Teachers, parents and poets alike know how children thirst for poetry. Now it's up to booksellers and publishers to save it from extinctionChildren dive into poetry with the same natural ease as swimmers into water, climbers into trees and sleepers into dreams. I've seen this alchemy at work on countless visits to schools, visits which have convinced me that poetry's narrative, rhythm and vibrant imagery is the real language of childhood. But poetry written for children is in danger of dying out, of sliding into fossilised irrelevance, cut off from modern verse. A classic such as Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses may be lovely, but it can't sustain the vital connection between children and poetry. Children also need poets who are still breathing.The delicate machine which brings poetry books into the hands of children is in desperate need of repair. I used to help choose the poems for the Children's Poetry Bookshelf, the Poetry Book Society's book club for ages seven to 11, and I watched with horror as the submissions from publishers gradually dried up. Starved of funding and support, the club had to stop taking on new members in 2011. As PBS director Chris Holifield said, it seemed that "children's poetry in book form was close to extinction, with just a small number of new titles being published and not much backlist being kept in print." Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Much has been made about the importance of bricks-and-mortar bookstores as showrooms, places that will help prevent the book business from going the way of the music industry as the sales of digital books grow. But hundreds of showrooms and thousands of square feet of book retail space are about... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 01/08/2011 - 15:54 Macmillan Children's Books has appointed current Carlton Publishing m.d. Belinda Rasmussen to the role of publisher. She will report directly to Pan Macmillan m.d. Anthony Forbes Watson, and will join the Pan Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 09:00 Members of the Poetry Society, including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, have started a petition to reinstate Judith Palmer as director of the embattled society in hope of a "new start". The petition follows the departure... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 15:05 A former director of the Poetry Society has said her resignation was caused by an "extraordinarily stubborn and ill-considered sequence of actions", as the fallout of a row involving the board and senior staff continues. read... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 11:52 Arts Council England (ACE) has confirmed it is withholding the Poetry Society's quarterly grant payment of almost £78,500, in the wake of the major internal row and resignations. The payment was due to the Poetry Society at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Tue, 19/07/2011 - 09:15 The Bookseller has added its voice to calls for Amazon's acquisition of The Book Depository (TBD) to be referred to the Competition Commission. The Office of Fair Trading's deadline for submissions about the merger ended at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 18/07/2011 - 15:00 The Reading Agency director Miranda McKearney has called for the annual Summer Reading Challenge, which launches its 2011 run today (18th July), to be on every head teacher's school improvement plan. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 15/07/2011 - 14:29 Ebury is hoping to have unearthed the talents of a new generation of war poets as it publishes a collection of verses, selected by a panel including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, to coincide with Armistice Day. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 15/07/2011 - 08:46 The industry is "haemorrhaging talent" as authors and illustrators are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in the children's sector. Agent Caroline Sheldon said that she estimated that fewer than half of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 14/07/2011 - 09:00 Oxford Professor of Poetry Geoffrey Hill will compete against former winners David Harsent and Sean OBrien to win The Forward poetry prize for Best Collection on its 20th anniversary. Hill took the coveted Oxford poetry role... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 30/06/2011 - 09:30 CNN reports that Amazon and Barnes & Noble are remaining tight-lipped on the eve of new app rules being introduced by Apple. Today, 30th June, is the deadline for app makers to get in compliance with Apple's strict new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Neill Denny Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 08:18 We Love This Book, The Bookseller's sister consumer magazine and website, launches next week with a circulation of 100,000. The free quarterly magazine is designed to alert readers to exciting new books and to provide a platform... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:27 Pop singer turned TV star Peter Andre is joining the ranks of the champions of children's literacy by fronting the launch of a new London scheme. Andre joins London's mayor Boris Johnson at the Botwell Green library and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:50 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 09:00 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 08:14 An up-and-coming children's illustrator has warned that new British talent is being forced to go abroad in search of work as the UK picture book market becomes increasingly conservative. Frann Preston-Gannon, who was recently... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 15:44 Thanks in part to a "better than half price" deal at Waterstone's, John Grisham tops the Official UK Top 50 for the first time in five and a half years. The Confession (Arrow), the Arkansas-born legal thriller writer's 23rd... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 11:52 Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson has been named as the new Waterstone's children's laureate. The announcement was made at a ceremony today (7th June) at King's Place in central London. Donaldson was presented with the childrens laureate medal and a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 01/06/2011 - 09:06 The Southbank Centre has opened nominations for "the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK", the Poetry Parnassus, which will form part of next year's Cultural Olympiad. The festival will see 205 poets, one from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 08:00 Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has organised a benefit for the Poetry Book Society, which faces an uncertain future following the withdrawal of all its Arts Council funding. The event, to be held at London's Institute of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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