About

The poetry small press MATERIALS was co-founded by Lisa Jay Jeschke and David Grundy in Cambridge, UK, in 2012. Lisa Jay moved to Munich in 2016 and began a German branch named MATERIALIEN, publishing work in translation, as well as both English and German language work written in Germany. The two branches of the press operated in parallel in London (MATERIALS) and Munich (MATERIALIEN) until MATERIALIEN ceased publication in early 2025.

MATERIALS began as a photocopied and stapled A4 magazine chaotically assembled, bulky and typeset entirely in Microsoft Word. Four issues, now out-of-print, were produced between 2012 and 2014. In 2014 the press began printing single-author pamphlets, which have made up the majority of publications since. These were initially printed in A4 or A5 formats, saddle-stitched and using a low-key design aesthetic. Since 2017, the press has produced more extensive perfect- bound collections by authors including Gabrielle Daniels, Candace Hill, and Alli Warren. Over the years, occasional one-off magazines, broadsides and flyers have also been produced for particular occasions.

A related reading series, featuring both poets published by the press and poets published elsewhere, was founded in 2013. It began by putting on readings every fortnight in Cambridge; in recent years, the reading series has occurred more irregularly on various occasions and at various venues in person or online. Readers have included, among many others, Caroline Bergvall, Sean Bonney, Don Mee Choi, Peter Gizzi, Robert Glück, Adelaide Ivánova, D.S. Marriott, Erín Moure, Denise Riley, and Ayna Steigerwald. An archive of introductions is available on this website.

MATERIALS, edited by David Grundy, continues to publish in small run editions and is run as a strictly not-for-profit enterprise. As a general rule, it endeavours to publish work by a wide variety of authors rather than sticking to a particular catalogue of writers. The press has published work from established authors such as Pulitzer-prize winner Anne Boyer and San Francisco poet laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin to first books by younger writers. Much of this work might formally be identified with what is sometimes—not always satisfactorily—known as avant-garde, experimental or Modernist writing, and politically, with left-wing, anti-racist, feminist and queer politics. There is, however, no strict selection criteria, and what all this means may change over time: the press seeks to be a responsive and open enterprise interested in drawing together politically and aesthetically exciting work of any kind.

[A complete list of publications is below.]

PUBLICATIONS

[2024]
—Nhã Thuyên - đừng giấu cơn điên / don’t hide the madness
—Askia Touré - Songhai!

[2023]
—Lisa Jeschke / Lucy Beynon - Vorlage zur Selbstabschaffung des Innenministeriums, Übersetzung des englischen Theaterstücks: The Decline and Fall of the Home Office [Materialien]

[2022]
—Candace Hill - Short Leash Kept On
—James Goodwin - Faux Ice
—Kruk Book: An Anthology for Frances Kruk
—Andres Bülhoff / Lütfiye Güzel / Lisa Jeschke - oder redo [Materialien]

[2021] 

—Alli Warren - Another Round: Selected Poems [Out of Print]

[2020]
—Gabrielle Daniels - Something Else Again: Poetry and Prose, 1975-2019 [Out of Print]
—Tongo Eisen-Martin - Waiting Behind Tornados For Food
—John DeWitt - 20 20 Pretzels
—David Grundy - Local Apocalypse [Barque Press]
—Heike Fröhlich / Ricarda Kiel - Outfits [Materialien]
—Robert Creeley / Susanne Darabas (Übers.) - Histoire de Florida [Materialien]
—Laurel Uziell - T

[2019] 

—Adelaide Ivánova / Christiane Quandt (Übers.) - Der Hammer [Materialien]
—Tom Betteridge - Dressings [Out of Print]
—Lotta Thießen - Fragments of Baby [Materialien]
—Ayna Steigerwald - tagslichtdosen [Materialien]
—Anne Boyer - Money City Sick as Fuck
—Marty Hiatt - paraphrenia [Materialien]

[2018]
—[Collective (Students and Asylum Seekers) - Poetry Collection / Gedichtband - publ. in cooperation] [Materialien]
—Lisa Jeschke - The Anthology of Poems by Drunk Women
—Sarah Hayden - Sitevist
—Manson & Mendoza - Windsuckers & Onsetters [Sonnots for Griffiths] [Out of Print]

[2017]
—Gizem Okulu - Too Sliced for Landing
—Stuart Calton - Wimpy and André [Out of Print]
—Christina Chalmers - Willingness [Out of Print]
—J.H. Prynne - Of · The · Abyss
—D.S. Marriott - Duppies 
—Sean Bonney - Ghosts
—Frances Kruk / Koshka Duff (Übers.) - Stecknadel [Materialien]

[2016]
—Kenneth Irby - Army Poems [Out of Print]
—Ed Luker - The Sea Together [Out of Print]
—Peter Gizzi - Marigold & Cable [Out of Print]
—Brexit // Borders Kill [Out of Print]
—Linda Kemp - Lease Prise Redux [Out of Print]
—Naomi Weber - Very Lonely Animals [Out of Print]

[2015]
—Tom Allen - Watch-Fires [Out of Print]
—Rosa Van Hensbergen - Lights out to Love in HD [Out of Print]
—David Brazil - Praxis, Apostles! [Out of Print]
—Danny Hayward - Pragmatic Sanction [Out of Print]
—Yule Log [Out of Print]

[2014]
—Materials # 3 [Out of Print]
—Ian Heames - A.I. in Daylight [Out of Print]
—Luke Roberts - Keep All Your Friends [Out of Print]
—Materials # 4: Economic Ophelia [Out of Print]
—Sara Larsen - Merry Hell [Out of Print]
—A Comradeship of Heroes from Around the World [Out of Print]

[2013]
—Materials #2: The Theatre Issue [Out of Print]

[2012]
—Materials # 1 [Out of Print]