Ron Pretty started 5 Islands Press in 1986. Photos: Supplied.
In a heartwarming tale of literary preservation and passion, two poets have breathed new life into Wollongong’s iconic 5 Islands Press, a poetry publishing house with a rich history spanning more than three decades.
Once on the brink of fading into obscurity, it is now flourishing again thanks to Wollongong-based poet Steve Meyrick and Bowral’s multi-award-winning poet and educator Dr Mark Tredinnick OAM, with a renewed mission to make poetry more accessible and connect with a broader audience.
Founded in 1986 by legendary Wollongong poet and much revered teacher Ron Pretty alongside a group of friends, 5 Islands Press grew into a powerhouse of the Australian poetry scene.
Steve said Ron was the driving force behind it for 20 years, expanding its reach and publishing 260 books of poetry by 2017.
“It started off conceptually as a collective, but it fairly rapidly became an entity that Ron was the driving force of and expanded its range well beyond the original collective, so that it became quite a force in poetry publishing,” he said.
“Ron ran it for 20 years with assistance from others, but it was basically his baby.”
However, as Ron retired from teaching and stepped back from publishing in 2007, the baton was taken up by a series of editors with it often a huge responsibility for any single individual to shoulder.
It even started to move around the country, leaving its Illawarra headquarters.
By 2018, it was announced it would stop publishing new work, leaving its impressive catalogue at risk of fading into obscurity.
“It was quite a sad loss for a lot of people,” Steve said.
“By that time, of course, there was over 30 years of publishing history with quite an expensive catalogue of over 400 volumes of poetry published.
“It’s quite a small world, the poetry world, so that was quite a big thing.”
That’s when the story takes an inspiring turn.
Sydney-based poet Dr Gareth Jenkins, with deep respect for the publishing outfit’s legacy, stepped in to preserve the history and create an online archive, in turn keeping the 5 Islands Press name alive.
Meanwhile, Steve and Mark had been discussing the idea of establishing their own small publishing venture.
“Sadly, in 2023 Ron passed away – he’d been ill for some time – and Mark and I thought it would be a lovely tribute to him, plus a nice bit of continuity of poetry history, if rather than setting up an entirely new outfit, we revived 5 Islands Press,” he said.
Steve Meyrick (left) and Mark Tredinnick (right) have revived the publisher of poetry.
Steve said after constructive discussions with Gareth, they were able to acquire the 5 Islands Press name and archives, reviving it under not-for-profit entity Oystercatcher Enterprises.
“It was a beautiful experience,” he said.
“The discussions were full of generosity and collegiate spirit – it was how you’d like the world to work.”
Since taking the reins in 2024, Steve and Mark have wasted no time in reinvigorating the publisher.
Steve said they’d published a diverse array of poetry, from established voices such as the celebrated Robert Gray to emerging talents such as Tasmanian poet Helen Swain and even an anthology to top off the year.
“In April last year we called for submissions from poets who had manuscripts waiting for publication,” he said.
“We got 139 submissions from people who had full manuscripts ready to go, of which we could manage about eight.
“So Mark and I talked about what we could do and we came up with the idea of publishing an anthology drawn from the submissions from those whose full manuscripts we weren’t able to publish but which would at least give them some publication out of their efforts.”
Their mission now extends beyond simply publishing new works, with the pair on a quest to reconnect poetry with a broader audience.
“We’re looking for intelligent and intelligible poetry,” he said.
“Poetry that people who are prepared to take the time and read carefully will get something from, without having to be part of the poetry elite.
“There’s a lovely quote from a Salvadoran poet called Roque Dalton which is ‘poetry is like bread; it’s for everyone’.”
Steve said while it was a bold vision, it was one that harked back to a time when English poets such as Tennyson and Wordsworth were “part of the intellectual furniture of anyone who considered themselves to be vaguely literate” and when poetry was much more mainstream.
“That’s going to be a real focus for us – to find ways to get poetry in front of people who we strongly suspect, if we get the right poetry in front of them, they will enjoy it, and they will find it really enriching,” he said.
Steve said reading the right poetry was like listening to the right song.
“It can be a sort of flash of recognition that ‘Oh, that’s exactly what I was thinking,’” he said.
“Somebody has articulated something that I felt and really wanted to say but couldn’t quite find the right words for.”
Learn more about 5 Islands Press.
Loading ...
