Smokestack is run by Andy Croft. He lives in Middlesbrough, where he has been active for many years in community writing projects. Writing Residencies include the Hartlepool Headland, the Great North Run, the Southwell Poetry Festival and HMP Holme House. His verse-play about the history of Middlesbrough, Smoke! was shown at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004.
His books include Red Letter Days, Out of the Old Earth, A Weapon in the Struggle, Selected Poems of Randall Swingler, Holme and Away, Comrade Heart and thirty-nine books for teenagers, mostly about football.
His books of poetry include Nowhere Special, Gaps Between Hills (with Mark Robinson), Headland, Just as Blue, Great North, Comrade Laughter, Ghost Writer and four anthologies, Red Sky at Night (edited with Adrian Mitchell), North by North East (edited with Cynthia Fuller), Not Just a Game (with Sue Dymoke) and Speaking English. He has given many poetry readings, including in Potsdam, Sofia, Moscow, Novosibirsk and London's Poetry International. He writes a regular poetry column for the Morning Star.
Smokestack only publishes poetry; it does not publish fiction, short-stories, drama, non-fiction or books for children.
Smokestack is looking for MSS that are unconventional, unfashionable, radical or left-field; that attend to the common music of poetry, its patterns, echoes and rhythms; that are held together by some kind of intellectual or emotional 'argument'. Smokestack is not usually interested in first collections.
If you think the above describes your work and you have a manuscript of at least 45 pages, please send it to:
Smokestack Books,enclosing a SAE and indicating which individual poems have already been published or broadcast.
PO Box 408,
Middlesbrough
TS5 6WA
Submissions by e-mail are not accepted.
Smokestack Books is partnered with Inpress
Smokestack Books is a member of Independent Northern Publishers
Smokestack Books is supported by the Arts Council of England (North East) and Middlesbrough Borough Council.