The Poetry Business at 40: Ann and Peter Sansom celebrate a milestone year
Celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, the Sheffield-based publisher has developed an international outlook, while always staying true to its Yorkshire roots.
A special spirit exists among Sheffield poets, according to Ann and Peter Sansom. The couple run The Poetry Business, a publisher and writer-development agency, based for the past 15 years in Sheffield. It is a natural home, they say, because the city has such a strong sense of community, not least among its writers. Whether it is poets attending other people’s readings, sharing information and advice or celebrating peers’ successes, everyone is supportive of each other. “That’s a very Sheffield trait,” says Peter. “We let people into traffic here, rather than pushing our own way in!
“Poets are very proud of this collaborative and collegiate approach. It often exists in places where there have been hard times – it’s an ethical attitude hardwired into people. Maybe that’s why Sheffield is a city of sanctuary.”
The origins of the publisher – and its Smith|Doorstop imprint – date back to Peter’s days as a research assistant at the then Huddersfield Polytechnic. “The Enterprise Allowance was offering £40 per week to get small businesses off the ground, so a lot of arts operations took advantage of that. I started in a Victorian arcade in the centre of Huddersfield, where there was a lovely attic office at a peppercorn rent. I’m not sure I really had any plans, my own first book had just been accepted, and I knew I loved poems and working with poets.”
In the 40 years since, it has published more than 1,000 titles, including 20 new talents in a Laureate’s Choice series of poets recommended by Carol Ann Duffy. The publisher also works with the current Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, who started writing seriously in Peter’s workshops in 1985, and whose first publication was Smith|Doorstop’s inaugural pamphlet, Human Geography.
It holds an annual International Book and Pamphlet Competition and runs 100 workshops annually. It also convenes a writing school for published poets, undertakes a wide range of community and collaborative projects, and produces a biannual poetry magazine, the North. This year, it will publish an anthology of the best work from four decades of the North, which, despite its name, includes some of the best-known writers from around the country and, indeed, the world.
We’re more international than parochial in our tastes. The only common factor among our writers is that they love poetry and are widely read
Making all of this happen is a small but committed team of part-time staff, including Jess Rollitt, the office manager; Pete Hebden, the marketing manager; Matthew Paul overseeing guest-tutored workshops; Holly Hopkins, the assistant editor; Keith Lauchlan doing design and production; and the Sansoms’ daughter Katherine in charge of finance. They also have “occasional much-valued interns” from the two Sheffield universities. “All of us working together – underfunded but enjoying what we do,” Ann says.
“As an independent press, especially in the poetry sector, you have to constantly reinvent yourself – and this is partly driven by grant-funding considerations,” she adds. “More of our revenue comes from sales than grants, but very few poetry publishers could survive without the backing of Arts Council England. Because of our structure, we rely on project funding, which supports specific initiatives.”
One recent such project was The Coal Anthology to mark the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike. Smith|Doorstop worked with poet Sarah Wimbush and the National Coal Mining Museum to provide workshops and events to produce a book of poetry and other creative responses to this defining historical episode.
“Peter and I are both from mining families, so that project meant a huge amount to us,” says Ann. “We feel strongly about being able, for example, to run events in libraries and other venues in places such as Selby, Barnsley or Rotherham where there might not always be much access to poetry. Five years ago, class was barely mentioned in publishing circles, so it’s good that it’s getting talked about more.”
Despite personal ties to the area and former mining communities, the Sansoms’ outlook in terms of talent-spotting could in no way be described as “local” or even “regional”, with their annual competition drawing entries from as far away as Denmark, Sri Lanka and Japan. “We’re more international than parochial in our tastes. The only common factor among our writers is that they love poetry and are widely read, so that informs their work,” says Peter.
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This appetite to learn from established writers while also pushing boundaries is often seen in poets in the independent sector, suggests marketing manager Hebden. “It’s an exciting place to be if you’re interested in new, fresh work because it’s where new voices – or those whose work is outside the mainstream – will often be found and established. A lot of new indies are launching, and these small presses are the lifeblood of publishing.”
Despite this, the “market” remains perennially challenging, he points out. “Poetry seems to be constantly on the verge of both disappearing and having a huge renaissance. People would have been saying the same in the 1980s and probably will still be saying so in 40 years’ time.”
This sense of often feeling like “outsiders” – both in society but also within the publishing industry – means that there is less competitiveness between poetry publishers than in other genres. “We’re like a family. When one indie has a success, it raises the interest in the type of books that indies publish,” says Hebden.
The diversity of initiatives that The Poetry Business is involved in – and the wide range of work it publishes – helps it tap into different revenue streams and spreads risk, but this is not solely a practical, commercial imperative. It reflects the team’s desire to bring new readers to the genre and, of course, discover new talent.
“Ultimately, we’re just sensation seekers,” Ann jokes. “You never know what’s going to arrive in your inbox or what someone you already work with will do next. That’s incredibly exciting.
“We’ve never taken a ‘scattergun’ approach, though. We only work with people if we spot the makings of something truly special. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, as we put a huge amount of time and effort into nurturing and editing talent.”
So what does the future hold for this organisation that has twice won the prestigious Michael Marks Award and seen its writers net successes in all the major prizes, including the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the National Poetry Competition?
“We tend to think in nine-month stints – and our daughter tells us we’ll be flat-broke in September,” says Ann. “Even so, we have to plan months in advance. In January, for instance, we’re bringing out the 40th anniversary edition of Poems on the Underground, which was founded by one of our poets, the late Gerard Benson. If we’re not successful with our current grant application, we’ll have a spell of us two not being paid, and trust that our workshops, competition and key titles will keep the operation going.”
The couple, both poets themselves – published by Bloodaxe and Carcanet – acknowledge that they are not motivated by profit, and the “business” is set up as a worker co-operative.
“Occasionally it crosses our minds what it would be like to have a ‘proper’ job or a pension, but it’s usually only a fleeting thought,” says Ann. “What we do is exciting and we get to work with interesting people and feel like we’re doing something meaningful. It’s really important to believe the work you do makes a difference.
“There are many, many unforgettable moments, too – like when one of your writers wins an award or when a poem truly comes alive in a workshop. When that happens, we always make a point of celebrating with people and helping them share their success.”
Clearly the “Sheffield spirit” remains as alive as ever in Ann, Peter and The Poetry Business team.
