We are the UK's most innovative independent publisher - it's official! Here is a photo of Chris and Jen after winning the 2008 Nielsen Innovation of the Year Award at the Independent Publishing Awards.
Salt’s origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched Salt Magazine in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry and poetics. Over the next decade, Kinsella, together with Tracy Ryan, went on to develop Folio(Salt), publishing and co-publishing books and chapbooks focused on a pluralist vision of contemporary poetry which extended across national boundaries and a wide range of poetic practices; a vision which still permeates our literature publishing today.
In 1999 John Kinsella, Clive Newman and Chris Hamilton-Emery formed a partnership to develop Salt Publishing, forming the template of today’s business. When Clive left in 2002 and the original partnership was dissolved, Jen Hamilton-Emery joined Chris to take over the running of Salt, relaunching the business in the UK. Since that time Salt has rapidly expanded its size and the range of the publishing programme. In November 2004, Salt was incorporated and Linda Bennett joined as a Director. In July 2005 John Skelton joined as a Director. In March 2007 Janna Rademacher joined as US Sales and Marketing Director.
From its offices in Great Wilbraham, Cambridge, Salt now publishes over 40 books a year, focussing on poetry, short stories, biography, literary criticism and text books by authors from the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean and mainland Europe.
The list includes a widening range of internationally-acclaimed authors, including a prize-winning Native American writing series. 2006 saw the launch of our short story list, and 2007 the launch of our Companions series.
To find out what goes on behind the scenes in the Salt Office, subscribe to JenatSalt's MySpace blog here
