Welcome to Offa’s Press
Offa’s Press is dedicated to publishing and promoting the best in contemporary West Midland poetry and poets. It will do this through a series of publications and performances where the watchword will be ‘good on the page and good on stage’.
Offa’s Press is eclectic in range. It receives some development funding from Arts Council England and is run as a co-operative by a number of regional writers and poets with Simon Fletcher the Editor / Manager.
For information about current submissions please go to the submissions page for further details. Please browse this website for further news and events and please support Offa’s Press by buying its products and attending events.
Poetry Please!
Kuli Kohli appeared on ‘Poetry Please!’ (Radio 4) on Sunday 15 May in a programme curated by Hannah Hodgson choosing poems on disability and by disabled poets. Kuli read ‘Born Drunk’ from A Wonder Woman.
To catch up click here…
Prize Winners
Offa’s Poets have been winning prizes in competitions and Slams all over the place in the last few weeks so congratulations to all!
Emma Purshouse won 3rd Prize in the National Poetry Competition, while Ros Woolner was among those long-listed.
John Woodall won the Slam at the Wolverhampton Literature Festival while ‘New Voice’ Kenton Samuels won the ‘WV Postcode’ poetry competition.
Another ‘New Voice’ Priyanka Joshi won the Slam at the Shrewsbury Literature Festival and came 3rd in the National Slam.
‘New Voices’ is an anthology of exciting new talents that will be published this summer.
Poet Laureate of Wolverhampton
Kuli Kohli has been nominated as the new poet laureate of Wolverhampton to follow on from Emma Purshouse, in February. “I was in tears when I found out,” she commented. “I will do my best to bring poetry to all the different communities of Wolverhampton,” she added.
“This is great news for Kuli and Offa’s Press,” said manager Simon Fletcher, “and we wish her every success for 2022-24.”
Photos – Kapoor Singh Boparai
New Books
Offa’s Press is pleased to announce the publication of 2 new books this summer: ‘A Wonder Woman’ by Kuli Kohli, and ‘In the Sticks’, an anthology of countryside poetry, edited by Simon Fletcher and Cherry Doyle. We are very grateful to Arts Council England for their support over the last 18 months.
You can buy copies of these now from our online shop…
Country Voices
We are also pleased to say that ‘Country Voices’ has returned, as a live event, to the ‘Water Rat’, formerly the ‘Meadow Inn’, at Ironbridge, and will be monthly as before.
For details go to the ‘events’ page.
Recommended!
The Poetry of the Black Country, Jane Seabourne’s Our Beautiful Scars and The Poetry of Staffordshire have recently been selected as ‘Recommended Reading’ by West Midlands’ librarians under the ‘Poetry on Loan’ scheme. Among other books listed are Wendy Cope’s Anecdotal Evidence and Simon Armitage’s The unaccompanied so this is great news for Offa’s Press.
Poets on Loan
Emma Purshouse, Jane Seabourne and Jeff Phelps have been selected by ‘Poetry on Loan’ (ACE-funded) as ‘postcard poets’ in West Midlands’ libraries for 2019-21.
“This is great news and will be a wonderful show-case for Offa’s Press and the poets themselves,” commented manager Simon Fletcher.
New Titles Available Now
A Wonder Woman
by Kuli Kohli
In the Sticks
Co-edited by Simon Fletcher & Cherry Doyle
Emma Purshouse talks to the Black Country Arts Foundry about editing The Poetry of the Black Country.
Read the interview here…
Emma Purshouse interviews Win Saha
Read the interview here…
The view from Offa’s Dyke, photo by Dave Finchett.
Why the name Offa’s Press?
Offa was king of the Mercians back in the late 8th century and forged what we call the West Midlands from his power-base at Tamworth. He ruled over much of England and was known as Rex Anglorum or king of the English. Offa’s Dyke he had built as a border with the Welsh. Offa was also an internationalist having friendly ties to the French king Charlemagne.
