Thursday, May 21, 2009

Help save Salt Publishing

In recent years Salt has published some of the most exciting new poetry around but due to the current climate they're facing serious economic crisis. Here's a note by Salt director Chris Hamilton-Emery on how you can save Salt publishing -

JUST ONE BOOK

1. Please buy just one book, right now.

We don't mind from where, you can buy it from us or from Amazon, your local shop
or megastore, online or offline. If you buy just one book now, you'll help to save Salt. Timing is absolutely everything here. We need cash now to stay afloat. If you love literature, help keep it alive. All it takes is just one book sale. Go to our online store (UK and International or USA) and help us keep going.

2. Share this note on your Facebook and MySpace profile.

Tell your friends. If we can spread the word about our cash crisis, we can hopefully find more sales and save our literary publishing. Remember it's just one book, that's all it takes to save us. Please do it now.

With my best wishes to everyone,
Chris Hamilton-Emery

Check out the website here. There are many exciting poetry books available, I've reviewed a couple of them on Amazon - Jane Holland's Camper Van Blues and Eleanor Rees' Andraste's Hair. I bought a few more recently that I've yet to review but thoroughly recommend: Luke Kennard's
The Harbour Beyond the Movie, Andrew Philip's The Ambulance Box, and Rob Mackenzie's The Opposite of Cabbage.

12 comments:

panther said...

Oh, I hope they dpn't go out of business-I think they're great ! I'm just off to their website right now to order at least one book.

By the way, did you see the George Mackay Brown programme on BBC4 and, if so, what did you think ?

Marion McCready said...

yes, I really hope they don't.

I loved the George Mackay Brown programme, downloaded it so I can watch it a few times. I've only really started reading him in the last few months and I'm really liking his imagery. Makes you want to visit Orkney doesn't it?!
What did you think of it?

Jim Murdoch said...

I went for Balancing on the Edge of the World ny Elizabeth Baines. God knows when I'll get around to reading the damn thing since my to-be-read pile has now become a to-be-read shelf but it's thin so maybe I can squeeze it in somewhere.

panther said...

I liked the GMB programme very much. I love his bare style which really lets the images sing. I also like the fact he was never part of a clique-very much an individual who stumbled into poetry.

I'd love to visit Orkney. I feel I know it rather well, mostly on account of George's poems and also his wonderful short stories

As for Salt, I ordered THE BIBLE OF LOST PETS by Jamey Dunham (who can resist a title like that ?) and also a collection by another poet whose name escapes me at present-it's poems about Ovid but intertwined with poems about the Battle of Gallipoli, Gallipoli being near the place where Ovid was exiled.

Titus said...

It's the least we can do. I think I'll try "The Harbour Beyond the Movie". Thanks for the recommendation.

Marion McCready said...

interesting choice, jim. of course I should have said that Salt publishes fiction as well as poetry!

I like that about GMB also, I think it said in the programme that he only attended two poetry events outside Orkney! both collections sound good, panther!

hi Titus, you won't regret it, it really is a great book!

Dave King said...

This is awful news. I was in the process of making my next "buy" list, so will definitely include one of theirs.

Andrew Philip said...

Thanks for the recommendation, Marion.

I sooo enjoyed that GMB programme. Maybe it was partly because the talking heads were people I've met and I stayed in Stromness when we went to Orkney with the Shore Poets last year. But I think they've got the balance of poetry and biography about right for a half-hour programme. And I love the fact that the talking heads are all poets and not academics.

Bizarrely, the word verification for this comment is ... wait for it ... "salteria"!

panther said...

I understand that GMB went out of Scotland twice. Not sure where to, though. He certainly did leave Orkney, first to attend Newbattle Abbey in Dalkeith for an access course, then on to Edinburgh University. After his degree, I believe he actually did postgraduate research into the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Edinburgh must have been a huge culture shock to a man in his early thirties who had rarely stepped out of Stromness !

Jim Murdoch said...

@panther -

1958

George received travel scholarship from Society of Authors. In May he travelled to Ireland with the photographer, Paddy Hughes.


1989

Visit to London and Oxford with Gunnie Moberg. Interviewed by Sue MacGregor for BBC Radio 4's Conversation Piece.

Marion McCready said...

nice one, dave!

no problem andy. I'd love to visit Orkney! yes, I thought the programme was very well done.

hi pather, I agree it must have a culture shock and I bet he stuck out like a sore thumb as he looks like a right island man!

hi jim, always there with the facts, lol!

Rob said...

Thanks for the mention here and in the post above!

I also bought 'The Bible Of Lost Pets' (it's a collection of prose poems and looks good) a few weeks ago along with Luke Kennard's new one, 'The Migraine Hotel' (I loved 'The Harbour Beyond the Movie'). In response to the appeal, I bought Anne Berkeley's 'The Men From Praga' and the Michael O'Brien Selected.

I also have had five books sent to me by a magazine for review. I have too much to read...