“The new poetry outpost of Libreria bookshop is small but perfectly formed. We’ve set it up with Faber & Faber and have titles from many independent publishers. So much that’s exciting about poetry is happening with the independents,” says co-founder Rohan Silva. “The electronic age isn’t always great for creativity – poetry helps you slow down, and think a bit more deeply. We launched with the Second Home poetry festival. Poetry can seem very intimidating and old school and we really want to smash that up. We’re always trying to get new audiences into our spaces. I hope our bookshop reflects the diversity of literary talent.”
Top five sellers
•Milk and Honey Rupi Kaur
•Citizen: An American Lyric Claudia Rankine
•Calling a Wolf a Wolf Kaveh Akbar
•Kumukanda Kayo Chingonyi
•Wade in the Water Tracy K Smith
Five recommendations
•bone Yrsa Daley-Ward
“An absolutely wonderful work of poetry. Bone is so raw, personal and immediate. Daley-Ward is a spoken-word artist but her work is also very effective on the page.”
•The Poetry Pharmacy William Sieghart
“A really human introduction to poetry. Very unintimidating.”
•Collected Poems TS Eliot
“With The Waste Land and Prufrock, you hear so much collaged in there it almost sounds like rap music the way things are spliced together. Don’t be daunted – just jump in.”
•Pepper Seed Malika Booker
“She’s one of the leaders of the spoken word scene. If it wasn’t for the energy of the scene we wouldn’t have opened the bookshop. We want to create a platform for it.”
•Happiness Jack Underwood
“His work is really interesting as it’s about identity and shows how the poets of our time are grappling with the big issues – gender, race, sexuality.”
Libreria Poetry Bookshop, 48-49 Princes Place, W11 4QA; secondhome.io
