useful
(b) you know of book publishers to add
(c) you are interested in helping to research the list and keep it growing

Who knows, perhaps we’ll have an impact on poetry publishing!

I’ve been unable to find another list like this. Do you know of anything? New Pages lumps all university and small presses into one ginormous listing, regardless of what they publish. Not much help unless you have 24-48 hours to kill scrolling through alphabetically and checking each and every link that lists “Poetry.”

P.S. Why the image? It’s fall, that’s all. I’d like to be in Carmel. But not with a back brace.

Visit https://racheldacus.net for more information and writing by Rachel Dacus.

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