Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid Report Version 1.5.4 Last Updated: 9am, 14/12/2018 Contents INTRODUCTION TERMS OF ENQUIRY SUMMARY SECTION ONE: POETRY PRESSES IN IRELAND Overview Arlen House Coracle Press Dedalus Press Doire Press Gallery Press gorse editions hardPressed Poetry Lapwing The Lifeboat New Binary Press New Dublin Press Orange Crate Books Revival Press Salmon Poetry Smithereens Press Turas Press SECTION TWO: MAGAZINES IN IRELAND PUBLISHING POETRY Overview Abridged Banshee Boyne Berries Crannóg Magazine Cyphers FLARE FourXFour gorse The Honest Ulsterman Impossible Archetype Irish Pages The Moth A New Ulster The Penny Dreadful The Pickled Body The Poetry Bus Poetry Ireland Review Poetry JukeBox Skylight 47 Poetry 2 Southword The Stinging Fly SurVision Magazine The Tangerine Trumpet The Well Review The Winter Papers SECTION THREE: UNIVERSITY LITERARY MAGAZINES HCE (University College Dublin) Icarus (Trinity College Dublin) The Ogham Stone (University of Limerick) The Quarryman (University College Cork) ROPES (NUI Galway) 3 INTRODUCTION Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid November 2018 Measuring Equality in the Arts Sector: Literature in Ireland (MEAS) was established in 2018 to monitor and report on equality in the arts sector in Ireland, with a particular focus on the literary arts. Following the model established by the North American organisation VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts, MEAS gathers quantitative data for the preparation of annual reports to provide an accurate account of the literary landscape in Ireland and to record annual changes. MEAS aims to support existing and emerging organisations addressing gender inequity in the arts sector in Ireland by collecting and presenting data on an annual basis. We believe that by providing concrete statistical data to decision-makers in the arts sector, change can be effected. The efforts of MEAS complement the work of recent feminist movements in Irish arts including Waking the Feminists, Fired!, and FairPlé. While, at present, the attentions of MEAS are focused on gender parity, our objective is to highlight representational inequalities in the arts sector, including artists with disabilities, artists of diverse ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming artists, and other marginalised groups. ‘Gender in Poetry Publishing in Ireland, 2017’ is the first MEAS annual report. The preparation of this report was informed by our key objectives: to provide statistical data and analysis of overall trends in poetry publishing in Ireland at the level of poetry presses and individual literary magazines to highlight the extent and nature of gender inequity in poetry publishing in Ireland to recognise existing commitments to gender balance in poetry publishing in Ireland to observe the relationship between state funding and balanced representation in poetry publishing in Ireland to equip editors, publishers, and funders working in Ireland with relevant, up-to-date data to enable policy development to improve equality in poetry publishing The results of our data collection are presented below, divided into three categories: Poetry Presses in Ireland, Magazines in Ireland Publishing Poetry, and University Literary Magazines. Each of these sections offer an overview of certain component elements of the poetry publishing activities in Ireland in 2017, and detailed insight into the specific editorial activities of prestigious and emerging presses and publications. The Summary below presents what we believe are the key takeaways from this report. It should be noted that this is the first annual report to be prepared and published by MEAS on this subject. Subsequent reports will track changes and/or consistencies across these presses and publications, starting with ‘Gender in Poetry Publishing in Ireland, 2018’, which will be published in early 2019. It is our hope that these reports will function to commend those presses and publications that are committed to balance, inclusion, and diversity, while encouraging others to make progress where necessary. 4 Terms of Enquiry Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid - Subject: o Section One: Publishers of volumes of poetry, primarily Anglophone, located on the island of Ireland o Section Two: Poetry magazines or literary journals featuring poetry, primarily Anglophone, located on the island of Ireland o Section Three: Irish University literary magazines featuring poetry. - Dates: o January-December 2017 (inclusive) - Categorisation: o Gender as observed: Male, Female, Non-binary . 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. - 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 and reviewers. o Every ‘poet’ is counted once for an appearance in a single issue of a magazine. Where poets appeared in numerous issues of the same magazine, they have been counted in each such instance. o The number of texts by authors is presented as a separate category. 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. 5 SUMMARY Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid The purpose of this summary is to foreground the most significant details contained within this report and to attempt to identify patterns suggested by the data. It is intended that these findings are presented in an objective manner, and that it is the function of this report to provide quantitative data to inform the larger critical debates surrounding this issue, rather than actively engaging with these debates itself. It should be noted that this is the first year these statistics have been collected in this fashion. As a result, any findings are inevitably somewhat limited, but as further reports are produced in the future it should be possible to gain deeper understandings of the activities of specific presses and of the overall picture of poetry publishing in Ireland. Initial findings from this data suggests that 2017 was a year in which notable bias was evident in the activities of a number of presses. In most cases, this bias was in favour of male poets, a bias which resulted in the number of volumes of poetry by male poets exceeding that by female poets. Despite the efforts of notable exceptions, the bias in favour of male poets was also present in literary magazines. SECTION ONE: POETRY PRESSES IN IRELAND In 2017 male poets published 10% more volumes of poetry than female poets. This picture may be a little misleading. A general pattern is evident: the larger, more established presses in receipt of more funding from The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon displayed a substantial bias in favour of privileging the work of male poets over that of their female peers: Press Funding Male Poets Female Poets Non-binary Poets Gallery Press €172,000 87% 13% nil/unknown Salmon Poetry €41,000 67% 33% nil/unknown * Please note that a previous version of this chart stated that Dedalus Press, in receipt of €80,000 funding, published 60% male and 40% female. Dedalus Press’s publications for 2017 were 50% male, 50% female, although the press does distribute a publication by Orange Crate Books, edited by Pat Boran, which, if included, would alter these numbers. The distribution by a press in receipt of Arts Council funding of a publication by an independent publisher, even though they share the same editor, is unique in Irish poetry and worth note as a model in publishing and distribution practice. Contrastingly, smaller presses with relatively little funding produced significantly more collections by female poets than by male poets. Thus the output of presses including Doire Press and Arlen House largely counterbalanced the bias evident in the output of the larger, better-funded presses: Press Funding Male Poets Female Poets Non-binary Poets Doire Press €10,900 29% 71% nil/unknown Arlen House €6,000 0% 100% nil/unknown The link between funding and gender imbalance