S1 Episode 14: Publishing | Not Publishing – with JT Welsch

‘Five, ten years ago there was a lot of debate about self-promotion on Twitter and whether that was tactless  to constantly be retweeting if you had good reviews. We’ve gotten over that… that sort of self promotion has been normalised.’


To publish or not to publish? Join us as we venture into the shadowy world of poetry publishing. Do instapoets endanger traditional publishing or help it to quietly flourish? Is the whole thing shapeshifting into something new and exciting? The person clutching the torch and heading into the dark is poet and academic JT Welsch who has written the first book-length study of the contemporary poetry industry. And the good news is it’s not all bad news. Meanwhile Peter is still wistful about seizing the means of poetry production and trying to ignite a revolution, while Robin confesses that it’s all about seeing her poems in glorious print. Plus, we’ll dip a tentacle into the surreal world of  Guillaume Apollinaire and Robin enjoys an irreverent poem that stealth bombed its way into The North.