Who publishes English poetry in India?

Adil Jussawalla, poet and critic, asks who published English poetry in India then (1950s to 1980s) and who does so now.

But let's talk, once again, not about who reads poets but who publishes them. Between 1952 and 1982, Nissim Ezekiel brought out seven books of poems. How many people know that he paid for five of them to be published? Agha Shahid Ali paid for his first two books to be published. So did Suniti Namjoshi and Meena Alexander. Gopal Honnalgere was not alone in having to pay for practically all his nine books.

My point in mentioning a few names from a long list — it includes me — is not to single them out as pathetic examples of what the public calls "vanity publishing", but to show that such a form of publishing has been vital to the survival and growth of many of our best-known poets.

After all, the marketing possibilities of Indian fiction in English changed after Midnight's Children, but not those, perceptibly, of poetry. The publishing scene here would be inconceivable and greatly impoverished if poets didn't have to publish themselves. So would the history of Indian poetry in post-Independence India.

It's quite likely, for instance, that Arun Kolatkar's Jejuri, now a New York Review of Books classic, would have remained an uncollected poem-sequence, like The Boatride, available only in anthologies, had not a group of poets formed Clearing House in the mid-seventies.

If my claim sounds bizarre, consider this: Those who gain from this state of affairs, apart from poets, are those who believe that poetry doesn't sell for our big publishers. The anthologies they publish are filled with work that first saw the light of day in books they rejected as bad investments, but which, when used selectively in anthologies, brought them steady profits. Isn't it time publishers changed their line from 'Poetry doesn't sell' to 'Poetry doesn't sell but somehow the poetry we publish in our anthologies sells very well indeed?'

Comments

[Sumita Misra]

Exactly. I have been writing poetry for the last 20 odd years and have been published in the Statesman on a few occassions. But somehow, there is no publisher for Poetry ( I write in English and Urdu) in the country. Its either "Poetry doesn't sell" or "we don't publish poetry" or "you pay, we will print" . Its been two years now, but no progress. Any pointers ?

[Gangesh Mishra]

Just try this option.
visit www.abcpress.in

[Manish]

And how much does it cost to publish a book of poetry?

[sunanda]

I would like to know how is one paid for simple proses ?
Reagrds
Sunanda

[Prof Murali Sivaramakrishnan]

Yes, I cannot disagree with this. We speak a great deal of poetics and theory in our class rooms and read fiction and non fiction as part of our syllabus, evaluate student dissertations on fiction writers and theorists. But poetry sadly poetry stands completely neglected. The roots of our imagination perhaps are drying out. Worse is the case with publishing: I have three volumes that fortunately have been selling well. I am on the look out for the fourth and fifth. Strangely enough many of my poems are run in journals and reviewed well-- but who wants to purchase a volume of poetry?

[Gopi Kottoor]

shall we form a poetry cooperative, publishing a 250 copy edition each ? Are there takers /

Gopi kottoor, Editor, Poetry Chain.

[PUSHKAR BISHT]

Dear Sir,

I am a poet. I want to know about poetry publishing. I want to get my poetry published. Pls advise me in this regard.

Thanks

Pushkar

[PUSHKAR BISHT]

My email id is pushkardimplebisht@yahoo.co.in

[Anuradha Sharma]

I want to get my book of poems published. Poems are posted on stephengillgazett, canada, voicenet and muse india. Who can help me?

[Manmeet Singh]

My son Harshdeep singh want to get his english poems publish. he is ninth std., toper in school and his Poems are really good and we hope, all the teenager will like this.We want to know that who can help us in this regards, and what is the procedure because we don't have enough resources for that.

Manmeet Singh

[Karunesh]

www.cyberwit.net

Poetry Publisher