Sir, I read with regret of the closure of yet another poetry list. Forty authors, most established names, now find themselves without a publisher.
The Oxford University Press is only the last in a long line of such closedowns. I was published by Sinclair-Stevenson until Reed axed their entire poetry list three years ago. Similar lists at Chatto and Methuen have also gone. The only major list left is that of Faber and few poets are Faber's cup of tea.
Those who phone small publishers like Carcanet, as I did recently, may find them too booked up for years ahead even to contemplate viewing another typescript. Isn't it time that the Arts Council spent some lottery money on creating the literary equivalent of The Dogs Home Battersea for poor abused poets without owners? To publishers I would say that poetry can be made to pay if it's publicised properly. Most of my collections sold several thousand copies when this was done.
Yours sincerely,
FIONA PITT-KETHLEY, 7 Ebenezer Road, Hastings TN34 3BS.
November 23