Newcastle University acquired the archive of Bloodaxe Books in 2013, an archive dating back to 1978 and the beginnings of this internationally important poetry publisher. So far 4700 items have been catalogued and 1500 items digitally scanned, always with the permission of the author. This work will be added to on a recurrent basis for as long as Bloodaxe Books continues to publish.

Enter this website through BOOKS and you will be able to browse a library of the titles, and to connect to the formal catalogue on the Archives Hub through the BX number for each item. Clicking on individual book covers will bring up digitised pages where available and a wealth of poetry in process towards its final published form.

This website also offers more innovative ways of exploring the archive. WORDS uses the text of the digitized items to suggest links, whilst SHAPES allows you to view or interact with the shape poems make on the page. DATA takes you beyond this archive to discover where else Bloodaxe authors have been published.

In our GALLERY and RESEARCH sections you will be able to link to new works that animate and respond creatively to the archive (interviews, films, photos, artwork, texts). Our current ‘Showcase’ in GALLERY contains work produced by the ‘community of practice’ – poets and artists – who worked with us on the Poetics of the Archive project.

Our parallel EDUCATION site provides a selection of materials from the website and some suggestions for how to navigate pathways through it. There are also some exercises to prompt ways of interacting with the website and employing it as a creative resource. These could be used formally and informally, inside or outside the classroom, in workshops at all levels.

This website has been designed by Tom Schofield with support and contributions from Mitchell Whitelaw

The 'Poetics of the Archive: Creative and Community Engagement with the Bloodaxe Archive' has been generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Project Team
Professor Linda Anderson, Principle Investigator; Professor W.N.Herbert, Professor Jackie Kay, Professor Sean O'Brien (Creative Writing); Irene Brown, Alan Turnbull (Fine Art); Dr David Kirk (Computing Science); Colette Bryce, Dr Ahren Warner (Research Associates, Creative Writing); Dr Tom Schofield (Research Associate, Computing Science); Rebecca Bradley (Archivist); Kimberley Gaiger (Digital Assistant); Kate Sweeney (consulting film-maker); Phyllis Christopher (consulting photographer). Thanks also to Pete Hebden and Helen Limon.

International Advisory Group
Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books); Ollie Dawson (The Poetry School); Dr Richard Price (Poet); Alice Quinn (Poetry Society of America)

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