Editor Interview: The Broken Spine Selected Poetry

Biting, original poetry

We are huge admirers of Black Bough Poetry, Barren Magazine, Parthian Books, Ice Floe Press, Fly on the Wall, Nightingale and Sparrow, Bloodaxe Books and many, many more.
Our favourite titles in recent years include Mari Ellis Dunning's Salacia, Eli Horan's Self-Portrait, and Ankh Spice's The Water Engine.

My personal favourite writers are a mixture of writers from the Beat generation and northern British writers. I'm a huge fan of Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, Bob Kaufman, Alan Bennett, Stan Barstow, Joelle Taylor, Andrew McMillan, and Jimmy McGovern. But alongside these established and lauded writers I'm a fan of myriad indy poetry writers working today. Writers like David Hanlon, Lesley James, Katie Jenkins, Paul Robert Mullen, and Ankh Spice.

We publish rather edgy poetry which has a distinct sense of place. We love poetry that has musicality but that does not rely on rhyme. We publish work both digitally and in print. We publish video and audio recordings of poetry alongside artwork which is carefully selected to enhance the written work. We are very interested in presenting estabnlished artists alongside those who have yet to achieve deserved recognition. We believe strongly in the democratisation of the arts, and we publish essays and opion pieces online on all manner of subjects as well as flash fiction.

Read what has been previously published, and read any published guidelines carefully before sending us anything. It exists for this reason. We make our publications available as reasonably priced as we possibly can. Engage with us on our social media, get to know us.

Ideally we will receive a submission that follows our guidelines to the letter. This is important, it make the process much easier for us. If we're going to publish your work, we'd also like to see that you a) have talent and b) are active in the community. We want to know that you are engaging with other poets as this makes your chances of getting read all the more likely. Publishing is risky business, there are no guarantees. We believe in lifting voices and artists, and work hard to do that, but it helps when our writers take some of this burden away. You'll likely have a history of engagement, if not a huge back catalogue of published work. Stylistically we're not too dogmatic. I prefer more accessible, short, imagist work that reads as if it is a snapshot of real life but this isn't essential. Make me laugh, make me cry. Simple, isn't it?

Sending us unsolicited mansucripts or work of any kind is frustrating. We're always delighted that we have come up on a wrriter's radar. Of course we are. But, that writer needs to recognise that our guidelines are there for a reason. That what we do as editors and publishers takes time and effort, and that if they have ignored windows and/or guidelines that they are not doing themselves any favours. Above all, writers send us work without having read our back catalogue. it is available in it's entirity on our website. We suggest that writers read it first, then submit something fitting.

We like to know a name, a little about their publication history, but not too much. We're not intrusive, no more than any other press I wouldn't have thought. We want writers to be personable, and upstanding members of the writing community.

We read everything sent, unless somebody sends us rhyming poetry or something unsolicited which we will reject immediately. If this is to change, we'll let people know.

Depending upon the circumstances of the window, the texts will be read by a number of readers and editors and oftentimes revisions will be discussed with our writers. This is key. We rely on a variety of voices and people with expertise that qualifies them. We trust our team completely, writers should too. They're excellent at what they do.

I set time aside, on top of my family life, and my working life to read and consider the writing of those who send us work. This might be on my commute, it might be on a lazy Sunday morning, or if my wife and children are watching something that doesn't interest me on television. I spend most of my time doing admin of some sort, ensuring that things are where I need them to be for ease of access in the future. i constantly communicate with other writers, with presses, with team members, with agents, and promoters. I am across every aspect of what our press does on a daily basis.It's exhausting, but when we put a book out or an intervuiew, or run an initiative that causes a stir in the community it makes it all worthwhile. At thee moment we are looking to reboot our press, moving away from anthologies and toward solo author chapbooks and collections.
The process of reading submitted work goes like this, I store it someplace my whole team can acess it, we read it against a dealine and make initial judgements. Then we discuss and these discussions are designed to help us make decisions. Depending on what is going on in people's lives this can take time and we are flexible.

This depends entirely on the piece and how responsive it's author is to our suggestions. Some pieces come fully formed, others I can see magic within but major cuts are required in my opion. Sometimes writers are okay with this surgery, other times they're not. We are always respectful. We do not preteend to know any more that anybody else. We know what we like, and what our readers have come to expect from us. Of course we have experience and that carries some weight, therefore we expect all our authors to engage in conversations with us, for there to be professional give and take. The view is to make the work the best it can be. I make the point that we do not always know best, but neither do the writers we work with. We believe that together we can create truly excellent work that our readers love to read. Collaboration and the abandonment of one's ego is massively important.

Yes, we have nominated writers before and will be looking to do so more frequently as we grow.