About Us

Templar Poetry, based in the heart of Derbyshire, is an independent publisher of excellent contemporary poetry in pamphlets, collections and anthologies. We are committed to developing wider audiences and readers to poetry through our published poetry as well as live poetry events ranging from the annual Derwent Poetry Festival to author events in a wide variety of settings.

Templar Poetry strives to bring a fresh and unfettered approach to publishing contemporary poetry and is committed to ensuring that poetry engages with new readers. Our founding principles are to publish excellent contemporary poetry and to facilitate and encourage audiences and readers to access and enjoy the poetry we publish.

Festival

The annual Derwent Poetry Festival hosts the awards event for the Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection Competition and features a series of readings for poets published by Templar Poetry alongside a range of guest poets. All of our published poetry is available from the City of Derby and Derbyshire Public Libraries as well as many other libraries throughout the UK, including the British Library.

Pamphlet & Collection Competition

The annual Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection Competition offers poets an opportunity to submit their work as short collections. Four pamphlets are chosen by the judge for publication in pamphlet form and the winning poets all have the opportunity to submit a full collection for later publication. An anthology of the best individual poems from all the remaining submissions is published alongside the pamphlets and other new titles. Further information about the 2010 competition is available on the Competitions page. Templar Poetry was one of four publishers shortlisted for the inaugural Michael Marks Awards in 2009.

Availability and purchase

All Templar Poetry publications are available from good bookshops and directly from our website where the Shopping Cart enables both single and multiple purchases of all our books. The 2006 Templar Poetry Pamphlets were described by one reviewer as ‘…the best looking pamphlets I’ve ever seen…’ and are produced as high quality small paperbacks. Our poetry collections are published in high quality hardback editions. Our current poetry list can be viewed and purchased online from the Poetry page. Online purchases are usually despatched within five working days of receipt of the order.

News & Social Networking

Up to date news about our poets appears on our News page alongside any other new initiatives. We also have a Facebook Group which is open for membership.

Iota Magazine

We also publish Iota Magazine, in collaboration with a team based at the University of Gloucestershire. Details are posted on the Iota Magazine website at www.iotamagazine.co.uk

International Single Poem Competition

The Iota International Poetry Competition offers a major new poetry prize with £4,000 in the prize fund and the opportunity for all the winning writers to have their work published in Iota magazine.