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            [post_content] => <h4><img class="wp-image-229199 alignnone" src="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/NewSocialAsset_1-800x800.png" alt="" width="557" height="557" /></h4>
<h4>The Poetry Book Fair is back! </h4>
The Poetry Society’s <b>Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair </b>celebrates the vitality of poetry in the UK – it’s a day of conversation and shopping, an unrivalled opportunity to browse the very best in contemporary poetry publishing and to meet publishers, organisations and poets.  
<h5>What is it?</h5>
Free Verse is a book and magazine fair. Publishers each have their own stall, and bring along their latest wares for the public to peruse. We have over 70 independent poetry publishers in attendance, and Free Verse offers the best chance to find innovative, new, and up-and-coming poetry all in one place. Expect limited editions, poem-objects, fine letter-press printing, radical zines, artists’ editions, miniatures, pamphlets, translations, anthologies, and the best independently published poetry collections. Find out more and see the full list of exhibitors <a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/projects/free-verse-poetry-book-and-magazine-fair/">here</a>. 
<h5>What’s happening on the day?</h5>
The main event is the Book Fair itself, which runs from 11:30 to 18:30. There’ll be dozens of publishers exhibiting in the main space, waiting for you to come along, have a chat, and get your hands on the best new poetry books and magazines. 

Make sure to stick around after the fair, though, for the <strong><a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/event/free-verse-after-party-and-gala-reading/">Free Verse After-Party and Gala Reading</a></strong> from 19:00. This free after-party will feature readings from poets representing presses across the fair, including Z. R. Ghani, Timothy Adès, John Greening, Kate Noakes, Sujatha Menon, Isobel Williams, Eira Murphy and more. There’ll be drinks on sale, publishers and poets to chat to, and an incredible line-up.

If that’s not enough poetry for you, we also have two incredible panel events in the morning. At 10:45, there’s the <strong><a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/event/free-verse-magazine-editors-panel-with-lisa-kelly-magma-jo-clement-butchers-dog-and-ben-townley-canning-fourteen-poems/">Free Verse Magazine Editors’ Panel</a> </strong>with Lisa Kelly of <em>Magma</em>, Jo Clement of <em>Butcher’s Dog</em> and Ben Townley-Canning of <em>fourteen poems</em>, chaired by Andrew Neilson.

And at 11:45, there’s the <strong><a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/event/free-verse-editors-panel-with-anthony-anaxagorou-out-spoken-press-hasti-montez-press-and-aaron-kent-broken-sleep/">Free Verse Book Editors’ Panel</a> </strong>with Out-Spoken Press’s Anthony Anaxagorou, Hasti of Montez Press, and Broken Sleep’s Aaron Kent, chaired by Billie Manning. 
<h5>When and where is it?</h5>
The 2024 Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair will take place from 11:30 – 18:30 on <b>Saturday 20 April 2024</b> in the Lower Hall of <a href="https://www.stcolumbas.org.uk/">St Columba’s Church</a>, Pont Street, London, SW1X 0BD. You can find information on travel, parking and access on our <a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/free-verse-poetry-book-and-magazine-fair-faqs/">FAQs page</a>.

<strong>Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair is free and there's no need for a ticket.</strong> However, we'd love to get a sense of how many people are coming along. Help us out by booking a free ticket to let us know you're coming and you'll be added to a prize draw and be in with a chance to <strong>win a £50 spending spree at Free Verse!</strong>
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            [post_content] => <strong>Join us at Free Verse for an exciting panel event and Q&A with three distinguished magazine editors. </strong>

Ever wondered how a poetry magazine works? Or how editors decide which poems to publish? Want to know what it really takes to set up your own magazine? Come along and find out at this exciting panel discussion, which kicks off <a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/projects/free-verse/">Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair</a>. 

<a href="https://www.joclement.co.uk/"><strong>Jo Clement</strong></a>, the editor of <em>Butcher's Dog </em>magazine, will be in discussion with <em>fourteen poems</em> editor <a href="https://www.instagram.com/14poems/?hl=en"><strong>Ben Townley-Canning</strong> </a>and <a href="https://lisakellypoet.com/"><strong>Lisa Kelly</strong></a> of <em>Magma</em>, chaired by <a href="https://www.badlilies.uk/"><em>Bad Lilies</em></a> co-editor and chair of the Poetry Society, <a href="https://andrewneilson.uk/"><strong>Andrew Neilson</strong></a>.

<a href="https://www.butchersdogmagazine.co.uk/"><em>Butcher's Dog</em></a> is a bi-annual poetry magazine founded and published in North East England. Independent and egalitarian, it prints outstanding poems by diverse writers with distinctive voices from across the UK and ROI.

Like all the best poetry, <a href="https://magmapoetry.com/"><em>Magma</em></a> is always surprising. Every issue of Magma has a different editor, either members of our board or a prominent poet acting as a guest editor. It’s that fresh eye in each issue which gives Magma its unique variety.

<a href="https://www.fourteenpoems.com/about"><em>fourteen poems</em></a> is a London-based poetry journal, publishing the most exciting LGBTQ+ poets 3 times a year. Every issue they bring together fourteen of the best poets in the world, printing their queer takes on sex, love, race, gender and life in the LGBTQ+ global community.

<strong>Saturday 20 April. 10:45 - 11:30. The Library at St. Columba's Church, Pont Street, London, SW1x 0BD. Tickets £3.</strong>

(Tickets are strictly limited; if you can't make it along, please (please!) let us know as soon as possible so we can refund you and re-allocate the ticket. If the event is sold out, please email Ali Lewis on [email protected] to be added to a waiting list.) 
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            [post_content] => <strong>Join us at Free Verse for a brilliant panel event and Q&A with three distinguished poetry editors. </strong>

Ever wondered how editors choose who they're going to publish? Or how a bunch of disparate poems becomes a collection? Or even how publishers actually get their books printed and distributed? Come along and find out at this exciting panel discussion at <a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/projects/free-verse/">Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair</a>. 

<a href="https://anthonyanaxagorou.com/">Anthony Anaxagorou</a>, editor of <a href="https://www.outspokenldn.com/">Out-Spoken Press</a>, will be in discussion with <a href="https://montezpress.com/">Montez Press</a> editor <a href="https://montezpress.com/about/contact/">Hasti</a> and <a href="https://greeneheaton.co.uk/clients/aaron-kent">Aaron Kent</a> of <a href="https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/">Broken Sleep Books</a>, chaired by poet and Poetry Society Learning and Participation Coordinator <a href="https://billiemanning.com/">Billie Manning</a>. 

<a href="https://www.outspokenldn.com/"><strong>Out-Spoken Press</strong></a> is a London-based independent publisher of poetry and critical writing. Founded in 2015 by poet and editor Anthony Anaxagorou, with the aim of challenging a lack of diversity in publishing, the Press was shortlisted for the British Book Awards’ Small Publisher of the Year in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024.

Envisaged as the third iteration of the spirit of Lola Montez (Lola, Maria, Mario), <a href="https://montezpress.com/about/mission/"><strong>Montez Press</strong></a> was formed in 2012. We have since commissioned and published experimental work by artists, writers and thinkers with a focus on queer and intersectional feminist practices through the lens of artists’ writing.
<div class="site-container">

<a href="https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/"><strong>Broken Sleep Books</strong></a> are a working-class indie publisher putting access to the arts at the forefront of what they do. Authors include J H Prynne, Fiona Benson, Andre Bagoo, Otamere Guobadia, Bobby Parker and more. 

</div>
<strong>Saturday 20 April. 11:45 - 12:30. The Library at St. Columba's Church, Pont Street, London, SW1x 0BD. Tickets £3. Part of Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair. </strong>

(Tickets are strictly limited; if you can't make it along, please (please!) let us know as soon as possible so we can refund you and re-allocate the ticket. If the event is sold out, please email Ali Lewis on [email protected] to be added to a waiting list.) 
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Winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2022, 'Lifecycle of the Cochineal Beetle, c.1788' was first published in the The Poetry Review Winter 2022 and re-published in The Poetry Review Summer 2023.

Lifecycle of the Cochineal Beetle, c.1788

by JLM Morton

‘it is worthwhile recalling that from the medieval era, one of the colours most prized by the crown, church and nobility in Europe for their finest fabrics was that of carmine or deep crimson.’ – Carlos Marichal Salinas

An egg breaks on the pad of a prickly pear somewhere
in Oaxaca where the scale insects’ livid bodies

mass and crackle in the sun. Emerging, a crawler nymph
clusters with the softness of her siblings

to feed in the downy blanket − explorers edging
to the brink of the known world.

Nymph throws out a long wisp of wax,
a thread to catch a ride on the wind, lifting and

landing on the terra incognita of a new cactus pad.
Her claim is staked with a stab of her beak.

Cochineal sups the juices, sees off predators
– lacewings, ladybirds, ants – with the bright surprise

of her body. Fat, fierce and full of poison. She
has detached her wings. Has no need of legs.

Holding her colour quietly in trust − she waits
for the male to eat his fill, to mate and die.

Scraped away at ninety days, her body is laid out
to dry then pulverised. Destined for dominion.

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”.  Since then, it has grown into one of Britain’s most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally.  Today it has more than 5,000 members worldwide and publishes The Poetry Review.

With innovative education and commissioning programmes and a packed calendar of performances, readings and competitions, The Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages.

More about the Poetry Society…