Poetry Book Society

The Saison Poetry Library is a free public lending library celebrating modern and contemporary poetry. We look after a collection of over 100,000 books, magazines, recordings, pamphlets, posters and cards, all available to visitors at our home in London's Southbank Centre.

The library was founded in 1953 with the aim of promoting contemporary British poetry. While we work hard to make sure we collect the poetry published in the UK in all its diversity, we also have a rich selection of poetry in other languages and in translation. The collection is diverse other ways: it includes artists' books and prints using text and poetry in exciting visual ways; children's poetry from Anglo-Saxon riddles to nursery rhymes to verse novels and collections for young adults; poetry in pamphlet form and chap books that allow the visitor to browse the shelves and find an early Seamus Heaney pamphlet next to his latest prize-winning volume; and recordings of contemporary spoken word performances to readings given by poets in the 50s and 60s.

Our magazine collection is one of the few places where poetry readers can see the latest work by their favourite poets, and new and established writers can browse different magazines with a view to finding the one that they'd like to publish their work. It's also the source material for www.poetrymagazines.org.uk, our fantastic site that allows those who can't come to the library to access our magazine collection online.

Our main website is the ideal place to look for information about poetry competitions and magazines, events, courses, and publisher details. You can also visit our ‘Lost Quotations' page to see if you recognise any of those elusive poems of which our enquirers are trying to remember forgotten lines, or identify the author. If you have your own ‘lost quotations' or any other queries about poets or poetry, you can contact us via the website, by post or by telephone, see below for more details.

We run events in the library on the first Wednesday of each month. Spoken word and performance, debates, readings, and lectures all make up our Special Edition series. These events are free and you can collect a ticket in advance from the Southbank Centre ticket office. Also look out for events for families in the library. We run fun days of crafts and poetry in conjunction with Southbank Centre's free programme. We also have activities for families you can try on a visit to the library, as well as a wealth of children's poetry to read and enjoy together. We run an annual open day in November, where we display some of the treasures of the library and showcase the diversity of contemporary poetry to library members and those new to the collection.

Poetry is something that finds a place in our lives in many different ways. We hope that we can offer something to everyone. We research poems for weddings, funerals, and celebrations. We welcome school groups to the library and run fun poetry activities or help students find the resources they need. We assist editors of anthologies in finding suitable poems, and support critics and researchers, particularly through our press cuttings of reviews and articles about poets and poetry. We have a free lending service to visitors, and also a postal loan service for people with sight problems. Finally, of course, poetry lovers can come and experience the delight of being surrounded by shelves of poetry and delving into this accessible and comprehensive collection.

We welcome your enquiries and your visits.

You can contact us on 44 (0) 20 7921 0943/0664, or email us.

We are open 11am to 8pm, Tuesday to Sunday.

Miriam Valencia was born in Stirling in 1974 and grew up in Central Scotland. She has lived in London for the past twelve years where she trained as a librarian, and has been working at the Saison Poetry Library, where she is currently Joint Librarian, since 2005.