New book! With the UK poetry magazines submissions windows spreadsheet becoming so popular, I’ve decided to take it step further: a how-to booklet – everything you need to know about submitting to UK poetry mags – well, pretty much everything apart from how to write stunning poems – ha ha! I leave that kind of adviceRead more ⟶
Category: Books
Recent reading: Hugh Dunkerley & Antony Mair
OK, so July wasn’t a prolific blogging month for me but I did an awful lot of gardening (well, watering), singing (in Westminster Abbey, dontcha know) and (drumroll) reading – oh yeah and bit of writing too, but more about that in another post. I wanted to post up my thoughts on two books IRead more ⟶
Poems coming out, new anthology, currently reading etc
Intro/bit of a rant etc (skip this if you’d rather go straight to The Poetry stuff) Where has the month gone? (Rhetorical question.) Why am I being besieged by companies/organisations telling me I must re-subscribe to their emails? (Non-rhetorical question, although I think I know the answer – *some people* are spreading panic about newRead more ⟶
Busy busy… pamphlet launch, Telltale Anthology latest
It seems to be a busy time of year, both for poetry and for music. I’ve been busy promoting our Lewes Singers concerts this coming weekend in Eastbourne and Ringmer, as well as learning the music of course… it took an hour this morning to sort out the seating plans, making sure tall people weren’tRead more ⟶
The new pamphlet is here | launch details
Exciting times. My third pamphlet (counting ‘Foot Wear‘ as one) All the Relevant Gods is here. A box of copies arrived last week, so now I have to go about emptying it! There are reviews to solicit, copies to send out, readings to secure – I already have readings confirmed for Needlewriters Lewes in April, plus ReadingRead more ⟶
TS Eliot readings, Needlewriters, some crazy January stuff
Hardly seems like a week ago that Peter Kenny and I dared travel to London’s Southbank for the annual T S Eliot Prize readings. Eschewing the very unreliable train service, I elected to drive, as I’ve done for the past few years, only to find the M23 (the main road to London from these parts)Read more ⟶
Launch of ‘Coast to Coast to Coast’ issue 2
I’m back from an (almost) flying trip to Liverpool, a city about 300 miles north of where I live, for a five minute poetry reading – crazy or what? Except I wasn’t the only ‘poetry tourist’ there, and no wonder, as we were there for the launch of no ordinary magazine. Edited by Maria IsakovaRead more ⟶
Loose Muse & other news
Sorry about the title of this post – no, wait – never apologise! As I wrote it I was thinking ‘Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grump’ – aka the fireman in Trumpton. I’ve probably got the names a bit wrong but that’s how I remember chanting them as a child. An early poetic influence..?Read more ⟶
Foot Wear – a handmade mini-pamphlet
So there I was with a handful of poems from my ill-fated ‘Business Class’ collection that couldn’t find a home. What to do? I started thinking about the themes: workplace tensions, multicultural office environments, illicit relationships, anomie…and shoes! Why hadn’t I thought of it before? I was working in the sports shoe industry. And IRead more ⟶
Readings, diagram poems and towards a new handmade pamphlet…
Oh dear, looks like it’s been a while since my last post – there’s been a lot going on, including a birthday (and all the stock-taking and reassessing that brings),a reading at the swish new Poetry Cafe in London, and the making of a new pamphlet. Plus the clocks have gone back, we’ve put theRead more ⟶