about the press
small birds press is a micro publisher of handmade and limited-edition poetry that engages and entwines with the many worlds beyond the human.
It was set up by Caroline Harris in 2020, initially as a publisher for her own poetic bookworks and pamphlets, including experimental letterpress pamphlet Type Flight (July 2020), Cut-out Bambi (November 2020) and Deer Leg/How to Fold a Deer (forthcoming). In these works, the forms and materials are part of the poem itself, and this approach is a guiding principle of the press.
As well as artist’s books and pamphlets, small birds press is interested in digital and hybrid poetry, where the poem extends beyond the page and can take different, multiple forms. It aims to make handmade pamphlets more affordable, while recognising the work and materials that go into them, and to make interactive and material poetries accessible to a wider audience – for example, through audio descriptions and downloadable PDFs.
At present, the press is not open to submissions – but the plan is for this to change.
If you would like to keep up to date with news, events (and any submission calls in the future), please sign up for the (occasional) newsletter.
caroline harris
Caroline is the founder of small birds press and at the moment runs (almost) everything to do with it.* She has a background in journalism and non-fiction publishing, and has authored and edited books on subjects from whales and dolphins to the menopause. Poetry is a more recent fascination, and she is currently a poetic practice PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research focuses on the poetics of deer – what we do when we put deer in poems – with a particular interest in ecological philosophy and the emerging field of Cute Studies.
With Isabel Galleymore, Caroline is co-organiser of the seminar, publication and reading group series AWW-STRUCK: Creative and Critical Approaches to Cuteness. Her poems and other writing have appeared in a range of magazines, journals and web publications. For more details, see her Royal Holloway profile page.
Caroline enjoys the ‘craft’ aspects of material and object poetry – figuring out how best to bind a pamphlet, or trying out different ribbons or fonts – as a practical counterbalance to the satisfying-in-its-own-way labour of difficult theory. She grew up in the south-west London surburbs and now lives in Larkhall, on the edge of Bath. She also has a strong connection with North Cornwall, where her parents lived for many years.
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* The small birds press logo, identity and this website have been designed by Ethan Wilson.
