About Us
Butcher's Dog is proudly edited and published in the heart of North East England. We print two unthemed poetry magazines each year in Spring and Autumn. Every issue features original cover artwork and contains a selection of up to twenty-five exceptional poems. The poems are selected on their own merit in an anonymous reading process which serves to support a more inclusive body of contemporary writing than the publishing industry currently represents.
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Ethos
We promise to treat you, your work, and your time respectfully. This is a reciprocal relationship. Experienced editors carefully read all submitted poems on the merit of the work alone. Your identity remains anonymous until we email you with a long list of outcomes.
Over three thousand submissions of poetry arrived for issue 15. Due to these exceptionally high numbers of submissions that we receive, we cannot give editorial feedback. If you'd like to request editorial comments on your work, this is available for a small fee, calculated as per the guidelines from the Society of Authors, and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.
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Fees
We are a non-profit outfit and charge no submission fees. All we ask in return is that you send us your best three unpublished poems, buy a copy of our magazine, subscribe and tell your friends about our canny little press. If you are financially struggling but want to read the Dog, please get in touch: we can provide discount codes or send copies to your local library.
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The editorial team is currently unpaid. We have a tip-jar which means those who submit work can choose to gift us a small donation if they are in a position to do so. Donations have no impact on the poems that are selected for publication. All donations contribute directly toward rising printing costs and help to keep us in press as an independent publisher.
History
Our popular magazine was founded in Newcastle, England in 2012 with financial support from New Writing North and Arts Council England. Each featured poet in the first issue received a Northern Writers’ Award in 2010 or 2011. Poet and mentor Clare Pollard helped to create an anthology of work and Butcher’s Dog began.
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The original founders are Luke Allan, Jake Campbell, Sophie F Baker, Wendy Heath, Amy Mackelden, Andrew Sclater and Degna Stone. The team have since disbanded, moving on to new things. Degna Stone was Managing Editor from 2012-2018.
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Today
In keeping with tradition, our Creative Director and Managing Editor Jo Clement secured a Northern Writers' Award in 2012. From 2018 she has shaken up each submission call by working with the finest emerging poets and editors. This keeps our content fresh and our reader's tongues (and tails) wagging.
From 2021 Butcher's Dog is the parent publisher to Wagtail, an imprint for our wing of anthologies.