FIFTY FIFTY
BUYING OPTIONS COMING SOON
Fifty Fifty: Carcanet’s jubilee in letters
Edited by Robyn Marsack
Interjections by Michael Schmidt
Carcanet Press, 2019
This is a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a small, ambitious press over a period of radical transformation in publishing. Each of Carcanet’s fifty years is marked by an exchange of letters — handwritten, typed, and now emailed — between an author and the editor Michael Schmidt, with his additional comments on their relationship.
Beginning in 1969 with the response to an invitation to subscribe to Carcanet for two guineas, the book traces Carcanet’s progress and offers insight into the nature of literary editing. At its heart is the personal relationship of author and editor/publisher, the conflicts, friendships and vicissitudes that occur at the nexus between the work, its creator, publisher and reader. Poets are central, but fiction writers, translators, biographers and critics also contribute to the Carcanet ferment and firmament.
A Morning Star Book of the Year 2019
‘Carcanet’s role in our literary culture is both vital and vibrant. The press’s seriousness of purpose, eclecticism and internationalism deserve the highest praise and in the world of poetry its status and import are unchallengeable — impossible to imagine literary life in Britain without it.’
– William Boyd
‘In celebration of the Manchester-based press’s 50th anniversary, a fascinating collection of letters […] tracing the eventful history of this small, ambitious and excellent press.’
– The Bookseller
‘Readers will be drawn to this book for the poets’ letters, but what really dominates is the personality of Schmidt; at the end we are left with a prevailing sense of his editorial vision and an appreciation of his influence and accomplishment in the world of contemporary poetry publishing and criticism […] Fifty Fifty is full of energy and play, and not a few crossed swords.’
– Kevin Gardner, Wild Court (international online poetry journal)