I Got My Book In a Library

I had some exciting news in my email. A few months ago, I sent a few of my poetry books over to the National Poetry Library in London. I really hope to one day actually visit the place someday, because I think it will be a place where I love. I already adore the Oxford Poetry Library. A lot of the libraries near me don’t have a lot of poetry books, so it’s really nice to know there are libraries dedicated just for poetry.

I want to go and visit some more poetry libraries. I did send my local library and the National Poetry Library some of my books. Never heard back from the local libraries, and don’t even know what they did with them. As for the National Poetry Library, they returned them as they couldn’t accept them at the time. I have always wanted to have my books availible in a library, and I felt the National Poetry Library would be the perfect place for some of my books.

A few years has past since I last tried to submit books there. Over time, I’ve polished some of them and published several more. I thought to do it again. It seems the second time, it really paid off because they sent me an email to say that they have accepted Drinking Poetry, and will send the other books back to me.

Dear Chloe Gilholy,

Thank you for submitting your collections to the National Poetry Library for consideration.

The library receives between two and three hundred new items every month and we are not able to accept everything that is sent for the collection. The librarians meet regularly to look through the books that have been sent for both donation and payment and to make a decision on whether to accept them for the collection. No decisions are taken lightly, however the process, as a result, can take many weeks. No decision is taken lightly but the panel’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

We would like to accept the collection Drinking Poetry for the collection - thank you so much for this generous donation. Unfortunately we have decided not to accept the five other collections you sent for consideration. We would like to return them to you if you could please let us have your postal address.

Again, thank you so much for bringing this work to our attention. It helps us to ensure that we offer people who use the library an up-to-date idea of contemporary poetry.

Yours sincerely,

The Acquisitions Panel

I was happy because I think Drinking Poetry is the best out of the lot of them. Having the book in the National Poetry Library is great because it means all my hard work is paying off. I actually feel lucky to have one of my books there, especially on my second attempt. Maybe if I redo and update some of my other poetry books, they might find a place there someday.

In November, I will be going to the Oxford Indie Book Fair. This time I won’t be on my own, I will be going with the Banbury Writers’ Cafe. We will bring our anthologies there, and I might bring Drinking Poetry there too as last year, it was the only book that I sold there.

Languages Drinking Poetry has been translated into: Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Latvian, Japanese and Dutch. I am also proud that it is availible in multiple formats as well. Even after writing many books, this one has a special place in my heart.