Saturday was our penultimate workshop with Mimi Khalvati before the summer-autumn break. (By the way I realise the title of this post could be read as a pun -‘ on form’, geddit?? Um, sorry…) This month, several of us got pulled up for the chosen form of our poems. Classic Mimi comments often sound likeRead more ⟶
Month: April 2013
Two poems by Rebecca Varley-Winter
Ah, nature. We’re very lucky in Lewes to be nestled into the South Downs, with beautiful views of rolling hills round every corner. With that in mind here’s something nice for the weekend. A lovely poem in Obsessed with Pipework called ‘Clouds’ caught my attention and I tracked down the poet, Rebecca Varley-Winter, who kindlyRead more ⟶
George Szirtes workshop in Swindon
The sun was shining, it was a great day for a drive and even the M25 was a breeze. So my trip yesterday to Swindon was relaxing from the start. Actually I say ‘Swindon’ but the workshop was at the Richard Jefferies Museum which turned out to be a short hop from the M4, soRead more ⟶
Ty Newydd excitement & friends’ news
What’s been your experience of writers’ residential courses? I’ve heard many good things from friends who’ve done an Arvon course or similar. The idea of a few days holed up in seclusion with time and space to focus on writing does seem like a wonderful luxury. I created my own ‘retreat’ a couple of yearsRead more ⟶
Submissions: this week’s yays and nays
Oh OK I might as well admit it – there are no new YAYs to report. But issue 62 of ‘Obsessed with Pipework’ arrived, including my poem ‘Calamity’ which just crept in at the back. It’s a bit of a weird one (the poem that is) and I’m grateful that Charles Johnson at ‘Obsessed’ hasRead more ⟶
Exploring new territory, one poet at a time
I’m a big fan of Dan Blank, founder of We Grow Media. Dan’s mission is to help writers build their online platform, not by blasting out marketing messages from twitter or facebook, but by growing your audience ‘one reader at a time.’ I was thinking of this maxim recently when I was contemplating American poetry.Read more ⟶
It’s been a while
I haven’t posted for over a week, mainly because we went away on holiday, although we came home early as my mother sadly took very poorly and passed away on Monday. I wasn’t sure if I would say anything about it publicly like this, but I wanted to explain the silence and I prefer justRead more ⟶