Penguin is reviving its Modern Poets series with the first of its new volumes called If I'm Scared We Can't Win, featuring Anne Carson, Emily Berry, and Sophie Collins.

In the 1960-70s the Penguin Modern Poets series assembled groups of writers including the Mersey poets, with the aim of introducing contemporary poetry to the general reader. It was revived in the 1990s for three years during which Penguin teamed up writers including Simon Armitage, Sean O’Brien and Tony Harrison, and Carol Ann Duffy, Vicki Feaver and Eavan Boland.

The first of the new collections will be launched at the end of July, and the aim will be to publish a new poetry collection every three months.

The second volume will comprise Kansas-born Michael Robbins, Patricia Lockwood from Indiana, and Brighton-based writer Timothy Thornton, who is also a composer and pianist. The third will highlight the work of Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, plus Sharon Olds and Malika Booker.

Penguin's Mersey Sound anthology in its original Modern Poets series, featuring Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, and Brian Patten, has sold over 500,000 copies and is one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all time.  

Penguin’s poetry editor, Donald Futers, said: "There’s a strong case for our finding ourselves right now in a golden age for poetry. Between creative writing programmes, an abundance of new publications, the ever-growing popularity of spoken word and performance poetry – think of Kate Tempest, or Warsan Shire – and a new generation made unprecedentedly available to one other across national boundaries by the internet, … poetry capable of speaking deeply to, challenging, and exciting its readers is being written on a staggering scale.

“The time is ripe for this revival of the Penguin Modern Poets: affordable, desirable, high-quality introductions to the best of contemporary poetry, both familiar and unfamiliar. Readers only need a hand extended to them, and an opened door – and the trusted Penguin brand places us in an ideal position to offer both.”

Tom Etherington has designed the books, the spines of which will form a rainbow on the shelf. He said: "The design of the Modern Poets strikes a balance between the reductive simplicity synonymous with Penguin covers and a friendly colourful feel that reflects the series’ ambition to be poetry that can be enjoyed by everybody.”