5 Islands Press: Ron Pretty's Legacy
Five Islands Press was founded in 1986 by revered poet and teacher, Ron Pretty, with the help of some fellow poets. Named for the five islands off Port Kembla, where Ron lived and wrote, Five Islands Press has published many of Australia’s finest poets. When Ron stepped back from active involvement with the press in 2007, the fine publishing tradition that he established was continued for over a decade by his successors, with the Press publishing a further 44 books by emerging and established poets before announcing, in 2018, that it would cease publishing new work.
These was a real possibility that the Press would close, but it was kept afloat by Dr Gareth Jenkins, Managing Editor of Apothecary Archive, who managed the Press from 2020 to 2023. Gareth assembled a wealth of material on history of the Press (which you can view on our archival site by clicking here) but did not have the resources to publish many new books.
Following Ron's death in 2023, Mark Tredinnick and Steve Meyrick conceived the idea of relaunching the Press as an active publisher, and Gareth agreed to hand responsibility for the future of the Press over to a new not-for-profit company that Mark and Steve established for this purpose, Oystercatcher Enterprises Ltd.
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If you would like to know more about the venerable history of the Press, visit our archive site.
Our purpose
We intend to publish at the press an exciting range of new titles, the best lyric work of our best writers, poetry that is timeless and timely, intelligent and intelligible, beautiful and urgent, poetry that is both accomplished and accessible to audiences well beyond the poetry specialists who are most of the readers of new poetry at present.
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Our aims are close to those that Ron Pretty spent his life promoting. In his own poetry, in his writings on the craft, in his teaching and mentoring and, importantly through Five Islands Press, Ron wanted to make poetry that took people deeper into their daily lives and minds. And he wanted that poetry to reach readers who might not otherwise read it. So, in responding to what we see as the urgent need for more poetry publishing in Australia—especially of lyric poetry, poetry of wisdom and accomplishment and craft—it seemed sensible to carry on what Ron began, to revive a revered press he founded and, with others like Kevin Brophy, built into the most respected poetry press of its day.
