I was asked yesterday ‘how’s the writing going?’ which is always an interesting one to answer. First you have to gauge if it’s a genuine enquiry, or a generic ‘how’s things?’ A non-writer friend probably doesn’t want to hear a long moan about rejections. But submissions, and in particular rejections, is one of the unavoidable andRead more ⟶
Category: Bloggers
Back from Swindon Poetry Fe(a)st
I must stop trying too hard with blog post titles. What’s with the ‘fest’/’feast’ thing? Stop me, somebody. Anyway, I’m now musing on a weekend in Swindon, not a place I’ve ever had strong feelings about, I confess, but clearly a place where poets settle and are proud of. The indefatigable Hilda Sheehan and herRead more ⟶
Poets’ blogs – some recent finds
It’s been a while since one of my ‘three great blogs’ roundups, usually on a theme. The last couple of months I feel like I’ve lived and breathed writers’ blogs, and the experience has reminded me yet again how many great and well-established blogs still haven’t hit my radar. Even more so when I readRead more ⟶
On blogging, writing and giving myself time
Yesterday was the first session of a ‘Build your social web presence’ course I’m teaching at New Writing South, and the common question of how does one find the time to blog came up. Fellow bloggers, how would you answer this? Do you set time aside to blog, or just fit it in when youRead more ⟶
‘My Writing Process’ Blog Tour
Morning! It’s time for a little blog tour… the lovely Jayne Stanton invited me to take part in the ‘My Writing Process’ tour (or ‘meme’ in internet parlance). There must have been thousands of writers already taken the tour. The idea is to answer the same four set questions, then to nominate three more writers toRead more ⟶
Three more interesting blog discoveries
Greetings from the Sick Bay. I’ve been a bit quiet this last week due to a touch of flu (mostly) and the advent of one or two new projects (partly). More on the projects soon. Meanwhile this is the latest in a series of ‘interesting poetry-related blogs I’ve recently come across’ posts. Trying to stickRead more ⟶
Where blogging fits into the writing week
How does your writing week look? Mine can typically include things like blog posts a client email newsletter a lot of emails (sent and replied to) poetry writing/redrafting/editing commenting on blogs client work: proposals, meeting reports, web or brochure copy, etc an email newsletter for one of my groups (poetry or singing) a guest piece forRead more ⟶
Two exciting discoveries (new to me, anyway!)
There I was, just noodling about on the internet, when what should I find but not only a wonderful blog and poetry resource but also a poet who I’d never heard of but whose work immediately excited me. First of all, thanks to a Facebook update by Antiphon magazine* I followed a link to anRead more ⟶
The year that was, plus a T S Eliot Prize-themed workshop
So many good end-of-year review-type blog posts in the last week or so. A few I particularly enjoyed: Anthony Wilson’s ‘Most read life-saving poems in 2013’ which gave me a chance to catch up on some I’d missed, in particular U A Fanthorpe’s Atlas and Derek Mahon’s Everything is going to be all right. JosephineRead more ⟶
End of year thank yous, submissions news, plans
Happy Holidays (or non-denominational winter festival, etc). Wouldn’t it be great to end the year on a ‘good news’ note? You know – I’ve suddenly been snapped up by Faber, or something – but I’ve nothing exciting to report on the submissions front, sadly: yet another no from Ambit, and a very swift no fromRead more ⟶