In April 2018 if p then q will have been publishing for ten years. In addition to a special birthday celebration reading (watch this space) it seems apt to highlight some key publications, in case you’ve missed out. Just click on the links that follow to add the title to your library
Between 2008-9 if p then q magazine ran for four issues. The first two were loose-bound and housed in envelopes with gifts – pens, postcards and CDs. Issue three came out as a set of posters, specially commissioned by The Text Festival, and included posters by P. Inman, Craig Dworkin and Anne Charnock. The final issue was a pastiche of a coffee table magazine featuring Caroline Bergvall on the front cover. Issue three is still in print and available HERE.
The first if p then q perfect bound collection, 2008, was Tom Jenks’ A Priori which includes his much-lauded poem 99 Names for Small Dogs. Many other perfect bound collections have met critical acclaim. Holly Pester’s Hoofs and Chrissy Williams’ Epigraphs have both been featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, Peter Jaeger’s A Field Guide to Lost Things was long-listed for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize and many other titles have received multiple and positive reviews. Here they are: Lucy Harvest-Clarke’s exhilarating Silveronda, Tim Atkins’ minimal sonnet sequence 1000 Sonnets, David Berridge’s search for the ‘thing’ in Bring the Thing, Derek Henderson’s poignant, systematic erasure of Ted Berrigan’s The Sonnet titled Thus &, Stephen Emmerson’s almost blank page Family Portraits, Geof Huth’s collected one word poems ntst, Tom Jenks’ follow ups to A Priori – the almost sonnet sequence * and the barmy Items, seekers of lice’s text version of Encyclops., Philip Terry’s Advanced Immorality – including his rewrites of Queneau – & Nathan Walker’s tome of web generated one-liners Action Score Generator.
In 2014 if p then q reached new heights by publishing the collected works of the great P. Inman, Written 1976-2013. This work not only collects his work in an inexpensive format but allows his work to been seen as something which both changes and, paradoxically, remains consistently constant, as Craig Dworkin points out in his lengthy and fascinating introduction.
In amongst all these titles there was still time to publish obscurities, some sold out – Michael Basinski’s Dog Music postcard, Nick-e Melville’s leaflet Junk Mail, as well as the still in print set of trump cards What’s the Best? by Joy as Tiresome Vandalism and Stephen Emmerson’s automatic poetry templates – Poetry Wholes.
2015 saw the first publication of a critical work – derek beaulieu’s captivating essays on concrete and conceptual poetry The Unbearable Contact with Poets, which also offered readers the chance to buy as a print bound copy or obtain as a pdf.
This year if p then q has pushed forwards with a new house front cover design and two new titles – Tim Allen’s re-imagining of The Columbia Granger Index to Poetry called Under the Cliff Like and Simon Taylor’s conceptual photo project of imaginary university lecturers Prospectus.
Look out for new titles in the near future from Peter Jaeger, Tom Jenks, Emma Cocker and others.
If you’ve missed any of these titles you should really check ‘em out.
