Carcanet Press announces the appointment of the Irish poet John McAuliffe to the role of Associate Publisher for a period of six months from 1 August. John will share editorial duties with Michael Schmidt and the Managing Editor, Andrew Latimer; he will also be looking at the Press as a whole, to consider the impact of lockdown and how it will continue to develop its new poetry and classics lists.

John McAuliffe is a poet and critic, based in Manchester where he is Professor of Poetry at the University. Chief poetry critic at The Irish Times from 2013-2020, he founded and co-edits The Manchester Review and directs The Centre for New Writing and its long-running Literature Live reading series. His five books with The Gallery Press include most recently The Kabul Olympics (2020) and The Way In (winner of the 2016 Michael Hartnett Award), while his translations of Bosnian poet Igor Klikovac, Stockholm Syndrome (Smith Doorstop) was a PBS Pamphlet Choice in 2019.

John has been close to Carcanet for well over a decade. He and Michael Schmidt are currently editing New Poetries VIII, the most recent in the celebrated series that has introduced writers as diverse as Sophie Hannah, Kei Miller, Sinead Morrissey, Tara Bergin, Nicole Kraus. Patrick McGuinness, Caroline Bird, David Morley, Jane Yeh, Katharine Kilalea, Laura Scott, Phoebe Power and Isabel Galleymore.

John McAuliffe said: ‘Poetry is the proving ground where the disturbances that roil our societies are most keenly felt and imaginatively explored: I am excited to be part of this brilliant press's work in finding and drawing attention to new and older voices, and in working with my Carcanet colleagues on responding to the changing world of (post-)lockdown publishing.’

Michael Schmidt welcomed the six-month appointment. ‘Carcanet – and our journal PN Review – have grown over fifty years into a relatively large-scale behemoth. Covid-19 is now a tenth Muse, inspiring thousands upon thousands of aspiring poems. It will be wonderful to share this lugubrious bounty with John, and to work on our anthology, the forward list, and discuss with the team the future of the Press.'