The Emma Press has announced the poets who will feature in their forthcoming anthology of urgent new political poems, Campaign in Poetry, publishing on 2nd April 2015.

The line-up includes several rising stars of the UK poetry scene: Luke Kennard, who was recently named as a Poetry Book Society Next Generation Poet; Clare Pollard, whose translation of Ovid’s Heroides was published by Bloodaxe in 2013 and is currently touring the UK; and Kayo Chingonyi, who won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2013. The book also features Stephanie Arsoska, Elizabeth Barrett, Ellie Danak, Dai George, Jan Heritage, Holly Hopkins, Anna Kisby, Rachel Long, Rosie Miles, Mona Arshi, Richard O’Brien, Ewan Stevenson, Jon Stone, James Trevelyan and Kate Wise.

Publisher Emma Wright said: ‘I think there are a few key assumptions which keep people from voting: that politicians don’t understand the concerns of the average voter, that all the political parties have become the same, and that voting makes no difference. These beliefs have some grounding in fact, but taken together they form a manifesto for apathy which is frankly terrifying.’

‘I believe in democracy and I believe in the ability of poets to find the blazing emotional core within complex, equivocal subjects, so this anthology is a reaction against apathy. This isn’t a collection of poems to tell you what to think or how to vote; this is a collection to fire people up and encourage them to engage with politics.’

Campaign in Poetry is edited by Rachel Piercey (Newdigate Prize, 2008) and Emma Wright, who collected the poems through a mixture of commissions and an open call for submissions in August-September 2014. The anthology is a collection of poems about voter apathy, social inequality and disillusionment with politicians, inspired by current affairs and written in anticipation of the UK General Election.

The Emma Press is holding a book launch for Campaign in Poetry during London Book and Screen Week, at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon on Wednesday 15th April. A further launch will take place at Word Power Books in Edinburgh on Thursday 30th April. Further details of the launch parties can be found on the Events page.

Full details of poets involved in the book can be found here.