Live Reality report

Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, November 16, 2009 Under: Reality Street
The Small Publishers Fair at the Conway Hall (13/14 November) was good, if not quite great. There seemed to be more presses exhibiting their wares than ever before, and it was encouraging to see more poetry presses to balance out the artists' book people - eg Shearsman, attending for the first time.

I'd never been for the whole of the Friday before this year, and was surprised at how much activity there was throughout that day. It made me anticipate a truly overwhelming Saturday, but it never quite happened - at its height, Saturday was buzzing, but not spectacularly so. Reality Street did reasonably well, three or four supporters renewed their subs on the day, and the bargain box was well explored. A few people who dropped by our stand to say hi said they "had everything" on display. You jaded lot!

Unfortunately, Reality Street's anticipated reader on the day, Wendy Mulford, was unwell, so I had to step in with an impromptu reading from a book of which I only had a single copy to sell (Nostalga for Unknown Cities) - a spectacular piece of mismanagement by the RS marketing department. I thought the readings - the ones I witnessed, anyway - were somewhat low-key this year in terms of audience attendance.

It was definitely worth attending, though sitting on one's bum in an airless room for two solid days is unusually exhausting.

Today, I am sending the Bill Griffiths Collected Earlier Poems to press. Publication date has been set for 29 January and the official launch will be at Birkbeck College, London, on 17 February.

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Ken Edwards This blog is written by Ken Edwards, co-founder and editor/publisher of Reality Street, and it's mainly about the press. Ken's personal blog can now be found at http://www.kenedwardsonline.co.uk