Category: Mags & Blogs

Angst/

Readings, giving myself a talking-to and some early Spring cleaning

Actually January was pretty good overall. Not for the pelargoniums in the garden that have been reduced to a frostbitten mess. But our goldfish Brahms and Liszt have both been spotted alive and well so the cold snaps haven’t done for them yet. Also I’ve been illness-free (write it!) and the collection is coming along.

This time last week I was in London at the very characterful Club for Acts and Actors for Red Door Poets’ winter party, reading with Simon Madrell, Red Door Poets including Mary Mulholland and a host of excellent open-mic-ers. I was invited by Gillie Robic, and it was a delight to meet up with poet friends I haven’t seen in a while, including Jill Abram, Hilaire, Mary Allen, Chaucer Cameron, Helen Dewbery, Tom Cunliffe, and fellow Live Canon ‘pamphleteer’ Katie Griffiths. It’s really put me in the mood for more readings, which is lucky because I have a few lined up for later in the year when the book is out.

A few weeks ago was the Needlewriters in Lewes and it was so good to hear Clare Best and Jeremy Page read, plus meeting up with my Lewes-area poet mates. These poetry events are very cockle-warming I find, especially at this time of year when I really need to get out and beat the cold weather and dark evenings.

Luckily February always brings lovely things in this household – a birthday, a wedding anniversary and the promise of Spring in the offing. I’ve already been spring-cleaning my poetry folders, and feeling rather humbled as regards my poor submissions habit. I seem to have a reputation as a submissions queen, because of my spreadsheet. But there’s that expression ‘physician heal thyself’ (where the heck does that come from?). A number of people have accosted me recently to ask about magazine submissions, and I’ve had to admit I haven’t submitted anything much for ages. Why? I suppose it’s partly because I feel there are so many up and coming poets whose work is appearing everywhere, I’m feeling my work might be a bit ‘has been’. But I know that’s stupid really, because for all the ‘fast fashion’ that exists in the poetry world, decent writing is still appreciated. Plus, my first collection is about to launch, so this is no time to wallow in self-flagellation. I guess I’m making excuses for being a bit lazy. Having Sharon Black of  Pindrop Press critique my poems for the collection, in great detail, has given me a bit of a kick up the bum I suppose. As a result, I’ve pulled together all the poems I’ve written over the last few years that I’ve abandoned, sometimes after multiple failed submissions, others that I just lost interest in too soon, and have them now all in a  2025 folder ‘to be worked up’. There are over seventy poems or proto-poems in that folder. I picked one out randomly and (without planning to) spent a whole day playing with it. I have plenty of material to revisit!

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How the collection is going, and other news

Foyle Young Poets 24

People are asking me about the poetry collection forthcoming from Pindrop Press. Well, it’s a long way off yet. Sharon Black at Pindrop does a marvellous job of publishing and promoting poets, but being an editor as well as a publisher, it’s been a busy time for her. So although The Mayday Diaries is still forthcoming, it won’t be in my hands for a few more months yet. I’ve been fiddling with the manuscript, of course: there are some poems I’d like to drop, others I’d like to insert. Others have changed. I’m playing with different subheadings to the sections. None of this I’ve discussed yet with Sharon, but I’m looking forward to her creative input and editing skills.

Meanwhile, since I sold the last of my limited-edition Foot Wear, I’m now itching to make another mini pamphlet along similar lines, although this time completely handmade. Foot Wear had a printed cover so this time I’ve got something more quirky in mind.

We didn’t get the DYCP grant for Planet Poetry. ‘Other applications preferred.’ Not unexpected, but still a blow. Still, our first two episodes of Season 5 are up – Danez Smith and Isabel Galleymore – both definitely worth a listen if you haven’t already. In the latter, I read a poem by Indy Moon who was one of the Foyle Young Poets winners this year. I went to the awards celebration at the British Library last month and it was a lovely celebratory event.  Indy is one of many names to watch out for in the future. (Pictured here is Judith Palmer of the Poetry Society kicking things off.)

Oh, and I’ve got a poem forthcoming in Flights e-journal, which is part of the publishing arm of Flights of the Dragonfly, a spoken word night in Brighton.

Next up, Christmas? Our Lewes Singers concert on December 22nd has already clocked up 22 ticket sales! OK, let’s not start with the carols just yet.

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On National Poetry Day: getting autumnal, Medieval women, currently reading

medieval women exhibition at the British LIbrary

An blog update for National Poetry Day! To celebrate, not only have I just recorded an interview with the immensely talented Tishani Doshi for Planet Poetry, but this evening I’ll be at Hastings Stanza for some poem sharing and workshopping. All very fitting.

Everything’s cranking up now it’s the autumn: the publicity machine for various Christmas concerts, book projects, the podcast starting its fifth season, the garden to be tidied up (though the tomatoes keep coming)…

A week or two ago I was in Seaford reading poems mostly from the new collection (still forthcoming!), plus a couple from Foot Wear. I took with me the last five copies of Foot Wear and sold four, which means there’s only one left of the limited edition run. Not sure if it’s a left or a right foot, teehee. Perhaps I should auction it??

Meanwhile I was very excited to see there’s a forthcoming exhibition at the British Library called ‘Medieval Women: In their Own Words’ which has started me submitting my novel to another round of agents. Medieval women is a thing! Just look at Janina Ramirez on TV, and her brilliant book Femina. You may have guessed I’m a bit of a fangirl. Come on, lit agents: there’s a lot of interest in strong 14th century women!

In submissions news, I’ve had a bit of a dry summer as regards writing new poems, but I’m very pleased to have one in the new Frogmore Papers and another forthcoming in Black Nore Review on October 17th.

Currently reading: Ellen Cranitch’s new collection Crystal, and Tony Hoagland’s final collection Turn up the Ocean – the latter I picked up in the Poetry Book Shop in Hay on Wye in the summer. Both books are from Bloodaxe.

 

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New poem up at Ink, Sweat & Tears

I’m very pleased that Helen Ivory chose my poem ‘I’m looking through a lattice of magnolia’ for Ink, Sweat & Tears recently. It’s from my collection which is coming out later in the year from Pindrop Press.

The poem began when Nick and I spent the night of our wedding anniversary at Gravetye Manor in Sussex: wonderful, but very expensive. Our room was named ‘Magnolia’, for the lovely old tree outside the window.

I absolutely love the way magnolia is pretty much the first tree to blossom, at a time of the year when we’re all desperate for some life and colour in nature. But being early February we were just a little too early. The surrounding gardens and landscape had that barren, wintry look.

As it happened, my sister had recently died and her funeral was to be a few days later. I think the poem was a contemplation of this strange moment of extravagance, wishfulness and ‘vanitas’.

You can read the poem here.

 

Angst/

Keeping track of poetry magazines: getting down and dirty

I’ve just finished trawling through hundreds of poetry magazine websites. It’s my quarterly mission: to update the spreadsheet that I send out to a few thousand poets. Every time it seems to become more challenging: the process of pulling up-to-date information from a magazine’s web presence requires a kind of forensic mindset: never believe the first thing you read, never assume, always try to cross-check. And the first rule of all: ALWAYS SCROLL DOWN.

How it works (in theory)

First of all, as I have often said, I have every respect for poetry magazine editors. Theirs is a thankless task and many have been keeping their magazines going, year-in year-out, on a budget of zero. I have bookmarked the submissions pages of most of the magazines on my list, and about half of them are kept up-to-date with relevant information: we are open for submissions, or we are closed and our next submissions window will be x, that sort of thing. Or, our submissions process has changed, we’re now only open once a year in December, or whatever. Some lovely editors even email me with this information! I’ll stop there before I start welling up!

I try not to be complacent, as even those pages that appear unchanged for years might suddenly throw in some relevant new info down the bottom of the page, such as NOW ON HIATUS and it’s easy to miss it if you don’t, um, scroll down.

On Hiatus

During the pandemic years innumerable zines sprung up. Students on creative writing programmes started shiny new publications called something like “Burnt Toast” or “Crapshoot”. The majority have disappeared: if the domain name is now for sale, that’s a big clue. But often the website is still there, proclaiming ‘Issue 2 coming soon! Send us your poems!’ First of all I ask myself ‘are they open? But then I start to realise the zine is dead, and I feel kind of sorry for what happened to all that enthusiasm and ambition. ON HIATUS has come to be the standard phrase. I used to think it meant ‘we are taking a break but hoping/intending to return’, which it sometimes does. But more often than not it’s a way of saying GONE FOR GOOD. There shouldn’t be any shame in admitting a project has run its course, or real life got in the way. I’ve done that myself quite a few times. But here’s the dilemma: should I drop a publication from my list, and risk not hearing if it returns (because it wasn’t bad and actually it may have been around a while), or keep it on and expect people to trawl through the dead wood to find the magazines that actually exist?

Conflicting info

Consider this. Website says SUBS CLOSED, followed by a long description of what to send and ‘OPEN until [date]’.  Or, SUBS OPEN, followed by a long description of what to send and then SUBS CLOSED. Sometimes it looks open, but when you click onto their Submittable page, or webform, it says they are closed. The social account says CLOSED in the profile, OPEN in the feed.

So I don my detective hat. Are they open for flash but not poetry? Are they open for their annual competition, but not for general subs? Are they open for subs in the Scottish language only? Were they open for 24 hours only, and they haven’t had time to update their Submittable? Have they reached their Submittable limit for that month? Has someone tasked with updating the socials not been able to update the website, or didn’t realise the Profile needed updating or couldn’t figure out how to UNPIN a post? Did someone not SCROLL DOWN? (These are all real examples.)

What year is this again?

Now let’s say the website submissions page says SUBS OPEN UNTIL AUGUST 31st, and I think ‘great…. but I’ll just check they mean 2024.’ So I click around the website to see if there are any dates attached to news or blog posts (often there are not). I peer at various grainy images of ‘our latest launch’ to identify anyone I know – do they look considerably younger? Hmmm.  Or I investigate the ‘LATEST ISSUE: No.4’ for signs of recent life. This might mean checking their social feeds (often there are no link to these, so I have to type into Google [magazine name] +Twitter or whatever.) I get there, and pinned to their feed or in their profile it says SUBS CLOSED. Oh, but doesn’t the website say they’re open? I scroll through the feed and see ‘Issue no. 6 is here! WOOT!’ But that was in February 2023. (Of the mags I trawled though today, I would estimate that 9 out of 10 Twitter feeds have been dead since 2021.) But wait a minute – didn’t [poet name] tell me the other day that she had sometime coming out in this mag? Maybe they moved to Instagram or Medium or maybe they’ve got a LinkTree …? By which time I’m ready for another cup of tea. I might make a note to check the magazine next month, or to email or tweet the editor. I don’t do that very often though, because I tend to not get a reply.

So then I move onto the next mag. And the next. Why do it? I do enjoy the research element, and see it as a bit of a game, that way it doesn’t get too frustrating. The spreadsheet started off as a list for my own reference, although now I suppose it’s become a bit of a ‘thing’. I try subscribing to other magazine alert services but I can’t find anything more granular or up to date or relevant to my needs than this. Plenty of recipients tell me they find it useful, and/or make a donation on my BuyMeaCoffee page. So I’m not writing this as a plea for gratitude or sympathy. I actually enjoy getting my hands dirty in the world of poetry magazines submissions, and I love finding some real gems, even places where I might send my own work. I’ve made friends with editors along the way, but it’s definitely a service for poets rather than editors. I get a kick out of giving away something I’ve created for free. And as I say, I do the legwork, so others don’t have to.

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Subs, poddie, choirs & a greenhouse

Leiden

When you login to your blog and see there are 16 updates required it can only mean one thing  – it’s been a bit neglected! So here’s a somewhat belated update…

The podcast is nearing the end of its fourth season! When it comes to the home stretch Peter and I tend to get a bit exhausted, but the last couple of interviews of the season will be goodies and in July we’re going to try for an ACE DYCP grant. The chances of getting one are probably zero, but we have to try. Running the poddie isn’t cheap – we have two very kind regular supporters but would need about a hundred to cover our costs. Anyway, wish us luck.

I’ve also been doing some editing of the new collection, looking at where there might be holes and what I need to write to fill them. Which has led to more writing, and I’ve been submitting again after a hiatus. Despite a few rejections, I’m delighted to say there’s work forthcoming in The Frogmore Papers and Ink, Sweat & Tears, two of the longest-running poetry zines, still going after many years while so many others crash and burn. If running a magazine is anything like running a podcast I can empathise!

On the novel-writing front my medieval mystery hasn’t yet had any interest from agents, but a second book is in the planning stages and it’s quite different, so it will be fun to get stuck into that when the time feels right.

Meanwhile I’m just back from a short trip to the Netherlands with the Lewes Singers: great singing, very social and lovely to be in Leiden. But the awfulness of airports and flying is so depressing. Yes, we should have gone by train, but last time we did that the journey was a nightmare. It’s all a matter of luck I suppose.

Now I’ve got to finish my end of month submissions alert email. And next there’s the spreadsheet to update. It’s a good time to sign up if you haven’t already. Plus a programme to create for the East Sussex Community Choir’s Haydn concert on June 29th. Oh, and seedlings to pot on, tomatoes to worry over and courgettes to encourage.  Did I mention that Nick and I recently erected a little greenhouse, on the three hottest days of the year? The garden is calling…

robin builds a greenhouse

 

 

Angst/

And there goes February flying past… 

Eastbourne beach february 2024

This is not my favourite time of year I confess, although I love all the early signs of Spring – the first sunny days, the first buds, daffodils and birdsong. Just look how grand the beach looked the other day! We even had breakfast outside on Friday! But this month in particular I’ve been plagued by asthma. Struggling to swim, or jog, or even walk uphill is a bit depressing. I’m managing to do a little yoga, and I’m still singing, although my chest sometimes hurts afterwards. Roll on warmer and dryer weather.

But what about the writing, you might ask. I’m kind of in a no-man’s land at the moment. I’m not writing poetry with any great intent. But I feel as if I might be moving towards writing something. Hard to describe the feeling really but it’s there.

As regards the prose, I’ve had two rejections so far of my manuscript, with four more probably to come. I will send it out to another six agents, but unless I get a bite I’m not spending any more time on it now. I feel as if that ship has sailed. On a positive note, I’ve already started on the characters and an outline plot for another book. I’ve got a list of the mistakes I think I made in the first one, and the things I could do better this time, starting with characterisation. I’m also setting this one in the present day. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Meanwhile I’ve started putting out feelers for readings early next year when my poetry collection will be coming out with Pindrop Press. So if you have any suggestions of places I might read, please let me know. I will travel (within reason!)

And of course Planet Poetry is my regular connection to the poetry world. I’m continual kept on my toes by our excellent guests, and by my co-host Peter. Interviews I have planned in the next few weeks include Roy McFarlane and Seni Seneviratne, both of whose work I’ve really enjoyed getting up close with.

Coming up: This Friday 23rd I’ll be in Seaford to hear my poetry pal Antony Mair reading his work at the Seahaven Poets Open Mic, then on Sunday 25th at 4pm my group The Lewes Singers are giving a concert at St Saviour’s Church Eastbourne. The church is huge, so I hope we have at least fifty people in the audience or else we shall be rattling around! The interior of St Saviour’s is gorgeous – Victorian ‘arts and crafts’ red brick, beautiful mosaics all around the walls and an amazing painted ceiling.

 

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All kinds of poetry news and shenanigans

"Bird in a Wilderness" Hastings Stanza Poetry Anthology

I like the word shenanigans, don’t you? Although as I just check its meaning I see it can mean underhand goings-on. I don’t have anything underhand to report, but a few things happening now that Autumn is kicking in (just). And my birthday is approaching – always a time of fluidity and change.

Poem submissions

The blockage has finally cleared! Poems that had been gathering dust in numerous in-trays have finally come back to me, all with a polite ‘no thanks’ attached. Oh well. Although having said that, I’ve two poems forthcoming in South magazine and another two in the Hastings Stanza Anthology ‘Bird in a Wilderness’ which we’re launching on Friday October 20 at The White Rock Hotel, Hastings at 7 pm – if you’re anywhere near, do come! The book is partly in aid of The Refugee Buddy Project that does wonderful work in welcoming refugees in the Hastings area.

Readings/launches

Clare Best is launching her new book Beyond the Gate from Worple Press this evening in London, compered by none other than my old poddy mate Peter Kenny, so I am braving the train journey north and dodging the replacement buses to be there.

On Thursday I’m looking forward to Needlewriters in Lewes, which I haven’t managed to get to for a while, and it’s always a lovely social Lewes event.  Reading from their new collections will be Janet Sutherland and Richard Skinner. 

Also on Thursday is the ‘season opener’ of Planet Poetry Season Four – yup! We’re still going strong…and as befits the first episode we have a special guest… poetry royalty, you could say…

Novel stuff

My ‘hot new bestseller’ is at a crucial stage – basically I’m re-writing the ending. It will be much better for it, and transition coolly into Book Two. I’m a month behind schedule but will definitely be submitting to agents before the end of October.

Music stuff

My choir the Lewes Singers has its concert this coming Saturday which I know will be lovely, but that doesn’t stop me checking bookings every day and hoping we will cover our costs with ticket sales! Next month I’ll be taking part in a big Verdi Requiem in Brighton with two big choirs which will be fun. Plus, on my birthday can you believe, I’ve been press-ganged by a friend to take part in one of her musical soirees in which friends and neighbours agree to listen to various musical turns by amateurs. So I’ll be donning some dreadful costume and hamming it up on something called ‘The Stepsisters’ Lament’. Gawds, I can’t believe I’m admitting to it.

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The positives of submitting less to magazines

I recently came across this blog post by Naush Sabah about why we send our poems to magazines (or not). I’m in agreement with her on just about all of it, although I needed telling some things; for example:

You needn’t seek to publish every poem you write. Some work is for the drawer, some work is for an audience of one or two friends, some work is better within a book, some work is for the trash and, if you’re lucky, a key to unlock the next piece of writing.

It hasn’t been a conscious thing, but when I think about it, I can put most poems I write these days into one of these categories. I haven’t been sending out as many poems to magazines as I used to, and among those I have sent not many have been accepted. I’ve been a bit disillusioned about this to be honest.

And yet at the same time I can see that quite a few of these poems belong with others in order to have the impact I’m after. In other words, in a collection.

A few might even be poems I should be treating as stepping stones to the actual poem I’m after, the ‘key to unlocking the next piece of writing’ that Naush talks about in her piece.

A funny thing to be saying, given my unofficial role as cheerleader for submitting to magazines. I still believe in the magazines, and still encourage people to send in their poems. But it’s what I’ve always said: it’s not a strategy that suits everyone all the time. Goals and ambitions change.

Which reminds me, Sarah Salway interviewed me recently about submitting to magazines, for her lovely Everyday Words project. Sarah is a powerhouse of creativity, and if you haven’t seen it before, do watch this excellent TED talk she gave in 2019, ‘In praise of everyday words’:

Embed Video

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Round up: poems, podcast, garden, new photos…

Robin Houghton photo by Sarah Weal

News round-up time… written in haste, before the Wimbledon Men’s final…

The Pod

Peter Kenny and I have just wrapped up the last episode of Season 3 of Planet Poetry. Our guest was Richard Skinner, a fitting ‘finale’ as he led us through a fascinating poetry landscape in which OuLiPo, curtal sonnets, Caedmon and cutups all made an appearance. Then Peter and I had a chat and a beer in the potting shed. It’s been an exciting but exhausting season and we can hardly believe the poddy is still going strong!

You couldn’t make it up

Well, I did actually, but will anyone buy it? My novel submission materials are undergoing a beady-eyed review by author and book coach Beth Miller, whose expert opinion I need and value, prior to leaping into the lion’s cage of literary agents. Gulp!

Other things that have been keeping me busy

The Hastings Stanza Anthology coming along and the nit-picking finally done I think, writing reviews for the Frogmore Papers (delectably short!), cranking up plans for the Lewes Singers next season, producing a 4-page advertorial for the East Sussex Community Choir and DementiaUK, trying to get a front door replaced on my late sister’s flat in Guildford… and so forth.

Poetry forthcoming

I’ve two poems appearing in Ben Banyard’s excellent Black Nore Review tomorrow (17th July). Ben is a rare editor – one who promises (and delivers, certainly in my case) to respond to submissions within two weeks – !

Murder in the Garden

No, not the next novel, just an admission that I managed to kill one of only two courgette plants that made it to maturity, by mistaking the main stem for a dead leaf, and cut it… after months of nurturing (when it was small I even sheltered it from the hot sun with an umbrella tethered to the ground), I was truly upset. And now its remaining mate is struggling to produce any courgettes, so I can only assume it’s in mourning too. Bad Robin!

Ready for your headshot

Yep, last week I got some new photos done (in readiness for all that Booker Prize publicity – tee hee!) Nothing makes you feel more confident (in my humble opinion) than a professional photoshoot. I’ve rubbed along with selfies and ancient headshots for a number of years, but as Nick needed photos too we asked photographer Sarah Weal for help. I can only describe her as an absolute magician, making us look like we mean business, but still very much us. I couldn’t help myself but use one of the shots she took as a featured image to this post. Forgive me! Anyway, even if the book deals never happen, I will love looking at these photos in ten or twenty years’ time (fingers crossed) and say  “look how amazing and young we were!”