Aren’t we lucky in Lewes? A bona fide A-list poet comes down here from London each month to offer her wisdom and help us improve our writing. And I am finally in! After a year or so of champing at the bit I now have a place, and enjoyed my first ‘official’ workshop on SaturdayRead more ⟶
Please do not put me on after 9.30pm
The autumn poetry scene has swung into action. On Wednesday evening Clare Best hosted an evening of readings at the Needlemakers – something enjoyable from all the readers, a good mix including Jackie Wills, John Davies and Clare herself. I enjoyed it all but I do tend to very suddenly have a concentration crash atRead more ⟶
Rejected but not cowed
Oh well … I kind of suspected that the stuff I sent to Poetry London wasn’t going to blow Colette Brice’s socks off. So another sad little SAE plops on my doormat, tell-tale thin. Must do better! Never mind, I shall blow the dust off, maybe do a little tweaking before trying them elsewhere. (IRead more ⟶
Brighton Pecha Kucha Night
Last Friday I was one of the presenters at Pecha Kucha Night at the Lighthouse in Brighton. If you’re not familiar with what it’s all about: Pecha Kucha (or PK for short, let’s say) apparently approximates to the Japanese for ‘chit chat’, and it was devised by a firm of american architects based in Japan, whoRead more ⟶
Close encounter
So there I was yesterday lunchtime getting on a tube at Oxford Circus on my way to Victoria and home, when I overhear the words ‘Rialto’ and ‘RSPB’ in the conversation to my right. Then, as one of the men in the group turned around I saw his luggage tag with what looked like aRead more ⟶
Smith, McCullough, Curtis, Lasky at the Red Roaster
Lovely evening last week at the Red Roaster in Brighton, for the launch of Abi Curtis’s new collection The GlassDelusion. Not too crowded, some familiar faces and a really nice selection of work being read. I’ve a soft spot for Abi ever since she and I were involved with the University of Sussex ‘Poetry Soc’Read more ⟶
Upcoming poetry events in Lewes, Brighton & Seaford…
Very pleased to be invited by Tom Roper to be one of the poets reading at Seaford Live this year on September 12th. Last year I did the open mic. It’s an intimate venue – the Crypt Gallery – rather lends itself to ghost stories or something creepy. I’ll see what I can conjour up…Read more ⟶
Writing musings/ submissions etc
I’ve been grabbing the odd hour here and there to write while my other half watches the cricket highlights each day. I need to submit some new stuff, so I need to write some new stuff. I’ve tentatively been trying to come up with something ‘humorous’ for the Moss Rich Prize. Yes I know I’veRead more ⟶
Out now – The Rialto 75
The Rialto: bedside reading for this week at least. Very proud that I have a poem in it on page 50. The Last They’ve been coming since posters were invented: sometimes in dreams, to the tipping of cowboy hats or dressed in Liverpool shirts. Each one appeared in my diary, in code. My mother wouldn’tRead more ⟶
Summer holiday – some beautiful places we’ve been
The video of the bees going about their buzzi-ness, the manor house and the waterlilies were taken at Great Chalfield in Wiltshire, an absolutely idyllic National Trust property (hard to find and blissfully free of hordes of visitors). The pic of the large pot was taken in the Orangery at Dyrham Park. The other twoRead more ⟶