OXFORD University Press yesterday appeared to bow to the massive criticism of its decision to axe its entire modern poetry list. The academic publishing house said that "the Press and the English Faculty are looking for a new way by which contemporary poetry can continue to be published".
OUP had argued that it could not afford to continue publishing books that barely broke even and which did not fit in with its non-fiction lists. A spokeswoman would not agree that the company was backtracking but said the statement was open to interpretation.
Novelists and professors were among many who had expressed anger that poets such as Peter Porter and D. J. Enright had been dropped. Jon Stallworthy, the Oxford Professor of English Literature and editor of the Oxford Book of War Poetry, accused the Press of "an act of vandalism". Yesterday he said: "The faculty would certainly welcome this development and would do everything it can to help the OUP make an even greater success of its poetry."