Carcanet Press

Welcome to Carcanet Press, one of the outstanding independent literary publishers of our time. Now in its fifth decade, Carcanet publishes the most comprehensive and diverse list available of modern and classic poetry in English and in translation, as well as a range of inventive fiction, Lives and Letters and literary criticism.

At present, Carcanet is unable to supply books to customers in the EU due to changes in VAT regulations (as of 1st July 2021). We are addressing the situation and will resume direct supply as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we ask EU customers to source Carcanet books from your bookshops or preferred on-line retailer. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience.

Veii and other poems Robert Wells

Forty Names Parwana Fayyaz

Records of an Incitement to Silence Gregory Woods

Parallel Movement of the Hands John Ashbery Ed. Emily Skillings

B (After Dante) Ned Denny

Moving Day Jenny King

Deer on the High Hills Iain Crichton Smith Ed. John Greening

Eat Or We Both Starve Victoria Kennefick

New Poetries VIII Ed. Michael Schmidt and John McAuliffe

Shadow and Refrain Alex Wong

Access digital editions of selected Carcanet titles

Featured News

Carcanet and Covid-19

Carcanet Press’s Manchester office remains open for the present, with a skeleton staff; but most staff, for their safety, are working remotely as we are keen to avoid contributing to the spread of the virus.

Most of the live events and conferences we were arranging or collaborating with are being postponed. Decisions currently affect events through May. We will keep you informed via our e-letter and social media for further updates.

Some publication dates may be moved. We are reluctant to delay books but given how the situation is affecting the book trade it may soon be necessary to consider doing so for the sake of authors, readers and the trade itself. We are very concerned for bookshops where footfall is already much reduced. We are looking for ways to collaborate with them. While Carcanet’s own on-line bookstore remains in business, we urge all our readers to source books from the bricks and mortar bookshops, using their mail-order services and supporting them wherever possible. Most of our books can be bought as e-books from all the major suppliers.

Carcanet’s social media will continue to inform and entertain.

PN Review is on course and issue 253 is currently ‘in the works’.

Stay in touch with us… And stay well!
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Featured Author

Robert Wells

Robert Wells was born in Oxford in 1947. He has worked as a woodman, a teacher, and in publishing. He lives in France. Carcanet has published his translations of Virgil's Georgics and The Idylls of Theocritus, and five volumes of his poetry, the latest being Collected Poems and Translations (2009)....read more

Poem of the Day

What Passing Bells

Rory Waterman

A policeman blocks the road so I stop
and tut and tap the wheel and find a sweet
and scrape it through its wrapper with my teeth.
More cars stop. Then bright rustling up the street
from snare drums and some reedy trumpet calls
remind us all what day it is. In front

the noise grows to a wail. The band files past,
the soldiers, local groups, then ranks of kids
half out of time, with backs and shoulders stiff,
some looking at us looking at them for
just long enough to say a thousand words
in glares. They don’t remember any wars

but TV ones, and nor (confess) do you:
just TV wars, most justice-compromised
in barren lands, for rich commodities
I’m using up, a quiet friend by my side
with best intentions, clothes from Oxfam shops,
our flask packed for a cold stroll by the sea.

Taken from 'New Poetries V'...