The Poetry Book Fair in London at Exmouth Market today was launched by the "legendary" Michael Horovitz. I met several people I'd only read about before, including Jon Stone and Kirsten Irving of Sidekick Books (I bought their "Coin Opera"), Matt Merritt, Jane Commane of Nine Arches Press (the last 2 and Jon Stone are in "The Best British Poetry 2011" which I bought from Salt's Chris Hamilton-Emery), and Sue Guiney. Amongst those I've met before were Katy Evans-Bush (whose "Egg Printing Explained" I brought), Peter Daniels, and HappenStance's Helena Nelson (from whom I bought Michael Loveday's "He said/ She said"). I sold 7 books (one of them mine, though I only told the buyer afterwards) while looking after the HappenStance stall for an hour.
It was good to see that poetry books are still being bought. I was struck by how nice people were about each other - especially behind their backs. The small press scene's a funny old world. The most common phrase I heard was "you don't look like your poetry".
It was great to meet you, Tim. I'm off to write my blog about it all now. Thanks!
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