News
Our initial catalogue for 2013 can now be downloaded from this site. Click on the cover below to acquire it, or go to the Catalogues page from the link at the head of this page, to see more download options, such as older catalogues and a list of all books in print.
New to the Shearsman site?
Navigate using the menus at the top of this page: the choices there will lead you to the main sectors of this site, from which you can choose where next to visit, or go to special information pages. If in doubt, return to this page and start again, or use the search facility below to find what you're looking for.
Welcome to Shearsman
Shearsman Books is a very active publisher of new poetry, mostly from Britain and the USA, but also with an active translation list. Founded in 1981 as a magazine, with some occasional chapbooks, the press has grown rapidly in recent years. 2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the magazine's first issue, but it will keep going for some years yet, along with the press.
Shearsman published approximately 60 new titles every year from 2008 to 2010, with a further 48 appearing during a somewhat disrupted 2011. In 2012, over 60 more titles appeared, but we will be reducing output slightly in 2013, and expect to cut back to 40-50 volumes per annum thereafter. We have four main lists: UK poetry, US poetry, Poetry in Translation and Literary Criticism; there is also a small list of non-fiction related to poetry. For access to detailed catalogues and stocklists in PDF form, covering all titles through to the end of 2012, click on Catalogues in the menu at the top of this page. The current catalogue, covering the first half year of 2013 can be downloaded by clicking on the cover to your left.
There are PDF sampler files of almost all of the books published by Shearsman available on this site; these may be accessed by going to the Books home page, where you should then click on the publication year, or the online catalogue pages in the menu, and then selecting the title you wish to sample. The only books not to have samplers are those that are out of print, those with copyright restrictions, or those which have not yet been cleared for publication. We aim to keep pace with new publications, making samplers available as soon as approved texts are available. There are also PDF downloads, from this page, of all issues of the magazine from number 50 through to number 89/90; most of these offer some 50% of the print issue. Selections from further issues will be added to the download list when those issues are six to nine months old.
A note on copyright
The copyright in all texts published on this website remains with the authors. Copyright for the overall selection and presentation remains with Shearsman Books Ltd. Readers are requested to respect copyright ownership and to request permission for further use of the texts if that is intended. Copying or downloading of the texts is however permitted for the reader's personal use.
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