history
tall-lighthouse established in 1999, was an independent poetry press publishing over 100 titles between 1999 & 2025 from more than 70 poets, together with 3 anthologies, 1 CD & 1 DVD. Les Robinson, who started the press in 1999 handed over to Gareth Lewis in 2011. Sadly Gareth died in 2016 and the press returned to Les for a new chapter tall-lighthouse-redux which saw the continued publication of some ‘bloody good poetry’ from Brendan Cleary, Caleb Parkin, Christopher Horton, Jazzman John Clarke, Joe Duggan, Joshua Calladine-Jones, Julie Morrissy, Marc Swan, Mark Wynne, Sadie McCarney, Sarah Shapiro & Sonya Smith….phew, what a list!
2025 saw the final print run for the press with Mark Wynne’s debut full collection self portrait in blue jacket & the posthumous selected jazz poems of Jazzman John Clarke – a love supreme.
2024 saw us complete Joshua Calladine-Jones trilogy with Deconstructions [Dekonstrukce].
2023 saw us reprint Mark Wynne’s Frank&Stella with additional poems & a stunning new cover featuring a Frank Auerbach self-portrait. We also published Brendan Cleary’s elegaic pamphlet last poems?.
In September ’22 we visited Prague for a reading at The Globe Bookstore where we published an edition of Czech translations of poetry from Josh, Mark & Sonya. This event was repeated in February ’23 in Brighton. The translations are available to order from our t.l.prague page. In June ’22 we published Rescue Contraptions – a new collection from Joe Duggan. February ’22 saw us publish a pamphlet from Christopher Horton – Perfect Timing and in September we published the second pamphlet from Joshua Calladine-Jones (Reconstructions) and a further pamphlet from Mark Wynne (Point Bolivar Light).
In ’21 we published the debut collection from Sonya Smith – every robin i never quite saw and the pamphlets Wasted Rainbow – Caleb Parkin and the unique Being Called Normal – Sarah Shapiro & the debut pamphlet from Joshua Calladine-Jones, Constructions [Konstrukce]
In 2020 we published Live Ones – Sadie McCarney, a debut collection from a brilliant young Canadian writer, and a new collection all it would take – marc swan and returned to the pamphlet form with Frank&Stella – mark wynne.
In 2018 tall-lighthouse re-issued Brendan Cleary’s Selected Poems goin’ down slow and in ’19 published a sequence of poems by Brendan Cleary relating to the photographer Eadweard Muybridge Do Horses Fly? and an exciting debut collection Where, the Mile End from Julie Morrissy, an Irish poet who was a recipient of the Next Generation Artist Award from the Arts Council of Ireland.
The press had a reputation for publishing new talent, being the first in the UK to publish Helen Mort, Sarah Howe, Liz Berry, Adam O’Riordan, Rhian Edwards, Emily Berry, and many others. From 2007-09 Roddy Lumsden worked with us producing the ground-breaking pilot series of pamphlets which gave debut to many young poets who have continued their careers in poetry & literature, some of whom are acknowledged in this history.
Many poets published by tall-lighthouse moved on to full collections with major poetry publishers. These included Sarah Howe, winner of the TSEliot prize in 2015 with her Chatto&Windus collection Loop of Jade. Helen Mort whose debut full collection Division Street (Chatto&Windus) was shortlisted for the TSEliot prize as was Ailbhe Darcy with her collection Insistence (Bloodaxe). Similarly Jay Bernard and Vidyan Ravinthiran were both shortlisted for the 2020 TSEliot prize. Other tall-lighthouse poets have also been prize winners: Emily Berry – 2013 Forward Prize for best first collection with Dear Boy (faber&faber). Liz Berry – 2014 Forward Prize for best first collection with Black Country (Chatto&Windus). Rhian Edwards won Wales Book of the Year 2013 with her collection Clueless Dogs (Seren).