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The Selling and Self-Regulation of Contemporary Poetry is the first book-length study of the contemporary poetry industry. By documenting radical changes over the past decade in the way poems are published, sold, and consumed, it connects the seemingly small world of poetry with the other, wider creative industries. In reassessing an art form that has been traditionally seen as free from or even resistant to material concerns, the book confronts the real pressures – and real opportunities – faced by poets and publishers in the wake of economic and cultural shifts since 2008. The changing role of anthologies, prizes, and publishers are considered alongside new technologies, new arts policy, and re-conceptions of poetic labour. Ultimately, it argues that poetry’s continued growth and diversification also leaves individuals with more responsibility than ever for sustaining its communities.
‘“Money is a kind of poetry,” said Wallace Stevens, and J. T. Welsch keeps a weather eye on both in the age of “creative” as a job description. Anyone interested in modern poetry will find this valuable study shrewd and illuminating in the way it opens the present moment to reimagining.’ —Jeremy Noel-Tod, Senior Lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, UK
Introduction – An Essential Industry: PoBiz in the New Millennium; Part I: New Markets; 1. The Generation Game: Anthologising the New Consensus; 2. Shortlisted Against My Ruins: Scandals in the New Prize Culture; 3. Poetry as Content: The Network Value of Lyrical Thought; Part II: New Products; 4. Full-Length: The Rise & Reification of the Modern Poetry Collection; 5. Poetic Devices: Book Technologies of a Retro-Future; 6. The Big Debut; Part III: New Policy; 7. Creative Capital: The Consolidation of London’s Poetry Power; 8. Plagiarism Police and the Re-Conception of Originality; 9. Practice-Based Priorities: Studying Poetry Across the Creative-Critical Divide; Part IV: New Producers; 10. Poetry & Work: Some Thoughts on Paterson; 11. Delighted & Humbled: The Poet as Entrepreneur; 12. The Promise of Professionalism; Conclusion – The Poetry Game: Markets & Metrics of Anxiety; Index.