It was an honour and delight to be invited to speak on a publishing panel at The Poetry Toolkit conference, hosted by Nine Arches & Writing West Midlands.
It was an inspiring event exploring poetry, performance, publishing & writer development, with speakers ranging from Publishers, Poets, Funding bodies, and international poetry projects. The rich and diverse turn out of both speakers and public was a real testament to the strength and beauty of the Midlands poetry scene!
On a panel alongside Emma from The Emma Press, and Raif from Here Comes Everyone, Editor of Nine Arches Jane Commane asked why we thought indie presses were important particularly to the Midlands area. It was a true delight to hear the thoughts of the other publishers, and have the opportunity to discuss the vital platform that publishers offer writers, as well as the vitality of the readership in the scene.
Highlights include the Key Speech from Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey, and performance from Coventry Poet Laureate Emilie Lauren Jones.
You can watch the entire conference here, with subtitles:
https://writingwestmidlands.org/livestream/
