Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid Report Version 1.3.1 Last Updated: 9am 10/2/2019 Contents INTRODUCTION 3 TERMS OF ENQUIRY 5 SUMMARY 6 POETRY PRESSES IN IRELAND, 2008-2017 Overview 13 Arlen House 14 Blackstaff Press 16 Bradshaw Books 18 Coracle Press 20 Dedalus Press 22 Doghouse Books 24 Doire Press 26 Dreadful Press 28 Gallery Press 30 Goldsmith Press 32 gorse editions 34 hardPressed Poetry 36 Lapwing 38 Liberties Press 40 The Lifeboat 42 Lilliput Press 44 New Binary Press 46 New Dublin Press 48 New Island Books 50 North Beach 52 Orange Crate Books 54 Quarternia Press 56 Revival Press 58 Salmon Poetry 60 Scotus Press 62 Smithereens Press 64 Summer Palace Press 66 Turas Press 68 UCD Press 70 Wild Honey Press 72 APPENDIX: PUBLISHER-BY-PUBLISHER POETRY PUBLICATION LISTS, 2008-2017 2 3 INTRODUCTION Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid December 2018 This report covers the last decade in Irish poetry publishing, beginning in 2008 and concluding in 2017. It is an effort to collate and present available data related to publications and funding as pertaining to presses publishing poetry during this period. The focus of this report is gender balance and, as such, concentrates on publication figures relating to male, female and non-binary individuals. Following on from our recent publication Gender in Poetry Publishing in Ireland 2017, which offered a snapshot of a single year in poetry publishing by magazines and individual presses, this report concentrates solely on poetry presses. Using a quantitative methodology, the report presents data for 29 individual presses publishing between 2008 and 2017, and collates the data to reflect overall statistics. In taking a decade-long approach, this report sets out to track publication trends, to note developments (or lack thereof), and present accurate funding information. The report includes details of funding awards made by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Arts Council of Northern Ireland, as per the relevant annual reports. The relationship between funding and gender balance, as borne out by this report, indicates that, at present, gender equity is not a condition of funding. Governance Transparency is required for organisations in receipt of recurring Arts Council of Ireland funding, but compliance with this requirement does not include any reference to gender. There has long been agitation for gender equity criteria: as far back as June 2010, Irish Equity lobbied the Arts Council of Ireland for gender equality to be included as one of the pre-requisites for funding and as recently as 2017, minutes from meetings of the Arts Council of Ireland indicate plans for a Gender Equality Policy and raise the possibility of linking gender policy to funding in future.1 In December 2018 the Arts Council of Ireland announced that an Equality, Human Rights and Diversity Policy is forthcoming, with a draft version due soon and a final policy due to be published in early 2019. The details of this policy are currently unknown to the authors of this report. As part of its research programme, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland states, as one of three explicit aims, the intention to ‘[h]elp create more diverse, equal and confident communities by addressing inequalities as they related to race, disability and gender’; however, as for the Arts Council of Ireland, there is no specific condition of funding linked to gender policy at the level of grants for organisations.2 While it is necessary to examine the relationship between funding and the output of the presses covered in this report, and to question the continuation of funding levels in areas in which the imbalance between gender representation is so pronounced, it is important to recognise that the poetry publishing industry is composed of individuals. Individual editors make earnest efforts to publish and promote the work of fine poets, but this report indicates the need for such editors to take personal and organisational responsibility 1 From Minutes for The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon 703rd Plenary Meeting, 26 April 2017: ‘Gender Equality Policy: Members were informed that the Arts Council is required to have its own policy in place by the end of 2017. Members were also informed that the Executive had established an internal working group to review matters. Following detailed discussion members highlighted the need for the Council to understand what this means for funded organisations. Members also referenced the need for funded organisations to have a gender policy in place as appropriate [minutes amended 24/05/17 to include ‘as appropriate’] and discussed whether as appropriate this would become a condition of funding in the future.’ http://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/wwwartscouncilie/Content/Publications/Council_papers/Plenary-minutes- April2017.pdf; See also Minutes for The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon 704th Plenary Meeting, 24 May 2017: http://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/wwwartscouncilie/Content/Publications/Council_papers/PlenaryMinutes_May%20201 7_Redacted.pdf 2 http://artscouncil-ni.org/research-and-development 4 and begin to reflect critically on the processes which inform publication decisions on a micro and macro level. While it is the responsibility of the respective Arts Councils to ensure that the state funding does not go towards perpetuating gender imbalances or modes of discrimination in the publishing of poetry on the island of Ireland, it is only through the openness and willingness of the editors of presses, as key gatekeepers to the literary world, that significant and sustained change will occur. The authors recognise that this report interrogates a single aspect of inequity in publishing in Ireland, and welcome proposals for collaboration on future reports that will address other important issues of equality and diversity. Gender in Poetry Publishing in Ireland 2008-2017 also presents an appendix which contains a list of all the presses operating and all volumes of poetry published in Ireland during the period, sorted by publisher and year. We hope that this data will be of use to future researchers, funding bodies, stakeholders, publishers, writers and organisations committed to a transparent, equitable and high-quality future for poetry in Ireland. 5 Terms of Enquiry Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid - Subject: o Publications of poetry volumes, poetry anthologies, and poetry-related prose produced by primarily Anglophone publishers located on the island of Ireland, January 2008 – December 2017 (inclusive). - Categorisation: o Gender as observed: Male, Female, Non-binary. Please note: The data below is based on a set of assumptions relating to the correspondence between external appearances and performed identity with heteronormative definitions of gender. As a result, certain errors may have occurred in the collection of this data. If discovered / reported, any such errors will be corrected and this report will reflect the most up-to-date figures currently held. - Sources: o Publishers websites and publication lists, the catalogue of the National Library of Ireland, the catalogue of Trinity College Dublin Library, which is a copyright library receiving legal deposits, worldcat.org, and the websites of The Arts Council / An Chomharile Ealaíon and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland. o When possible, the editors of individual presses have contributed to ensuring the accuracy of the details contained herein, for which the authors of the report express sincere gratitude. - Figures: o In an effort to reflect the contribution of each author or editor, rather than counting people in part, the relevant data below represents the number of male and female authors / editors. o All funding figures refer to amounts awarded. In some cases, due to unforeseen circumstances, presses may not have drawn down the full amounts awarded. o No funding details for the Arts Council Northern Ireland for the years 2008-2010, and 2017 were available at the time of this report’s publication. Disclaimer These figures have been gathered and calculated for the purposes of this report, but have not been independently verified and may contain minor errors. If discovered / reported, any such errors will be corrected and this report will reflect the most up-to-date figures currently held. Authors Dr Kenneth Keating is a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of English at University College Cork. His current project is titled Transnationalism, Poetic Form, and the Canon of Contemporary Irish Poetry. He is the author of Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Canon: Critical Limitations and Textual Liberations (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017), has published widely on modern and contemporary poetry, and is the editor of Smithereens Press. Dr Ailbhe McDaid is a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of English at University College Cork. Her current project Domestic Disruptions: Women, Literature and Conflict, 1914- 1923 is funded by an Irish Research Council Fellowship. Her monograph, The Poetics of Migration in Contemporary Irish Poetry, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017. Ailbhe has held research and lecturing roles at University of Otago, University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Maynooth University. 6 SUMMARY Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid OVERVIEW Over this ten-year period, 2008-2017, 29 different presses published poetry-related publications on the island of Ireland. These publications include poetry volumes, pamphlets / chapbooks, anthologies, and prose publications by poets or on poetry. This report understands these publications to have a total of 1187 authors.3 Of these 1187 authors, 743 were male, 441 were female, 1 was non-binary, and 2 were unknown. At 62.59% male / 37.15% female / 0.08% non-binary, poetry presses in Ireland evidence a clear imbalance in favour of male authors. In ratios, this means that for every one female author published, there was 1.68 male authors published (1:1.68 female-male ratio), while for every one male author there was 0.59 of a female author (1:0.59 male-female ratio).