Knives, Forks and Spoons Press is an independent publishing house based in

Newton-le-Willows Newton-le-Willows is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the 2011 census was 22,114. Newton-le-Willows is on the eastern edge of St Helens, south of Wigan and north of Warrington. The ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, United Kingdom. It was established by Alec Newman in April 2010. The press publishes avant-garde and

experimental poetry Experimental literature is a genre that is, according to Warren Motte in his essa"Experimental Writing, Experimental Reading" "difficult to define with any sort of precision." He says the "writing is often invoked in an "offhand manner" and the ...

, full collections, pamphlets and anthologies. A typical year's output is 24 titles, by new and established poets and artists.

History

The Knives Forks and Spoons Press emerged from The Other Room reading series – a bimonthly night of experimental poetry that takes place in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. The press name was coined by Richard Barrett as a tribute to

Kitchen sink realism Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" w ...

. KFS started out as a publisher of poetry pamphlets in 2010, and it was shortlisted for the publisher award in the

Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets are annual awards for pamphlets published in the UK. The awards aim to promote the pamphlet form and to enable poets and publishers to develop and continue creating. Since their inception, they have gro ...

in its first year. In 2012, KFS started publishing full collections of poetry. In 2013, Robert Hampson's ''Reworked Disasters'' received a Highly Commended in the

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

For Poetry. In 2014, KFS was awarded Arts Council Funding to publish and promote 10 poets. The press's output has diversified to cover a wider range of experimental styles.Email interview and http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/bookshop.html

Authors

Poets and artists whose work has been published by KFS include Alan Baker, Wayne Clements,

Steven J Fowler Steven J. Fowler or SJ Fowler (born 1983) is a contemporary English poet, writer and avant-garde artist, and the founder of European Poetry Festival. Work Fowler has produced a diverse body of work across poetry, performance, experimental theatr ...

Robert Gavin Hampson Robert Gavin Hampson FEA FRSA (born 1948) is a British poet and academic. Hampson was born and raised in Liverpool, studied in London and Toronto and settled in London. He is currently Research Fellow at the Institute for English Studies, Univer ...

Daniele Pantano Daniele Pantano (born February 10, 1976) is a poet, essayist, literary translator, artist, editor, and scholar. He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, of Sicilian and German parentage. Pantano holds degrees in philosophy, literature, and crea ...

Geraldine Monk Geraldine Monk (born 1952) is a British poet. She was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. Since the late 1970s, she has published many collections of poetry and has recorded her poetry in collaboration with musicians. Monk's poetry has been published ...

Robert Sheppard Robert Sheppard is British poet and critic. He is at the forefront of the movement sometimes called "linguistically innovative poetry". xford Anthology of British and Irish Poetry/ref> Life Robert Sheppard was born in 1955 and was educated at the ...

, Rupert Loydell and

George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20140427054633/http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/poetry_portal/knives_fists_and_spoons * http://www.stridemagazine.co.uk/Stride%20mag%202013/October%202013/Paterson.4KFS.htm Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 2010 British companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in the United Kingdom