Three New Marvellous Things

A new anthology

A lovely anthology just came through the post – The Sea, The Sea – A Portrait of the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast published by Waterland Books. It’s an ambitious project, edited by Cameron Self, with an introduction by Kevin Gardner. There are contributions from more than thirty poets, alongside intriguing photographs by Stephen Hyatt-Cross – here a seascape, here a shopfront, there the detail of a carved figure on a misericord. At over 130 pages and B5 sized, it’s a beautiful thing. I was delighted to contribute my poem about Orford Ness. I felt a bit of a fraud since I don’t live in the area at all – when Cam asked if I had a second poem, I could have sent him quite a few about the Sussex coast but they would have been too location-specific.

Actually, though, as I’ve engaged with the book it has made me think about early childhood holidays to Norfolk, images of which are still embedded in my memory: looking out the kitchen window from our holiday bungalow onto a field of corn that seemed to stretch to the horizon, and the excitement of seeing a combine harvester making its way across, a partly-abandoned swimming pool which we played in though it was full of bits of wood and other foreign objects, and most of all a road we walked along, past shops selling buckets, windmills, postcards etc which gradually became beach as it disappeared into sand. Several times since I’ve tried to find that road but never have.

The Sea, The Sea has a launch event coming up at the Slice & Dice cafe in Norwich on April 27th which I’m hoping to be at (and finally meet Helen Ivory face to face!)

A new(ish) magazine

Also in the post has come the first issue of a new poetry magazine – although to be more accurate, it’s the first of a new series of the magazine. It’s called Outposts, and it’s been resurrected by Clare Morris, who tells us in the introduction that it was first published in 1944 by Howard Sergeant, continuing until his death in 1987. Roland John then took over the editorship but the magazine closed in 1995. I feel I know the name ‘Outposts’ but this was before my time in poetry terms.

Clare has done a wonderful job, not least of all in her selection of poems which had me reading right through in one go. I also enjoyed her modest and personable Editorial (“I am indebted to all those who responded to my call with an alacrity I wish I could apply to household chores” !) Worth supporting  – I understand it doesn’t have a fixed publication schedule but at only £5 an issue (including UK P&P) it’s a modest outlay.

A new poets’ guide to getting published

Oh what can I say except I’m so pleased this is nearly ready to go to print. It’s the update to my previous ‘Guide to getting published in UK poetry magazines’ from 2018/2020. I’m sure I’ve been wittering on about this for ages but it has finally taken shape. I don’t remember the previous iterations being this hard. (I would say it’s been like pulling teeth, although having recently had two teeth pulled I can testify that the teeth-thing is a lot quicker.)

I’ve ummed and aahhed about whether to make it a print edition, because my first idea was an ebook ( I could include more content, avoid the pain of sending a physical object in the post, and all the links would be clickable). But after much thought and discsussion I’ve decided to go with a physical booklet. Then I can sell it at readings or whatever. And it’s easily made into an ebook version at a later date if there’s a demand.

So anyway, it’s bigger than before – I’ve updated all the ‘how to submit poems to magazines’ advice and expanded into a section on competitions, another on ‘next steps – how to get your pamphlet published’, including a section on pamphlet publishing. The magazines directory is bigger and I’ve included a selection of pamphlet publishers.  Best of all I’ve got a lovely bunch of editors and experienced submitter poets to contribute their tips and experience. NOW all I have to do is sell the darn thang! Watch out, you will be hearing from me.