Faber & Faber

Faber and Faber is delighted to present the second set of pamphlets published under the Faber New Poets programme.

Assembling a first collection can seem like a daunting challenge to a young poet: how do they know when the manuscript is ready? How many poems should it contain? Whose opinions should they seek out? Can it be better to wait?

Faber and Faber is delighted to announce a major new venture to support and promote new poets, funded by Arts Council England.

The Faber New Poets programme aims to create a culture of support for pre-first collection writers. By offering a tri-partite package of financial assistance, mentorship and pamphlet publication by Faber, the scheme provides care and direction to eight new poets to develop their work.

Drawing upon the advice of ten scouts appointed by Arts Council England nationwide, nominations for the scheme were received in October 2008, and were read by a panel of experienced poets and prominent practitioners from the poetry world, who met in December to adjudicate the awards.

Four poets were given awards for 2009, with their pamphlets published in October 2009 – Fiona Benson, Toby Martinez de las Rivas, Heather Phillipson and Jack Underwood. The second set of awarded poets is Joe Dunthorne, Annie Katchinska, Sam Riviere and Tom Warner.

Faber New Poets is a not-for-profit promotion that is made possible by the support of Arts Council England, and the assistance of the Arvon Foundation.

Antonia Byatt, Director, Literature Strategy at ACE said:

Arts Council England is delighted to work with Faber and Faber on their New Poets scheme. This partnership was established so that new poets can benefit from the expertise at Faber to refine and develop their work at a critical stage in their careers as writers: between the publication of individual poems and the writing of their first full collection. In the year of Faber's 80th birthday we celebrate their continuing commitment to identifying and promoting new poets.

Matthew Hollis, Commissioning Editor, Poetry, Faber and Faber, commented:

In my role as an editor, I read many manuscripts by talented hopefuls eager for a publication that we may not be ready to offer them. While we can provide advice and encouragement, better still would be to offer these writers a sustained and supportive environment over a longer term in which they may develop their work in conversation with experienced poets and editors.

The Faber New Poets scheme, which has two years in preparation, seeks to identify the brightest new talents and to offer every support and opportunity in the development of their writing.

Stephen Page, CEO and Publisher at Faber said:

We are delighted that with the support of ACE we can launch this exciting initiative to support new poets at a crucial stage of their development. The search for new writers is at the heart of what we do, and remains as important to us in our eightieth year as ever.

FABER NEW POETS EVENTS 2010

Sunday 9 May – Poetry-next-the-Sea, Wells
Saturday 22 May – Brighton Festival 
Monday 24 May – Curzon Cinema Soho, London 
Tuesday 25 May – Topping & Co Booksellers, Bath 
Thursday 27 May – Salisbury International Arts Festival 
Friday 18 June – Aldeburgh Festival, Poetry at the Pumphouse
Saturday 11 September – Kings Place, London, in association with Poet in the City
Friday 17 September – South Street Arts Centre, Reading
Wednesday 13 October – Cheltenham Literature Festival

Please refer to our Events page for full details.

Notes to Editors:

2010 Awards

Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea. His debut novel, Submarine, published by Hamish Hamilton, won the Curtis Brown prize. It has been translated in to nine languages and a film of the book is in production. His poetry has been published in Poetry Review, New Welsh Review and Voice Recognition. He performs regularly and co-organises Homework, a monthly night of literary miscellany. He lives in London.

Annie Katchinska was born in Moscow in 1990 and has lived in London for most of her life. She started writing poetry when she was fifteen and was a Foyle Young Poet of the Year in 2006 and 2007. She has had poems published in Magma, Mimesis and Voice Recognition and was a prize winner in the Christopher Tower Poetry Competition 2007. She is currently studying for a Classics degree at Cambridge University.

Sam Riviere began to write poetry while at the Norwich School of Art and Design, and completed a Masters at Royal Holloway. His poems have appeared in various publications and competitions since 2005. He co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives, and is currently working towards a PhD at the University of East Anglia. He was a recipient of a 2009 Eric Gregory Award

Tom Warner was born in Mansfield in 1979. In 2001 he won an Eric Gregory Major Award and graduated from the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing MA with a Distinction. His poetry has appeared in a number of publications and magazines, including The Rialto and Stand, and in 2009-10 he was Poet in residence to Newark-on-Trent. He currently lives in Norwich where he teaches creative writing.

2009 Awards

Fiona Benson is an Anglo-Scottish writer currently living in Exeter with her husband James. She was educated at Trinity College Oxford and then St Andrews University, where she completed the MLitt in Creative Writing and a PhD on Ophelia as a dramatic type in early modern drama. She received an Eric Gregory award in 2006 and is working on her first book of poems.

Toby Martinez de las Rivas was born in 1978. He grew up in Somerset, then moved to the north east of England where he worked as an archaeologist. This, together with the landscape of Northumberland and the work of north eastern writers such as Barry MacSweeney and Gillian Allnutt, has had a significant impact on the development of his own poetry. He won an Eric Gregory award in 2005 and the Andrew Waterhouse award from New Writing North in 2008. His poems have appeared in a number of magazines. He currently lives in Gateshead where he teaches English to asylum seekers and refugees.

Heather Phillipson's poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies and have been commissioned by the BFI. She was awarded the Michael Donaghy Poetry Prize from Birkbeck College in 2007, and received a commendation in the Troubadour Poetry Prize and won an Eric Gregory Award in 2008. Alongside her poetry, Heather is also an artist and exhibits nationally and internationally, including a selection for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2008. She has a doctorate in Fine Art practice, works as a Visiting Tutor in Art and Theory at UWIC, and is currently Artist in Residence at the London College of Fashion. She was brought up in London and Wales.

Jack Underwood was born in Norwich in 1984. He graduated from Norwich School of Art and Design in 2005 and is currently studying towards a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, where he also teaches English Literature. He is a librettist, musician and co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007. He lives in Hackney.

The Panel:

Charles Beckett (Literature Officer, ACE), Lavinia Greenlaw (poet and Professor of Creative Writing, UEA), Matthew Hollis (poet and Commissioning Editor, Poetry at Faber and Faber), Ariane Koek (Clore Fellow and former Director of the Arvon Foundation), Gary McKeone (former Literature Director, ACE), Daljit Nagra (poet and tutor) and Clare Pollard (poet and poetry editor).

The Scouts:

Gillian Allnutt (poet and tutor, University of Newcastle), Colin Brown (Director, Poetry Can), Kadija George (Poetry Editor, Peepal Tree Press), David Morley (poet and Director, Warwick Writing Programme), Bernard O'Donoghue (poet and Fellow in English, Oxford University), Maurice Riordan (poet and tutor, Sheffield Hallam University), Michael Symmons Roberts (poet and Senior Lecture in Creating Writing, MMU), Fiona Sampson (poet and Editor, Poetry Review), Paul Sutherland (poet and Editor, Dreamcatcher magazine) and George Szirtes (poet and Reader in Creative Writing, UEA).