GALATEA RESURRECTS' MOST INTERESTING POETRY PUBLISHERS

It's not scientific since the results are skewed by the age of the publishers (the longer they've been in business, the more books they have available for review) as well as whether publishers bother to send review copies to Galatea Resurrects(GR). But I'm a big believer in amusing moiself and it amuses Moi to post here a list of Galatea Resurrects' Most Interesting Poetry Publishers. Such is defined as the publishers who've received the most reviews so far from GR's volunteer staff of reviewers. The distinct majority of books reviewed are chosen by the reviewers themselves, rather than me as an editor pushing a particular tome. So, I think there's some anecdotal evidence as to what folks are finding interesting among poetry releases.

And now that I know which books are to be reviewed in 2008's last issue (which hopefully will be released soon), I can share this list of publishers whose books have generated at least five reviews. To wit:

Meritage Press --37 reviews
Dusie (Switzerland) --35
Ugly Duckling Presse --24
Marsh Hawk Press --23
Coffee House Press --18
BlazeVOX Books --13
Otoliths (Australia) --11
Hanging Loose Press --11
No Tell Books --10

Let Moi nota bene this: of the above nine publishers, I know that at least five (which is to say, the majority) utilize POD (print-on-demand) technology (e.g. Lulu.com). So to the jackass who once wrote Moi that these POD-based publishers are somehow not as legitimate as those using first-run printings at the thousand-level (or 500-level) runs, your point is uninterestingly wrong (not to mention erroneously conflating *publishing* with *printing technology*).

Okay. So, the top nine above are honored for having their works receive at least ten reviews by, by, uh, lessee--how can Moi honor them? Oh, I know!-- by having links to their publishing web sites! [And she goes back to edit in the links to the above...] And then, here are the others who've managed to interest GR reviewers in writing at least five reviews of their books--also a fine achievement given that 274 publishers so far have seen their publications reviewed in GR, but with many receiving just one review:

Ahsahta Press --9 reviews
Salt Publishing (England) --9
Spuyten Duyvil --8
Moria Poetry --7
Auguste Press --6
Bamboo Books --6
Belladonna and Belladonna Books --6
effing press --6
Finishing Line Press --6
Leafe Press (England) --6
O Books --5
Presa :S: Press --5
Saturnalia Books --5
Soft Skull Press --5
Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series/University of New Mexico Press --5

The number includes "negative" reviews so this statistic is about what is interesting vs. the reductive judgment (in poetry) of what's "best".

On a related note, I'm purrrrrr-ed to realize that GR now has reviewed books by publishers in 15 countries: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, United States. Yay. There's room for improvement, of course, but, still, GR is meeting its goal of reflecting the internet where it parties--"in" is for INTERNATIONAL, di ba?