LIT FEST 2024 presents Stuart Bartholemew: Tips and Tricks for Getting Published

This session with publisher and festival programmer Stuart Bartholomew will help you understand the publishing landscape and understand the actions you can take (and avoid) to give you the best chance of getting your poetry published. You
will be provided with everything you need to know to have the best chance of
letting your poetry do the talking when you submit your work. We will also
discuss how to deal with rejection and what a ‘no’ from a publisher really means
(as well as what it doesn’t). Whatever your level you will come away ready for the
next step on your poetry journey whether that be attempting to have your first
poem published, submitting a pamphlet or a full collection.

Stuart Bartholomew is Publisher at and Co-Founder of VERVE Poetry
Press – an independent press that focuses on publishing poets from
Birmingham and the wider UK. He is also Director and Programmer of
VERVE: a Birmingham Festival of poetry and spoken word, which returns
for its eighth year in February 2025. His publishing and programming vision
is to celebrate the full breadth of quality poetic activity – whatever the style
or source – in colourful and exciting ways.

VERVE Poetry Press has been described by Andrew McMillan as ‘the always exciting Verve Poetry Press’ and has won the Saboteur Award for Most Innovative Publisher and the Michael Marks Publisher’s Award.

VERVE Poetry Festival has been described by Anthony Anaxagorou as ‘The best poetry festival in the UK’ and won the Saboteur Award for Best Festival in 2019 and 2023.