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Every issue we bring you special interviews with Publishers on the Internet.
This month, Poetry Today Online is proud to present an interview with Gerald England, Editor and Publisher of New Hope International
Q: Please share with us your background... and what your present position and responsibilities entail.
I began writing poetry myself whilst at University in Glasgow.
When I returned to my home village of Ackworth in Yorkshire and began work as an industrial chemist with a local confectionery firm, in something of a vacuum I placed an ad in the PONTEFRACT & CASTLEFORD EXPRESS with the idea of forming a poetry group in the area, discovering to my surprise and delight, that such a group already existed in the village. It was run by Christopher Pilling who was based at the Quaker School. We were both poets just beginning to get published in small magazines. Together we both journeyed a little further afield to Elland where Joan Lee had started up the Pennine Poets.
Memory fails me a little, but according to an article that the PONTEFRACT & CASTLEFORD EXPRESS published about Pilling and me entitled "Two Ackworth men with a bent for poetry", it was Sylvia Pilling (Christopher's wife and, according to the paper, captain of the ladies' hockey team!) who suggested I start my own magazine. At first I doubted if I had the time or the ability, but decided I did at least have the first.
Christopher Pilling's house was called THE HEADLANDS which suggested a possible name. However the magazine was NOTcalled after the house. The name was chosen to reflect two ideas - the sense of the "land of the head"; the magazine would provide succor for the mind - and the geographical metaphor of something that moves out from the mass of the land towards the sea; that the magazine would be somehow different from others.
The Regional Arts Associations were just being set up at the time and an application to the Yorkshire Arts Association for a grant was successful. Names and addresses of poets were culled from other magazines, a flyer circulated and soon contributions and subscriptions trickled in. The contributors to the first issue, published in January 1970, included Anne Lewis-Smith, S.L.Henderson Smith, Tony Curtis, Margaret Perkins, George Cairncross, William Oxley and Gordon Allen North. The cover was designed by Barbara Dawson, Head of the Art Dept. at Ackworth School. Her striking design graced the first seven issues and the yellow covers became something of a trade-mark.
After a couple of years I passed the editorship onto William Oxley, but I retained the name HEADLAND PUBLICATIONS for publishing booklets.
My "commercial" aims were to market the series of poetry collections I had published. To achieve this I decided to create a magazine that could be given away free. This ensured a wide readership with the costs hopefully recouped by sales of the books advertised therein. Rather than publish a lot of poems in the magazines (which would have meant continued inundation with unsolicited work, most of which I could not hope to publish), it was to be a forum for ideas. The first issue, four foolscap pages, carried an article about the pitfalls of the Vanity Presses. It was distributed with HEADLAND and to members of the BRITISH AMATEUR PRESS ASSOCIATION and of the YORKSHIRE POETS ASSOCIATION.
I was living and working in Sheffield, but most weekends were spent back at my parents' home in Ackworth. One of my other interests has always been local history and the topography of Yorkshire. Sheffield is part of the ancient wapentake of Hallamshire. Ackworth is in the wapentake of Osgoldcross. The new magazine was therefore given the title:- THE HALLAMSHIRE AND OSGOLDCROSS POETRY EXPRESS. As long titles inevitably get abbreviated to an acronym it became known as H.O.P.E.
The crucial step, however, which made the continuation of HEADLAND PUBLICATIONS possible was becoming the UK distributor of DUSTBOOKS. The Dustbook's DIRECTORY OF SMALL PRESSES AND LITTLE MAGAZINES was, and still is, one of the best sources for writers wishing to get their work published, listing, as it does, not just names and addresses of magazines but details of editorial requirements, reading times, payment rates, biases. It was a natural best-seller. The free distribution of H.O.P.E. (each issue circulated by two or three magazines/societies - different ones each time) advertised the directory and sales paid for the magazine.
Issue two was a French issue with poems by Jane Keiffer and Michelle Loi and an obituary for Marguerite Edmonds. Issue three had articles by Howard Sergeant on "Financing a Little Magazine" and Norman Hidden on "The Arts Council & Poetry Magazines".
New collections by Colin Simms, James Kirkup, David Jaffin, Edna Bartholomew, Nicki Jackowska and Penelope Shuttle were published. To help with the increased workload, I took on a partner, Vivenne Finch.
The partnership with Vivienne lasted over two years - a period in which the status of HEADLAND PUBLICATIONS consistently grew. During that time I had become increasingly preoccupied with personal events in my life. I had, in a very short space of time, altered my lifestyle completely. I had left Sheffield and moved to Oldham; changed my job from Chemistry Technician to Insurance Agent; and biggest change of all - got married. I was, perhaps, not ready for Vivienne's decision to cease being my business partner. Nonetheless, she had done a remarkable job and it was only fair and reasonable that she should want to move on. A few years later she was involved with TANGENT BOOKS co-edited with William Pryor. I would love to have news of her present activities
With a new wife, new job and new house I did not feel ready to re-shoulder the whole burden of running HEADLAND PUBLICATIONS. I looked round for a new partner.
With my new partner, we lost the contract with DUSTBOOKS. She was reluctant to continue with H.O.P.E. as a freebie. I was anxious to produce a magazine again - more in the flexible style of the original HEADLAND.
NEW HOPE ONE, dated Spring 1978, emerged two months late. I began work on the second issue. In December 1978 I sent the 23 Gestetner skins of pages to my partner. She was to add a further 13 pages. After a few months I started getting letters from people asking if we were still publishing since they hadn't heard from us in recent months. I urged her to publish the second issue. "But we haven't sold all the copies of the first one, yet" was the only reply that was forthcoming. Since we weren't advertising the magazine, it was not surprising.
Eventually in February 1980, NEW HOPE TWO, dated Summer 1979, saw the light of day. I have only the one copy. I began, over the next few months to receive complaints from contributors, and more seriously, from subscribers who had actually paid for copies, that they hadn't received anything. The reply from my partner was that we hadn't the money to send all the copies out at once and they were being sent out in dribs and drabs and small batches through the mail system at her husband's college. I asked the bank for a copy statement. I was told that the money therein was a grant from Merseyside Arts towards the publication of a booklet; a publication of which I, founder and co-director of the press, was unaware.
All attempts to contact my partner by phone or letter over the following months proved fruitless. She had control of the bank account. She had failed to deliver copies of the magazine and my reputation as an editor and publisher was suffering as a result. I could hardly "sack" her. As the partnership was a verbal agreement and not a legal contract, there was no recourse to the Law. I had been edged out.
Amsterdam was the venue in 1980 for the International Biographical Congress. Based at the four-star Krasnapolsky Hotel on Dam Square it was hardly a cheap holiday even cutting costs by travelling on North Sea Ferries, leaving the car on the quayside at Hull and catching a train from Rotterdam. It was, however, a unique experience for Christine and myself and one we wouldn't have missed for the world. The people we met included Esther Gress from Denmark, Novin Afrouz from Italy, Jose Civasaqui and Sakuzo Takada from Japan, Susan Smeltzer from the USA and Jozo Boskovzki from Yugoslavia.
I had brought out a new collection, THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS to take to the Congress. Owing to the problems with my partner it was published by the FIGHTING COCK PRESS, an imprint of convenience which could be used by members of the Pennine Poets. One evening in Amsterdam, members of the International Academy of Poets gave a reading. It was while taking part in this that I decided it was necessary to break away from HEADLAND PUBLICATIONS and start afresh. NEW HOPE existed and so to retain a link with that and at the same time widening its scope, knowing I had the support of fellow-poets on the platform, NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL was born.
Since then the review section has grown so much that instead of a single magazine, there is NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL WRITING which publishes poetry - an eclectic selection from haiku to long poems, traditional to the avant-garde - and NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW which concentrates on reviewing all manner of things. I usually find room for some short poems in the REVIEW to strengthen its appeal.
A new development over the past year has been the publication of NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL POETRY FORUM, available only on floppy disc.
Q: What kind of opportunities do you see available for up coming poets?
There is a vast variety of opportunities for up coming poets to be found in the still myriad small press magazines that publish poetry as well as web sites which offer easy publication and a large potential audience, as well as opportunities in a variety of venues for poetry readings.
Q: What course of action do you recommend to the new poet who is looking to be recognized?
Poets who want recognition can follow two main paths. They can study their craft and submit their work to the more selective magazines that carry the most prestige. They must be prepared for a lot of rejection slips but if they persevere they will be rewarded in the end. Alternatively they can look at more ephemeral publication in the smaller local poetry zines and on the Internet and must get themselves onto as many reading gigs as they can get to and reach a live audience.
Q: What kind of coverage does your publication offer?
NHI Writing covers the whole gamut of poetry. NHI Review covers books, magazines, audio material, videos and software. The Pickings section of our Internet Site publishes a selection of poetry taken from the magazines and chapbooks we publish. We hope soon to start publishing selected reviews on the Internet.
Q: What are your publication requirements and standards?
Writing submitted to us should be original. We look for poems that convince us that they were written by a real alive human being who is making a communication to others. Style is not important - but if a poem purports to be written in a particular form (haiku, free verse, pantoum, sijo &c) it should be a model of that form. Content and form should compliment each other.
Q: What are the publishers expectations of the writers and their work?
I expect writers to treat me with respect - send neat submissions - read what I say to them. When I ask them to return a proof I expect the corrections to be given on the proof - not to be sent another copy of the poem. When I ask for biographical details on a separate sheet of paper - that's where I expect it.
Q: What do you look for in a poem?
Something that makes me go "Wow"
Q: What are your submission guidelines?
For NHI Writing - see http://www.nhi.clara.net/conguide.htm
For Poetry Forum http://www.nhi.clara.net/f_con_g.htm
Q: Who is your best source of inspiration?
The people around me.
Q: What piece of inspiration or motivation would you like to pass along?
Progression is going ahead from - not forward toward. in other words - don't aim at some impossible goal but start where you are - and then move on.
