When it comes to Western Australian poets, Fremantle Press has a stellar list, including John Kinsella, Tracy Ryan, Caroline Caddy, John Mateer and Phil Salom, to name a few.
The launch of the Fremantle Poets series this year enables us to look to the future even as we continue to support the careers of some of our established poets. The first book in the series, New Poets, introduces three poets for the first time in book-length form. Scott-Patrick Mitchell, J.P. Quinton and Emma Rooksby were selected from the more than thirty-five poets who responded to our call for submissions for the New Poets volume.
These three new poets were selected by an editorial committee comprised of poetry publisher Georgia Richter, in-house editor Wendy Jenkins and guest editor of New Poets, Tracy Ryan. The poets were chosen for their talent, their promise, and for the way their voices sat together in one volume – offering distinctive counterpoints, and places of departure and connection.
In future years, the wealth of poetic talent in Western Australia is one we are keen to explore. In the third year and beyond, Fremantle Poets will be looking to areas of practice or geographical designation to showcase new voices. We have in mind volumes devoted, for example, to introducing new voices – bush poets, performance poets, poets of the south-west and the north – in book length form, and, where possible, giving these poets the opportunity to work with an editor, or (as will take place next year) to have their work accompanied by an introduction from a practising luminary.
Next year’s volume is already in train: the second Fremantle Poets book is titled Three Poets, a volume featuring two established, previously published poets, and a third poet who already has one book-length collection to her name. More of this in a future blog!
Georgia Richter, Fremantle Press Poetry Publisher
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