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Poetry has a bad rep, it’s a sad and seemingly difficult war to make poetry cool. At the turn of the century everyone was doing it. To have your poetry published was the thing to do, especially for young people and it was everywhere in newspapers and magazines.

But I only need to breathe the name Owen or Sassoon and everyone groans a little, reminded of the dry text being forced down your throat in the classroom. These young men were, may I say, writing with intelligence and insight that has transcended on through the decades. But what has happened to the new poetry scene today? Most people only know about poor old Carol Anne Duffy and the Walcott/Padel scandal over the professorship at Oxford in May.

Stop Sharpening Your Knives is a poetry anthology series that has been going since 2007. It is a print-only publication loosely based in Norwich, including artwork by Benjamin Brett, Richard Dinnis, Beatie Fox, to name just a few. For their second issue they even brought out a CD in 2008 with whom I guess are some of their mates from Norwich, like The Owl Box, an intense mash up of electronic sounds, melodic and sometimes down right claustrophobic. And then there’s The Boycott Coca-Cola Experience, a comic musical extravaganza.

The music somewhat emulates the poetry. It has this delicate feeling of the wide-open spaces of the natural landscape, juxtaposing with the silly notions of the imagination and the darkness of the city. The publications are on a limited print run and are in high demand. ‘The idea is that this makes the publications more interesting as artifacts of a certain time, showing a group of writers and artists at the point of emergence.’ It does indeed showcase some of the fresh, innovate writers that are emerging out of the murky waters of creative writing degrees and such.

Started by Jack Underwood and Sam Riviere, Sam who completed an MA in Poetry at Royal Holloway and has been published by Rialto and Poetry London and Jack who studied at Goldsmiths completing an MA in Creative and Life Writing, where he continues to teach and is working towards a PHD, he also won the Eric Gregory Award in 2007. With Nathan Hamilton of EggBox Publishing joining the editing team there is a sense of a shared vision and a collective idea towards new and exciting poetry and images.

There is a core team but they accept submissions, and will be opening their doors in October. They have the occasional poetry night that you’d be lucky to attend, either in Norwich or London. Keep an eye on their website for updates on events and submission deadlines.

Aquila Dunford Wood