Cracking On

Joy Howard founded and runs Grey Hen Press, which publishes poetry by older women. The first anthologyATwistof Malice appeared in 2008, and has been followed by 15 others as well as 17

chapbooks from individual poets under the imprint Hen Run. She talks here to Christine Webb from Magma.

M–WhatinspiredyoutostartGreyHenPress,and how have you found it? It’s been exciting, a huge learning curve – and fun! I had just started retirement, which I was finding difficult – how are you meant to fill your time? – and I was beginning to write poetry after a gap of 20 years. The poetry scene had changed since I was younger – you had to have qualifications and a long track record to get anywhere. I felt there must be a lot of women who were writing but not getting published. I was 65 and thought, how long do I have left, 10 years? What can I do about this?

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M–Whathasworkedwell,andwhatwasdifficult? What has worked best is the number of poets who have become contributors, and their enthusiasm. That has encouraged and inspired me throughout.

What is hard work is the marketing. So many independent bookshops have now closed who used to take the books – there are only a handful left. Though I haven’t made money through publishing, I have been able to break even, so far.

M–Whatwereyouhopingforwhenyoustarted? At first, just to see how it went! And it was a huge success: everyone loved it. I began to realise that there was a community of poets out there.ATwist of Malice was referenced in the Guardian by [the late columnist] Michele Hanson. She went on to write a moving foreword to the next book, Cracking On,a book on ageing which has been another best seller. So much more followed, and lots still in the pipeline!

Five years ago, I started the imprint Hen Run. I had become aware that there were many good older poets not able to get a publication. These chapbooks are a joint endeavour. I edit and present them and the poets pay for the print costs and do their own marketing. It’s been a great success and helped to boost further publishing achievements. It’s also worked well as a way for more established poets to get smaller projects into print.

M–Doyouthinkthereareanystereotypesofolder writers? Well, I don’t have any! It ’s sometimes a surprise to the general reader that the older poet doesn’t