About

To see things otherwise is to alter their meaning and explore in uncharted ways. Poetry is a revolutionary activity, socially critical, sometimes utopian or dystopian, an architectural expression, and a rebellion against a conventional picture of the world in which the most skewed vision can give the greatest clarity.

The Conversation Paperpress is a publishing collective with a unique approach to poetry publication. With a focus on anthologies and joint collections we are collecting poetry from varied voices, promoting revolutionary writers, and trying to encourage an international readership for otherwise marginalised poets. These international books will open up English-speaking poetry to the people and places that often remain hidden and, in this vein, we are extending our catalogue to include a range of pamphlets that showcase the work of young and establishing poets in affordable pocket editions.

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A Short History

In 2007 a group of poets from Canterbury in the UK released the first issue of Conversation Poetry Quarterly: a magazine that tries to open poetry publication to the possibilities inherent in the alternatives that the poet creates. The first issues had short runs and a quite limited and localised distribution. After just the second issue, the loss of one of the members of the editorial team threw the whole project into question, but with the release of our first online edition the magazine gained a new life. Picking up submissions, readers and enquiries from all over the world we were soon an international magazine, and so in 2009 the Conversation International Poetry Project was launched as a way of widening this new-found dialogue.  Through a series of independent magazines in multiple languages, we are able to take this philosophy outside of the English speaking world. We now have Italian and Turkish magazines, with Arabic and Brazilian Portuguese editions due out in 2010. As we are able to cater for more languages, regions and cultures the project will continue to grow.

Through the new connections of the project, 2009 saw the birth of The Conversation Paperpress. No longer just a magazine, we are now throwing ourselves into the publication of books and pamphlets with a campaign to bring a new collectivity and life to the world of poetry publication.

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Downloads & Sales.

All current and back issues of the magazine are available online to download free in pdf format.

Books are available to buy from this site as well as all good book retailers, and pamphlets will be sold in our online store and at performances across the country.