Over the dates of Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th June, Walsall played host to an array of programming across the town, from the Art Gallery and St Matthew’s Church, to Shimia Peppers and Asgard Games. It was this latter venue that saw host to an array of poetry delights, including The Midands’ newest independent poetry press, Fawn Press.

Founded in 2021 by Director and Editor Scarlett Ward-Bennett, Fawn Press is aiming to publish emerging and under-represented writers that would have historically been marginalised by traditional publishing systems.

The venue offered a bright and comfortable space for poets to gather, perform, and discuss areas of literature, for many, for the first time since the beginning of lockdown! Scarlett was joined by Fawn Press pamphlet poets Sallyanne Rock and Nabeela, who discussed and read from their publications.

Hot-off-the-press, both poets were able to offer some illumination into the process of publication. Nabeela and Sallyanne both discussed the value of having the feedback of an Editor and the backing of a publishing house.

“I wanted to hold this panel to try and bust some myths surrounding publishing” says Scarlett Ward-Bennett. “I wanted to explain the ethos of Fawn Press, and help to reassure and encourage Poets who may feel a little unconfident or reluctant to work with a publisher or an editor.”

“It’s great to have the support of someone working on your side. Scarlett listened to me and helped make my pamphlet into something that I’d always wanted, she’s always open to emails and conversations about the pamphlet. Having an Editor really benefitted me and allowed me to step back away from my poems to work on them better.” Said Nabeela Saghir, whose first pamphlet is out June 24th and is launching from Birmingham waterstones. [https://www.facebook.com/events/1047821399192159]

Sallyanne Rock also discussed how her publishing experience differed from Nabeela’s, “I had worked on a pamphlet for a while so had an idea of how I wanted my pamphlet to be. Because of our reaction to the title during editing conversations we came to a decision together, I was like ‘oh okay’ and it was only 4 weeks before publication that we actually decided.” Sallyanne’s pamphlet ‘Salt & Metal’ is available now from the Fawn Press shop. [www.fawnpress.co.uk/shop]

Fawn Press is open to submissions NOW of poetry, and is welcoming entries for the next wave of poets. [www.fawnpress.co.uk/submit]

You can follow them on facebook here [https://www.facebook.com/FawnPress ] and on Instagram at @fawnpress