Andy Croft

Andy Croft
Born1956 (age 69–70)
Occupations
  • Writer
  • editor
  • poet
  • publisher
Known forFounder of Smokestack Books
Websiteandy-croft.co.uk

Andy Croft (born 1956) is an English writer, editor, poet and publisher based in North East England. His books include Red Letter Days, a history of British political fiction of the 1930s. Other books written or edited by Croft include Out of the Old Earth, A Weapon in the Struggle, Selected Poems of Randall Swingler, After the Party, A Creative Approach to Teaching Rhythm and Rhyme, Forty-six Quid and a Bag of Dirty Washing, Bare Freedom and The Privatisation of Poetry. He has written seven novels and 42 books for teenagers, mostly about football.

Croft's writing residencies include the Hartlepool Headland, the Great North Run, the Southwell Poetry Festival, the Combe Down Stone Mines Project, HMP Holme House and HMP South Yorkshire. He has given many poetry readings, including readings in Paris, Moscow, Potsdam, Sofia, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, New York, Basra and London's Poetry International. He ran the Writearound Community Writing Festival in Cleveland, the T-junction International Poetry Festival in Middlesbrough, the Ripon Poetry Festival and Smokestack Books. From 2004 to 2022, he was poetry editor at the Morning Star.

Biography

Andy Croft was born in 1956 in Cheshire, in North-West England. In 1983, he moved to the North-East to teach in adult education and community writing projects.

Croft has run literary initiatives such as the Writearound Community Writing Festival in Cleveland from 1989 to 2000, the T-junction International Poetry Festival in Middlesbrough (2014–2018) and the Ripon Poetry Festival (2017–2024). From 2004 to 2022, he wrote a monthly poetry column in the Morning Star newspaper.

Smokestack Books

Croft set up Smokestack Books in 2004, "with the aim of publishing poets a long way from the centres of cultural authority, especially oppositional, dissident, unfashionable and radical poets." The company went on to publish more than 230 titles and sold in excess of 65,000 copies, with Smokestack Books authors including Michael Rosen, John Berger, Sylvia Pankhurst, Vernon Scannell, Linda France and Kate Fox, in addition to lesser known writers. Croft announced in a letter to PN Review his decision to cease publishing Smokestack Books in 2024, stating: "After twenty years of running Smokestack unfunded, unpaid and single-handed, I have run out of good reasons to remain even on the margins of the uncomradely, uncongenial and frankly embarrassing world of contemporary British poetry."

Bibliography

Collections of poetry

  • Nowhere Special (1996)
  • Gaps Between Hills: Photographs (1996), with Mark Robinson and Dermot Blackburn
  • Great North: A Poem of the Great North Run (2001)
  • Just as Blue (2009)
  • Comrade Laughter (2004)
  • The Ghost Writer: A Novel in Verse (2008)
  • Sticky (2009)
  • Three Men on the Metro (2009), with W. N. Herbert and Paul Summers
  • 1948: A Novel in Verse (2012) with illustrations by Martin Rowson
  • Letters to Randall Swingler (2017)
  • The Sailors of Ulm (2020)

Anthologies of poetry

  • Red Sky at Night: An anthology of British Socialist Poetry (2003), edited with Adrian Mitchell
  • North by North East: the region's contemporary poetry (2006), with Cynthia Fuller
  • Not Just a Game: an anthology of sporting poems (2006), with Sue Dymoke
  • Speaking English: Poems for John Lucas (2007)
  • The Night Shift (2010), with Michael Baron and Jenny Swann
  • Everything Flows: A Celebration of the Transporter Bridge in Poetry (2012)
  • A Modern Don Juan: Cantos for these Times by Divers Hands (2015), with Nigel Thompson
  • Release the Sausages! Poems for Keir Starmer (2025)
  • All in the Same Boat: an anthology of anti-Fascist poetry (2026) with Francis Combes

Other publications

  • smoke! an historical pageant (2004, Mudfog) – commissioned as part of the 150th anniversary of Middlesbrough.
  • Comrade Heart: A Life of Randall Swingler (2003), revised 2020 as The Years of Anger
  • A Creative Approach to Teaching Rhythm and Rhyme (2015)
  • The Privatisation of Poetry (Broken Sleep Books, 2024), ISBN 978-1-916938-67-0


References

  1. 1 2 3 "About the Contributors", in Edward J. Carvalho (ed.), Acknowledged Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín Espada. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, ISBN 1611476429 (pp. 333–4).
  2. ↑ Hilliard, Christopher, To Exercise Our Talents, Harvard University Press, 2006, ISBN 0674021770 (p. 322).
  3. ↑ "About Smokestack Books". smokestack-books.co.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "Andy Croft - Writer | Biographical Stuff". andy-croft.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Andy Croft UK". Arc Publications. 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 "Torriano Poetry: Andy Croft". 4 October 2026. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  7. 1 2 Raynard, Peter (19 December 2024). "The End of Smokestack Books". Culture Matters. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  8. ↑ Green, John (28 October 2024). "Poetry that does not ignore people". Morning Star. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  9. ↑ Banister, Calum (4 January 2025). "Celebration for Teesside poet and publisher Andy Croft". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  10. ↑ Smokestack Books at andy-croft.co.uk.
  11. ↑ Croft, Andy (1996). Nowhere special. Newcastle upon Tyne: Flambard. ISBN 9781873226223. OCLC 35831270.
  12. ↑ Blackburn, Dermot; Croft, Andy; Robinson, Mark (1996). Gaps between hills: photographs. Stockton-on-Tees: Scratch. ISBN 9781897698105. OCLC 51762227.
  13. ↑ Croft, Andy (2001). Great north: a poem of the Great North Run. North Shields: Iron Press. ISBN 9780906228890. OCLC 47357114.
  14. ↑ Croft, Andy (2001). Just as blue. Hexham: Flambard. ISBN 9781873226445. OCLC 46601263.
  15. ↑ Croft, Andy (2004). Comrade laughter. Hexham: Flambard. ISBN 9781873226667. OCLC 645826078.
  16. ↑ Croft, Andy (2008). The ghost writer: a novel in verse. Nottingham: Five Leaves. ISBN 9781905512386. OCLC 173720902.
  17. ↑ Croft, Andy (2009). Sticky. Newcastle upon Tyne: Flambard Press. ISBN 9781906601058. OCLC 837904537.
  18. ↑ Croft, Andy; Herbert, W. N.; Summers, Paul (2009). Three men on the metro. Nottingham: Five Leaves Pub. ISBN 9781905512843. OCLC 837028493.
  19. ↑ Croft, Andy; Rowson, Martin (2012). 1948: a novel in verse. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 9781907869327. OCLC 793217371.
  20. ↑ Croft, Andy (2017). Letters to Randall Swingler. Shoestring Press. ISBN 9781910323847. OCLC 1000037797.
  21. ↑ Croft, Andy; Mitchell, Adrian (2003). Red sky at night: an anthology of British socialist poetry. Nottingham: Five Leaves. ISBN 9780907123491. OCLC 51622309.
  22. ↑ Fuller, Cynthia; Croft, Andy (2006). North by north-east: the region's contemporary poetry. Cullercoats, Northumberland: Iron Press. ISBN 9780906228937. OCLC 212204375.
  23. ↑ Croft, Andy; Dymoke, Sue (2006). Not just a game: an anthology of sporting poems. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 9781905512133. OCLC 85824026.
  24. ↑ Croft, Andy (2007). Speaking English: poems for John Lucas. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 9781905512126. OCLC 154708360.
  25. ↑ Baron, Michael; Croft, Andy; Swann, Jenny (2010). The night shift. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 9781905512584. OCLC 244314996.
  26. ↑ Croft, Andy (2012). Everything flows: a celebration of the transporter bridge in poetry. Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough Borough Council. ISBN 9780860830924. OCLC 858967262.
  27. ↑ Croft, Andy; Thompson, N. S.; Byron, George Gordon Byron (2015). A modern Don Juan: Cantos for these times by Divers Hands. Five Leaves. ISBN 9781910170045. OCLC 1062202730.
  28. ↑ Croft, Andy (2004). Smoke!. Place of publication not identified: Mudfog. ISBN 9781899503612. OCLC 947067829.
  29. ↑ "Andy Croft - The Privatisation of Poetry". Broken Sleep Books.
  30. ↑ Moss, Nick (30 January 2025). "No Them Only Us: Review Of 'The Privatisation Of Poetry' By Andy Croft, Broken Sleep Books 2024". Retrieved 12 October 2026.