Grey Hen Events and Update

Update: January 2026

 

I am delighted to announce that Grey Hen Press won the SME New’s Northern Enterprise Awards 2025 in two categories:

Best Independent Poetry Publisher

Underrepresented Arts Excellence

To have been nominated was unexpected, and to have won a really nice surprise!

 

 BOOKS

2026

Publication of the latest anthology Red Hens, featuring poems about influential leftie and revolutionary women, is planned for Spring 2026

 

2024

Two Ravens: Explorations of mind and memory 

Contemporary poets throw fresh light on the complex ways our minds and memories work to make us who we are.

2022

Different Days: Another 20 poems for the Planet 

Completing the series on climate catastrophe.

Renewable Energy: The unstoppable power of plants 

Celebrating the inspirational life force that plants bring to our own struggle for survival on this imperilled planet.

 

2021

 

Phenomenal Women 

A  further celebration of women who have made their mark on the world  – a follow up to last year’s Of Some Importance.

 

Earth Days Numbered: 20 poems for the Planet

Counting Down the Days: 20 more poems for the Planet

The first two pamphlets in a series on climate catastrophe (all profits will go to the UK Youth Climate Coalition to support their campaigning work)

 

Not Past, but Through: poems about rivers

Lovely, Dark and Deep: poems about woods

Completing the chapbook series on the theme of landscape. For a special deal on the set of four, please email  info@greyhenpress.com

 

2020

Measuring the Depth

The second in a chapbook series on the theme of landscape.

Of Some Importance

A chapbook celebrating women who have left their mark on the world.  At only £6 it’s a real bargain! and makes a great gift.

Reflected Lightresponses to the creative arts

This richly rewarding anthology has been the subject of ten Zoom events which have featured nearly all of the 80+ contributors. See the events page for updates on virtual (Zoom) events.

NEW HEN RUN CHAPBOOKS

2025

Not a Quick Unfolding
Charlotte Eatwell
The Hungarian Pottery Flask
Susan Székely
Ordinary Is Enough
Susannah Lash
Having Her Cake
Wendy Klein
The Sitting Room Lunar Mission and Other Journeys
Marka Rifat

 HEN RU

Hen Run is Grey Hen’s chapbook imprint.

‘Hen Run gives older women an opportunity to get their work published. The project is unfunded and not for profit, so the deal is that I select submissions, edit, and prepare manuscripts for publication. Authors are responsible for printing costs, and for subsequent publicity, readings, and the bulk of sales, though the chapbooks will be featured on the website. The usual high production quality that Grey Hen has maintained applies!

As with Grey Hen, I’m limited with how much work I can take on so there isn’t an open submissions policy. so it’s by invitation or recommendation only. Several excellent poets who were well into their 70s and needed to have a leg-up onto that first rung of the publication ladder have started with a Hen Run chapbook and gone on to wider publication elsewhere.  (NB if you are wanting to make a recommendation, please contact me yourself in the first instance for a discussion). I am also happy to consider proposals from any Grey Hen contributors who may have a particular sequence or group of poems that doesn’t fit easily into a collection – many Hen Run publications have originated that way too.’     Joy Howard

 

You can find all the Hen Run books, and how to order them, by following the ‘Hen Run‘ link on the Grey Hen homepage.

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