Salt launches new Irish imprint

Chris Agee, the Editor of Irish Pages, has joined Salt as the editor for Ireland, opening a new office of the literary business in Belfast. He will be responsible for developing a new programme of four to six Irish titles a year from April 2011. The business will operate under the imprint, Salt Ireland.

“I am delighted and honoured to be invited by Salt to undertake this role,” says Agee. “The Salt Ireland imprint will, uniquely, combine Irish editorial control with large British distribution. Like all other Salt titles, the imprint will produce books of the highest standard, on a par with the production values of The Gallery Press or Faber. In effect, Salt Ireland will become the island’s fifth major poetry press.”

Chris Agee’s third collection, (Salt, 2009), was short-listed for the 2010 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in poetry, funded by the Poet Laureate and organized by the Poetry Society in London. His anthology, The New North: Contemporary Poetry from Northern Ireland, will be published in Britain by Salt in January 2011. Irish Pages

The appointment was welcomed by Chris Hamilton-Emery, “Chris Agee is a gifted editor and poet, this new appointment marks our long term commitment to new Irish writing and we all look forward to developing a significant list of the highest quality.”

Submissions from Irish poets (North and South, published and unpublished), or non-Irish poets permanently resident in Ireland, are welcome and should be sent to Salt Ireland, Irish Pages Ltd, 129 Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 ISH.

They have quite a few Irish poets on their list already. I hope they are looking for new names.