Reality Street

New look Reality Street website

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

The Reality Street website has had a complete makeover for 2017. There’s a new banner, showing all the books currently in print, and we’ve tried to make the design more internally consistent and cleaner.

Most importantly, it’s now, at long last, optimised for smart phones and tablets, so it no longer looks rubbish on these devices.

We’ve also made an attempt to weed out errors, out-of-date links and other anomalies. Please take a look, and let us know if anything is still not quite right.

Finally, many prices have been brought down, so you may find a bargain or two here.

Out of Everywhere 2: A Xing the Line Special

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

2 August, 19:00–22:00, Iklektik, ‘Old Paradise Yard’, 20 Carlisle Lane ( Royal Street corner ) next to Archbishop’s Park, London, SE1 7LG. A London launch for the Out of Everywhere 2 anthology. Readings by Carol Watts, Elizabeth James, Frances Presley, Carrie Etter, Sophie Mayer, Sophie Robinson, Jennifer Cooke, Elizabeth Jane Burnett and Emily Critchley. This is a London launch for the book following the northern launch in Manchester, hosted by The Other Room in December 2015.

A note on Reality Street from Ken Edwards

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

The two presses recognised a common interest in publishing the poetry of what I once termed the “parallel tradition”: its various formations in the UK being the British Poetry Revival (Eric Mottram’s term), the Cambridge diaspora, and what has sometimes been called “linguistically innovative” poetry – all overlapping categories. There was also a common interest in post-New American Poetry, Language Writing and related North American fields, as well as adventurous poetry in other English-speaking regions and from other languages and cultures.

Read more HERE

Allen Fisher’s Gravity out now in full from Reality Street

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Allen Fisher and Bill Griffiths books are Reality Street’s final titles

From 1982 to 2005 Allen Fisher’s major work (following his previous project of the 1970s,PLACE, published in its entirety by Reality Street in 2005) was a sequence of poems that went by the overall title Gravity as a consequence of shape. Taking their titles from an alphabetical list of jazz dances, and using scientific vocabulary and collage practices – erudite, funny and expansive – they were published in several stages over the years.

Now – as with PLACE – Reality Street is publishing the entire sequence in one sumptuous paperback edition.

Charles Bernstein has described this as “a masterful work in the project of undoing mastery”.

The book is on general sale from today, 27 June. Supporter subscribers in the UK should have received their copy by now. Supporter subscribers in the rest of the world – please be patient, your copy will be on its way in the next couple of weeks.

Bill Griffiths’ Collected Poems Volume 3 was published in May. All subscribers should now have their copies.

Together, these two titles by poets we have long championed bring the Reality Street project to a fitting conclusion. The press was launched in 1993 by Ken Edwards and Wendy Mulford, and has been run for the past 18 years by Ken Edwards, who will now devote more of his time to his own writing. All current titles will be kept in print for the foreseeable future, but no new ones are planned. Many thanks for your support of and interest in the press over the years.

http://www.realitystreet.co.uk/

Out of Everywhere 2

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Nearly 20 years after the publication of Reality Street’s flagship poetry anthology Out of Everywhere (see below), its sequel celebrates a new generation of innovative poetry by women. The 44 contributors are:

Sascha Akhtar, Amy De’Ath, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Andrea Brady, Lee Ann Brown, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Mairéad Byrne, Jennifer Cooke, Corina Copp, Emily Critchley, Jean Day, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Carrie Etter, Kai Fierle-Hedrick, Heather Fuller, Susana Gardner, Susan Gevirtz, Elizabeth James/Frances Presley, Lisa Jarnot, Christine Kennedy, Myung Mi Kim, Frances Kruk, Francesca Lisette, Sophie Mayer, Carol Mirakove, Marianne Morris, Erín Moure, Jennifer Moxley, Redell Olsen, Holly Pester, Vanessa Place, Sophie Robinson, Lisa Samuels, Kaia Sand, Susan Schultz, Eleni Sikelianos, Zoë Skoulding, Juliana Spahr, Elizabeth Treadwell, Catherine Wagner, Carol Watts, Sara Wintz, Lissa Wolsak.

Out now on Reality Street. The Other Room will host a northern launch event for the anthology on 9th December. More details to follow.

Launch of Bill Griffiths Collected Poems Vol 2

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Reality Street published Bill Griffiths’ Collected Earlier Poems (1966-80) in 2010. Extending the account through the following decade, a new volume, Collected Poems & Sequences (1981-91), once again edited by Alan Halsey, collects poems and sequences from a prolific period in Bill’s life that originally appeared in very small editions. The 426-page volume, publication of which was enabled by subscriptions from 120 supporters, also includes a section of uncollected or previously unpublished poems. The editor provides bibliographical and textual notes.

The book will be launched on Saturday 1st March at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB. Selections from Bill’s work will be read by poets Ken Edwards, Allen Fisher, Harry Gilonis, Alan Halsey, Mendoza, Geraldine Monk and Robert Sheppard. Copies of both Collected Poems & Sequences (1981-91) and Collected Earlier Poems (1966-80) will be on sale at a reduced price. The event starts at 7.00pm, readings at 7.30.

Email info@realitystreet.co.uk to book your place.

Reality Street Live

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Wednesday, 19 February 2014, 19:30 until 22:00. Electric Palace, 39a High Street, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3ER.

Philip Terry – A reading by the author of tapestry, an extraordinary novel retelling the story of the Norman Conquest from the point of view of the Bayeux Tapestry’s English embroiderers. Tapestry was shortlisted for the inaugural 2013 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction.

Ken Edwards – The publisher of Reality Street reads from his collection of fictions Down With Beauty and from Bardo, a reimagining of the Tibetan Book of the Dead set in Hastings.

Elaine Edwards – Co-founder with Ken Edwards of local band The Moors, Elaine will perform on flute and accordion.

The Alchemist’s Mind

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

A book of narrative prose by poets.

An anthology edited by David Miller in collaboration with Ken Edwards. Contributors are: Barbara Guest, Lee Harwood, Ian Robinson, Rosmarie Waldrop, Robert Sheppard, Bernadette Mayer, Paul Buck, Lyn Hejinian, M J Weller, Brian Marley, Johan de Wit, John Levy, Vahni Capildeo, Paul Haines, Lawrence Fixel, Robert Lax, Fanny Howe, David Miller, Keith Waldrop, Giles Goodland, bpNichol, David Rattray, Guy Birchard, Will Petersen, Tom Lowenstein, Kristin Prevallet, Stephen Watts, Daphne Marlatt. More at the Reality Street site.

London Small Publishers Fair

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Friday 16th and Saturday 17th November 2012. Open 11am to 7pm admission free. Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

The international fair celebrating books by contemporary artists, poets, writers, composers, book designers, and their publishers, The programme of readings and talks includes Sean Pemberton, Giles Goodland, Johan de Wit and Robert Sheppard reading for Reality Street on Saturday 16th at 4PM. More about the fair here.

New books from Reality Street

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Paul Brown: A CABIN IN THE MOUNTAINS
Poet, editor, publisher and translator Paul Brown has been absent from the poetry scene for some years. This complete collection of his poetry  from the 1980s, the lost third of a trilogy (the first two books were Meetings & Pursuits (1978) and Masker (1982)), is long overdue.
For more information and to buy, click here.
May 2012, 978-1-874400-56-1, 108pp, price £9

Maggie O’Sullivan: WATERFALLS
At last the paperback version of a book only previously available as a limited edition from Etruscan Books. Five visually rich text sequences originally dating from the 1990s.
For more information and to buy, click here.
May 2012, 978-1-874400-57-8, 82pp, price £9

Reality Street Supporter Scheme

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

For £40 (UK/Europe) or £50 (outside Europe), you will receive copies of all four Reality Street books published during the year. Your name will also be listed in the back of the books ( and on relevant publicity material, unless you prefer to remain anonymous. Books scheduled for 2012 are:

  • Paul Brown: Cabin in the Mountains
  • David Miller (ed.): The Alchemist’s Mind
  • Maggie O’Sullivan: Waterfalls
  • Sean Pemberton: White

More details at the Reality Street site.

Reality Street launches

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

Dwelling by Richard Makin
“This is prose you must learn to experience, before you begin to interpret … The pages in their beautiful and delirious abstraction are ordered poetry: revised, corrected, disciplined, polished and then given their head.” – IAIN SINCLAIR

Head of a Man by John Gilmore
“I admire this spare, lean gem of a novel, so lyrical and evocative its brief prose fragments get into your head and stay there.” – GARY GEDDES

STONE SQUID experimental art space, 78 High Street, Old Town, Hastings TN34 3EL. Saturday 5 November 2011, 6:00pm, free admission – refreshments available.

More at the Reality Street site.

Reality Street at the Small Publishers’ Fair

~ theotherroom ~ Leave a comment

REALITY STREET will be at the annual Small Publishers Fair  in November over the weekend of Friday 11th-Saturday 12th November. It takes place in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.

Reality Street will be featuring the three new books in the Narrative  Series that are being launched this autumn:

  • Dwelling by Richard Makin
  • Gero Nimo by Johan de Wit
  • The Raft by Leopold Haas

On the Saturday, at 4pm, Richard Makin will launch his 672pp “anti-novel” Dwelling, and John Gilmore will (belatedly) launch his book  Head of a Man, which was published at the beginning of this year.