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a little about..

Paper Swans Press

Established in 2014, Paper Swans is a small independent press run by Sarah Miles, publishing poetry and flash fiction. Our ethos has always been to publish both established and up-and-coming writers and expose excellent writing through anthologies, single pamphlets, online projects and bespoke submissions such as our Pocket Poetry books, poetry postcards and our well-established poetry advent calendar.

Paper Swans Press was shortlisted for the award for Best Anthology in the Saboteur Awards 2016 and 2017 and their pamphlet, Glass by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, won Best Pamphlet in the 2017 awards. Her collection, At or Below Sea Level, also published by Paper Swans, was selected as a Poetry Book Society choice. Our 2022 pamphlet prize winner, Rosalind Easton, won the Bridport Single Poem Poetry Prize in 2024 (poem not from Man Overboard).

This year we will be publishing some new anthologies, hosting some exciting poetry events and building our new page for young writers — Paper Cygnets.

 

recently published...

Sub/urban Legends

Sub/urban Legends by Pam Thompson

Winner of the 2023 Poetry Pamphlet Prize

Sub/urban Legends gripped me because of the way it marries poignancy with a really bold imagination and stylistic flair. Its poems exploring both experiences of parenthood and mourning the loss of amaternal presence find a great balance of a lively eye and, where it’s most needed, a heartfelt clarity and directness.

The quiet surface of compassionate pieces such as ‘The Glass Strawberry’, which probes self-care, feels hard-won. Elsewhere the constructions thrillingly blend the abstract and the concrete to summon sparks and the poems find exciting juxtapositions, giraffe facts nestling beside Zygons from Doctor Who. It’s a mature and intellectually satisfying gathering that showcases not only formal dexterity through abecedarians and acrostics but a healthy wildness and vitality. 

John McCullough

Some of our past publications...

The Darker Side of Love

The Darker Side of Love

The Darker Side of Love was the first pamphlet to be published by Paper Swans Press in 2015.

The Darker Side of Love

Glass

Glass was published in 2016 and won the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet.

Man Overboard

Man Overboard

Man Overboard won our 2022 Pamphlet Prize and Rosalind Easton went on to win the 2024 Bridport Prize for Best Single Poem: Other Words for Dancefloor (not featured in this pamphlet).