Introduction

In June 2004, the Poetry Society heralded the 'next generation' of British poets, listing in their roll-call the likes of Patience Agbabi, Nick Drake, Tobias Hill and Gwyneth Lewis, all poets first published in the previous decade. This next generation followed ten years after the new generation of poets had been announced. The 1994 new-generation list - twenty poets from Simon Armitage to Carol Ann Duffy - was part of the media buzz of the moment in which poetry was, however briefly, cited as 'the new rock 'n' roll'. The resulting media attention did not lead to a huge increase in the sales of poetry collections, but Neil Astley's Bloodaxe anthology Staying Alive had already demonstrated that there might be a wide and popular audience for the right kind of poetry package. At present, the awareness and dissemination of contemporary poetry has been expanded to an international scope particularly through internet technology such as the online Contemporary Poetry Review. With innovative presses entering the field (notably Salt Publishing in 2002), undeterred by the low sales rates for individual slim volumes, the contemporary British poetry scene appears quite vibrant and dynamic.