During our 125th anniversary year, we are featuring friends of LUP through celebrations and conversations about LUP and the publishing industry more widely. For this next piece, we have our Editorial Director Alison Welsby in conversation with Deryn Rees-Jones who is an award-winning poet, Professor of Poetry at the University of Liverpool, co-director of the University of Liverpool’s Centre for New and International Writing, and editor of LUP’s hugely successful Pavilion Poetry imprint which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Alison: You have worked with LUP for over 10 years as part of Pavilion Poetry. How did this come about?
Deryn: As I remember, Anthony Cond had been keen to work with the Department of English on a publishing project, building on conversations my colleague Greg Lynall was having with Alison Welsby at LUP about expanding an internship LUP use to run into a publishing module for School of the Arts undergraduates; developing a poetry list at a time when some lists were closing seemed a good way of bringing students and poetry and the press together. My good friend, the poet Matt Simpson, had been one of the few people publishing poems at LUP, so there was a way in which it already felt like a friendly and hospitable place for poetry. I was also acting as editor, as I still do, for the Poetry & series. And there was a strong sense to me of LUP having a commitment to poetry, critically and creatively.
Alison: What has been the highlight of Pavilion Poetry? What have been the challenges?
Deryn: The editorial work has made me increasingly interested in the materiality of the book, and the way its form mediates poems. We planned from the start that a Pavilion book would have a very simple design, no author images, a single colour for the cover, and that it would fit in a pocket. I remember when I was first starting to read poetry in my teens how important and powerful a book could feel as you carried it about. It was part of you. Frank O’Hara’s poem ‘A Step Away from Them’ puts that feeling beautifully into words: ‘My heart is in my / pocket and it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy’. …
The challenges that come with the role are ones that every editor faces: finding ways to be supportive, trying to be useful as a sounding board, being a critical eye, helping a poet to know when a book is finished, and trying to push ideas along and through as they develop. I feel very lucky to work with such a great team. It’s also hugely rewarding to see the way the students learn so much about poetry as well as publishing when they work on a collection in such an immediate way.
Alison: As an award-winning and renowned poet, how has the writing and styles of poetry changed since you published your first collection, The Memory Tray, in 1994?
Deryn: The small and independent poetry presses have really been remarkable in giving voice to writers who might not have previously been heard, and opening up and developing people’s tastes and passions. I am a huge admirer of the ongoing and often unsung work that Neil Astley at Bloodaxe Books, and Michael Schmidt at Carcanet have done, for example, in a very sustained way over the years. John Lucas at Shoestring, and Anthony Rudolf at the Menard Press are good friends and real role models for me. My longtime editor at Seren, Amy Wack, was that rare thing when I first published, a woman poetry editor. Has writing changed? I think there is a real sense of possibility for writing now, but also I think poets are feeling the weight and responsibility we have in responding to an increasingly complex-feeling, war-torn world.
Alison: What are your future poetry plans, for Pavilion Poetry and for yourself?
Deryn: We have recently had an open call for submissions, and I am still working carefully through the 140 manuscripts that came to us, from all over the world. It’s a huge privilege to have a chance to see so many new books, and I’m excited at the prospect of working with the new authors on books for 2026, and beyond, as well as supporting our current authors. I have a new book out, Hotel Amour, in July 2025, with Seren, my long-term publishers, so it will be a change for me, being on the other side of the editorial process.
Alison: Thank you Deryn for your insightful reflections. You have been, and continue to be, a wonderful editor for Pavilion Poetry and we very much look forward to working with you further on our award-winning poetry series, as well as wish you all the best with your own work and Hotel Amour.
To coincide with this conversation, and in celebration of Pavilion Poetry‘s 10th anniversary this year, we have made Sarah Corbett’s collection And She Was free to read for a limited period. This collection was among the first collections published in Pavilion Poetry’s first year and Sarah Corbett has since also published A Perfect Mirror with Pavilion Poetry, and has another collection, The Ishtar Gate, publishing with us in 2025.
Access the ebook for free on the LUP website >
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