Marginalia: Ten Years of Poems and Texts from Penned in the Margins

by Tom Chivers (Editor)

This anthology celebrates the 10th anniversary of one of the UK's most innovative literary publishers. Since 2004 a small independent publisher in East London has been producing some of the most exciting poetry and experimental fiction anywhere, publishing new works by the likes of Ross Sutherland, Emily Critchley, Melissa Lee-Houghton, Luke Kennard and Roddy Lumsden. This new anthology celebrates the first decade of Penned in the Margins, bringing together over seventy-five of the very best poems and texts carefully selected by editor Tom Chivers.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Tom Chivers is a writer, publisher and arts producer. He was born in 1983 in south London.

He has released two pamphlets of poetry, The Terrors (Nine Arches Press, 2009; shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award) and Flood Drain (Annexe Press, 2012), and two full collections, How To Build A City (Salt Publishing, 2009) and Dark Islands (Test Centre, 2015). His poems have been anthologised in Dear World & Everything In It (Bloodaxe Books, 2013) and London: A History in Verse (Harvard University Press, 2012).

His non-fiction debut London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City will be published by Transworld/Doubleday in September 2021. He is represented by Sophie Scard at United Agents.

‘Chivers’s writing feels refreshing and necessary, a genuine, lyrical appraisal of contemporary life.’
Luke Kennard, Poetry London

Tom won an Eric Gregory Award in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Prize in 2014. He has performed at numerous events and venues including Dasein Poetry Festival, Athens; The Eden Project, Cornwall; Ledbury Poetry Festival; London Literature Festival; Moray Walking Festival; Poetry International; The Sage Gateshead; Soho Theatre and The Thames Festival.

Tom has made perambulatory, site-specific and audio work for organisations including LIFT, Cape Farewell, Humber Mouth Literature Festival, Outpost London and Southbank Centre. He lives in Rotherhithe with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't what I expected. Rather than being an anthology showcasing many different poets with a poem or two each, this read more like upcoming poets given a chance alongside those whom the editor wished to particularly highlight. Unfortunately, most of the repeat offenders were not to my taste and although I did find a few new poets whose work I would like to explore further, there aren't as many as I'd hoped from such a lengthy collection. In fact, the number of poems I enjoyed enough to want to revisit could be counted on one hand. I don't believe many of the poems were as strong as I imagined they would be, given that this a collection spanning ten years of Penned's work. I'm disappointed that I didn't like this nearly as much as I hoped.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. The second years of Penned has clearly been a big improvement, but nonetheless a few half decent poems in here.