Dedicated to poetry since 1979, The Poetry Bookshop Hay offers the most comprehensive selection of secondhand and antiquarian poetry available for sale in the UK. For nearly half a century, collectors, writers, and poetry lovers have travelled from all over the world to experience the rare pleasure of standing in a room entirely devoted to poetry.
Our latest incarnation is a light, beautifully appointed shop in a busy corner of Hay‑on‑Wye, where readings can be seen to be heard and where browsing becomes a kind of pilgrimage. For the first time since Anne Stevenson and Michael Farley’s “madcap idea” of opening the shop in the 1970s, we are once again offering a curated selection of new poetry titles alongside our extensive secondhand and rare stock.
We hope this website allows you to enjoy something of that experience — a virtual visit to a specialist bookshop whose survival is, for many, a triumph of genuine cultural significance in these turbulent times.
What Writers Say About Us
“Wickedly tempting” — Jon Stallworthy
“There’s nowhere like it” — Wendy Cope
“The Antabuse isn’t working” — Geoffrey Hill, on entering the poetry bookshop hay for his second visit on consecutive days
“THE bookshop for poetry enthusiasts… I’ve lost entire afternoons among the shelves.” — Caroline Hamish, The Guardian
A Home for Rare and Antiquarian Poetry Collectors
Over the decades, The Poetry Bookshop has become a real poetry destination for readers and collectors. Our shelves are home to long‑out‑of‑print treasures, alongside signed editions, first editions and rare poetry collections that attract bibliophiles from across the UK and beyond. Whether you visit in person or explore our virtual shelves, we aim to offer a space where poetry is not only read but lived — a place where curiosity, conversation and the quiet joy of finding the right book still matter.
Whether you’re searching for:
- signed editions
- first editions
- out‑of‑print titles
- contemporary poetry
- rare and antiquarian volumes
…you’ll find one of the UK’s most distinctive and carefully curated poetry collections here.
Visit The Poetry Bookshop Hay on Wye
We are based in Hay on Wye, the world‑famous “Town of Books,” on the Welsh borders — a place where literature, landscape, and history meet.
