For centuries their sonnets and sestinas have been consistently overlooked by the mainstream.

Despite the efforts of Sylvia Plath, Christina Rossetti and Stevie Smith, the world of poetry remains markedly male-dominated.

But a new generation of female poets is helping to make a mark on the major publishing houses.

At the forefront of the revolution are friends Jackie Wills and Catherine Smith.

The Sussex pair have been ranked among the ten best new British female poets by an influential writers' magazine.

In its latest edition, Mslexia asked three eminent women wordsmiths to assess the cream of the new poetic crop.

Editor Debbie Taylor said: "We asked every poetry publisher in the country to submit books they have brought out in the past ten years by women.

"There's a definite movement of women coming into poetry.

"The people who run publishing companies are individuals who love poetry.

"But generally they're men and they publish what they like, which seems to be almost entirely by men.

"Because men have pushed themselves forward for generations they completely dominate the genre, even though women are twice as likely to write poetry and are the main buyers of poetry."

Jackie, who lives off Lewes Road, Brighton, said: "I think this is great.

"Anything that promotes poetry is good because it doesn't have a high profile compared with other art forms.

"My first book came out in 1995, although I was trying to get work published for five to seven years before that.

"I'm now a full-time poet, more or less.

"I'm inspired by people and places. Sometimes I have commissions so I will write with a theme or an idea.

"In my most recent book there's a sequence of poems about a trip to South Africa and another about Shoreham airport, where I did a residency."

Jackie's collection Fever Tree was shortlisted from more than 80 nominations by Mslexia judges.

According to the panel she "takes on big issues in a personal way".

The 49-year-old lives with her partner and two children aged nine and 11.

She said: "I was a journalist for a long time and worked on a local paper in Guildford. I then went to a news agency in Reading.

"It was hard work and commuting was gruelling but my one treat was going to a poetry course in Bracknell between the two. I moved to Brighton 15 years ago from Guildford, mainly because it was cheap. But it has that free-spirited feel."

Besides producing her own work, Jackie also came up with the name of Catherine's anthology The Butcher's Hands.

Catherine, 42, said: "A lot of poems are about rooms and metaphorical rooms but I really struggled with a title.

"I was talking to Jackie about it and she asked what I was writing at that moment.

"I said I was writing about my butcher and I was interested in his hands. She said that was my title.

"When I finished the collection I realised there were lots of body parts, hands and feet in it. It's not always conscious but right through it is littered with references."

Catherine, who lives in Lewes with her husband and two sons, started writing poetry when she was very young.

She said: "I was one of those precocious kids and had my first poem published when I was seven in Teachers' World after my teacher sent it in.

"I was highly commended in a Daily Mail children's literary award and had a few angst-ridden, teenage spot poems published.

"But after university I did not write anything of my own for years.

"I started again seven or eight years ago, doing an MA at Sussex University. I was really doing the course to write short fiction but decided to take poetry as my second option."

Her work has been described as "crisp, contemporary and subversive" and "rather macabre and shocking but funny too".

Catherine found out she was among Mslexia's top ten just before Christmas.

She said: "I was shocked and delighted."