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Salmon Poetry, taking its name from the Salmon of Knowledge in Celtic mythology, was established in 1981 as an alternative voice in Irish literature. The Salmon, a journal of poetry and prose was a flagship for writers in the west of Ireland, and Salmon's first books, Gonella by Eva Bourke and Goddess on the Mervue Bus by Rita Ann Higgins broke new ground for women poets. Since then over 200 volumes of poetry have been produced, and Salmon has become one of the most important publishers in the Irish literary world. By specialising in the promotion of new poets, particulary women poets, Salmon has enriched Irish literary publishing.
Salmon Poetry has continually taken risks. The challenge has always been in walking the tightrope between innovation and convention. The conventional approach is what makes art comfortable for people, accepted and necessary, but creative expression is not always so and not always immediately popular.
The judgment of what is Good and Bad in art is fraught, and it is, unfortunately, easier for many people to focus on what has already been accepted into the established stable. New work is work which is vulnerable; the greatest of artists can look back at their early work and see how far they have progressed. In order to progress there has to be a starting point. And if we are broad minded and willing to nurture the individual voice inherent in the work, the artist will emerge. Salmon has always given focus to this concept and seen its writers flourish.
In recent years Salmon has developed a cross-cultural, international literary dialogue... "broadening the parameter of Irish literature by opening up to other cultures and by urging new perspectives on established traditions. That enviable balance of focus and ranginess is a rare and instructive achievement" ('Opening up to Other Cultures' Poetry Ireland Review 54, Kathleen McCracken. |
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Salmon current and back list
includes initial works by now-established Irish poets Rita Ann Higgins,
Theo Dorgan, Moya Cannon, Mary O'Donnell, Eamonn Wall, Mary O'Malley,
Eva Bourke, Janice Fitzpatrick-Simmons, and Gerard Donovan. We have
published a range of international poets including
Adrienne Rich, Marvin Bell, Richard
Tillinghast, Carol Ann Duffy, R.T.
Smith, Linda McCarriston, Ron
Houchin, and Ben Howard. |
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Who's
Who at Salmon Poetry?
Jessie
Lendennie is the founder and of Salmon Poetry. Her prose
poem Daughter was published in 1988, and reissued with new poems in 2001. In 1990,
The Salmon Guide to Poetry Publishing appeared and in 1992 by The
Salmon Guide to Creative Writing in Ireland. She is currently
working on a book which examines the past fifty years of poetry publishing
in Ireland. Jessie is the facilitator of regular weekend Creative
Writing Workshops which are held at the Salmon premises. She has conducted workshops all over Ireland and the United States,
for many years.
Salmon
places a strong emphasis on the design of its books and has been
consistently praised for the quality of its productions. Siobhán
Hutson is Salmon's Production Manager. She designs the book
covers and also typesets the books, and designed and maintains this
website.
Our
books are represented in the USA by Dufour Editions, and in the
United Kingdom by Central Books, London. |
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| Praise
for Salmon: |
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 Salmon Poetry is one of the most innovative, perceptive and
important publishing houses in the U.K. or Ireland.
It has fostered and supported the work of new writers
and has established them in the public consciousness.
eavan boland
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 Salmon
has brought out collections by some of the most stimulating
and innovative of writers and has worked particularly
hard to develop an international list and to profile Irish
poets abroad.
ailbhe smyth, Director of Women's Studies,
University College, Dublin |
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Click
on map to view our location
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Salmon Poetry has contributed enormously to making poetry
a popular and regular shopping commodity. Books
Ireland
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Salmon's
unique profile grows from the diversity of the work
it publishes.. most notably, Salmon is distinguished
by the number of women on its list. Patricia B.
Haberstroh, Irish Literary Supplement
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As
a major publisher of poetry, Salmon has nurtured the
talents of both new and emerging poets and its publications
have been consistently exciting and varied. Seamus
Hosey, RTE Radio
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Salmon has been an essential seed-bed, not alone for
Irish poetry, but also for a much wider spread of artistic
activity. No one else in Ireland in the last few years
has been as prepared as Salmon to publish previously
unknown poets. Salmon has not merely accommodated new
voices, but has actively sought them out. And the general
cultural significance of this work has been made immeasurably
more important by Salmon's innovation in discovering
and publishing
the work of so many women. Poetry has been arguably
the most import mode of expression for a new generation
of Irish women writers, and Salmon has been the most
important channel of that expression. In this light,
though it has itself been a small and quiet enterprise,
Salmon's work in recent years has been of large and
loud importance.
Fintan O'Toole, Journalist/Literary Critic,
The Irish Times |
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