As usual I’m a bit late to the party on a few things, namely Ocean Vuong, whose Forward-winning collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Cape) I haven’t yet read, but I was fascinated by yesterday’s Guardian profile of him and this video of him reading was just so compelling I had to stop drinking myRead more ⟶
Category: Books
Eyewear Anthology launch & a scary flashback
This one is dedicated to my good friend Lucy, who often comes with me to London poetry readings. I’ve taken her to standing-room only upstairs rooms in Victorian pubs, damp basements that turn into saunas in the summer, corners of (yet more) pubs where poets compete with the steady traffic to/from the gents, drunk hilarity fromRead more ⟶
On staying motivated
It’s one of those tricky periods right now. The poetry honeymoon is well and truly over. I’m existing on a handful of acceptances (for which I am humbly grateful). I’m surrounded by talented, prolific poets who all seem to be successful and getting noticed while I seem to be not writing anything that people wantRead more ⟶
TS Eliot Prize – workshop & readings
Katy Evans-Bush‘s TS Eliot shortlist workshop is fast becoming an institution. Now in its sixth year, it’s a fine precursor to the Prize readings which take place the following day, and the prize giving itself the day after that. The format is straightforward – Katy reads the ten shortlisted books, chooses from them a numberRead more ⟶
Recent reading: ‘Home Front’, new poetry from Bloodaxe
An interesting book came my way from Bloodaxe recently – a book of books, you might call it, or perhaps an anthology of collections. Home Front features four collections (each by a different poet, three of whom were unfamiliar to me) on the theme of war, specifically the experience of wives, lovers and mothers when their lovedRead more ⟶
Charlotte Gann book launch
It’s always a joy to hear poet friend Charlotte giving a reading. There’s a weight to her voice, a rootedness … it’s hard to explain what I mean. There’s no act, no funny stuff. She presents her poems simply, and they just seem to appear in the room – completely in the proper place – like great treesRead more ⟶
Launch of ‘The Skin Diary’ by Abegail Morley
What a privilege it is to be asked to read at a friend’s book launch. Abegail Morley has been something of a mentor to me, always generous in her support. She is a genuinely unselfish in her helping of other poets, and always interested in collaborations or new ideas. She’s also a prolific writer – in the timeRead more ⟶
What I’ve been reading… Kei Miller’s ‘Cartographer’
At the library I recently picked up Kei Miller’s The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet 2014), and it proved to be one of those books you start reading and can’t put down till you get to the end. I’ve folded back so many corners of pages, to mark the poems IRead more ⟶
Bare Fiction, Marion Tracy’s new book & other news
It’s gone a bit quiet here as I’ve been preoccupied with all sorts of things – our new flat is taking shape, so I’ve been spending time choosing paint colours, painting, filling, putting putty into windows and all kinds of decorating jobs. There are tons of boxes all over the place, and the thing youRead more ⟶
Andrew McMillan’s ‘Physical’
Even though we have NO bookshelves at the moment and about 40 boxes of books we can’t unpack, I had a bit of a poetry book-buying splurge lately (this – AND even though I’ve just taken out two poetry books from the library, having discovered the poetry section at Eastbourne Library isn’t too shabby). AndRead more ⟶