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Review of Rachael Allen’s ‘Faber New Poets 9’

I’ve a review of Rachael Allen’s debut pamphlet, the 9th in the Faber New Poets series, at Sabotage. It’s a terrific set of poems.

The not-for-profit scheme, funded by ACE at £155k so far or ~£12k per New Poet, is a nice one for Faber, refreshing the stable of “the pre-eminent publishers of poetry in the UK” whilst presumably allowing them to ‘forget the profit and loss’, helping them quietly benefit from association with these young poets just as the poets’ profiles are undoubtedly raised by the publication. It also allows them to dictate what’s ‘new’ (in a prescriptive rather than descriptive sense) on terms that are favourable to Faber.