It’s that time again; time to grill one of our prized publishers about everything magazine-related.

Today it’s the turn of Mike Sims from The Poetry Society, publishers of The Poetry Review. The quarterly has been home to the best contemporary poetry and writing about poetry since 1912, featuring work by internationally renowned and emerging poets, both Nobel Prize winners and newcomers.

For all the latest news, you can follow Mike (@abosimian) and The Poetry Society (@PoetrySociety) on Twitter.

Issues Winter 2014, Summer 2017 and Summer 2019 of The Poetry Review

The Interview

1) What’s your role within the magazine?

I’m the Publishing Manager here: I’m responsible to varying degrees for the editorial, design and production of most of our print and some aspects of the (non-technical) digital output, too…

2) What attracted you to the magazine publishing industry?

I got fired once, did a Quark course and subsequently set up a magazine with friends, the marvellous though pennilessIllustrated Ape (still extant). I discovered I loved type and the pure delight of bringing writers and artists together.

3)  If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Lettuce. Hard to explain – summer job picking it at a nursery that left a very deep impression.

4)  If you weren’t working in publishing, what would you be doing?

Gardening – I love getting my hands dirty. Or as a guitarist – is that working?

5) Do you have an all-time favourite magazine issue?

The cover of the Summer 2017 issue of The Poetry Review has an illustration of a white horse having a lonely smoke in a moonlit boudoir. We call him the Stallion of Love, and obviously this is a favourite…

Here’s the ‘Stallion of Love’ in all his glory

6) If you could live in any city, where would it be?

San Sebastian. With an excellent grasp of the Basque language.

7) What do you think will have changed in the publishing industry in 5 years?

We’ll be reading print more. I think health restrictions will have been imposed on mobile phone use.

Many thanks to Michael for taking part! We’ve now developed a particular fondness of the Stallion of Love too.

If you’d like to be featured in the Publisher Interview series, please get in touch on publisher@exacteditions.com.