About Smokestack Books
Smokestack aims to keep open a space for what is left of the English radical poetic tradition in the twenty-first century. Smokestack champions poets who are unfashionable, radical, left-field and working a long way from the metropolitan centres of cultural authority. Smokestack is interested in the World as well as the Word; believes that poetry is a part of and not apart from society; argues that if poetry does not belong to everyone it is not poetry.
Smokestack’s list includes books by Katrina Porteous, Georgi Gospodinov, Alison Fell, Sebastian Barker and Martín Espada, new poetry from Guatemala, France, Siberia and the other USA, as well as new editions of radical classics by Heinrich Heine and Nicola Vaptsarov.
‘Ah-oh, smokestack lightning / Shinin’, just like gold / Why don’t ya hear me cryin’?’
Howling Wolf
‘and on every side / smokestacks were dancing on rooftops.’
Vladimir Mayakovsky
‘The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy smoke-stack…
Type of the modern—emblem of motion and power—pulse of the continent,
For once come serve the Muse and merge in verse.’
Walt Whitman
“Smokestack Books is a welcome addition to the poetry publishing world.” – Critical Survey
“...don’t assume that books from left of centre Middlesbrough press Smokestack will be about whippets and Federation ale.” – Sphinx
“Smokestack has a great squad of radical poets.” – Adrian Mitchell
Featured Titles
 | Christmas in Auschwitz by Andras Mezei The Jewish-Hungarian poet András Mezei (1930-2008) survived the Holocaust as well as the three-month siege of Budapest. His life was inevitably shaped by these events. £7.95 |  | Common Cause by Francis Combes Poetry on the history of utopia, revolution and hope, introduced by Booker Prize-winning author John Berger. £12.95 |
 | Letter to Auden by N.S. Thompson Letter to Auden is an anti-heroic verse-epistle, combining Byron’s savage wit and Auden’s breezy conversational manner. £7.95 |  | My Life in Squares by Kristin Dimitrova My Life in Squares is an introduction to the work of a major European poet and one of the most original writers to emerge in recent years from the 'new Europe'. £7.95 |
Online Catalogue:
Contact Details:
w: http://www.smokestack-books.co.ukt: +44 (0) 1642 813997
PO Box 408
Middlesbrough
TS5 6WA
United Kingdom