Category: Mags & Blogs

Submissions, forthcoming events, pamphlet sales etc

Lamb Festival 2014

Latest submissions news is …. no news. Or rather, another of my stupid cockups:  according to my records I’d made a submission to Lighthouse in early April, but then this week when I checked their website I noticed it said that submissions are always acknowledged with an email auto-responder. I couldn’t find one in my inbox, so then I wondered if I hadn’t submitted after all, and so sent three more (different) poems. But these weren’t acknowledged either, so now I’m wondering whether the first submission was received after all and now I’ve multiple-submitted – DUH.

Apart from that, I’ve been working on a pamphlet submission with I was hoping to send to Flarestack but their window closes on Saturday and I’m not sure what I’ve got is ready to send, so I may have to hold my horses on that one.

Meanwhile, thanks to a lovely feature on Rebecca Gethin’s blog I’ve had a little flurry of pamphlet sales – thanks everyone! And on the subject of pamphlets, my Telltale Press venture has moved up a gear with a wonderful poet joining as our new Associate Editor – to be announced on the Telltale blog imminently! Exciting news! Plus the second Telltale pamphlet by the very talented Peter Kenny is almost on its way to the printers …

I’m gearing up for a busy week and two trips to London: on Monday I’m reading at the Lamb Festival in Edmonton, and on Wednesday it’s the first launch event for The Rialto – can’t miss that!

Next Thursday I’m helping with an evening of poetry by and for Jo Grigg, much-missed poet friend and Stanza rep. It’s shaping up into a joyous event which I’ve no doubt will be a wonderful tribute to Jo’s writing, her love of poetry and the affection we all felt for her.

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 read Anthony Wilson’s recent ‘blogs I read’ series of posts. It’s all happening out there.

One of the things about being on WordPress or Blogger is that it’s much easier to follow and link to others on the same platform. Being on WordPress I notice how easy it is to hit the ‘follow’ button on a WordPress site and then see it in my Reader, or opt for a weekly digest. Other blog platforms sometimes offer a ‘follow by email’ option, otherwise I usually copy and paste the URL, open my WP Reader and paste them in. I then don’t have the option of email updates. This is a tad unwieldy and YES I know it would be far easier to use Feedly, which I did use to, until Google pulled the plug on Google Reader and I lost all my subscriptions. (Mea culpa, I was given notice but left it too late.)

vanessa gebbie's blog

Anyway – sorry – back to the point, which is that I don’t tend to see a lot of Blogger blogs unless I look for them, and on the occasions I do come across one, such as Vanessa Gebbie’s blog, it then leads me to a rich seam of others. Vanessa is a well-known poet and author who’s on my manor, so I’m amazed I’ve never explored her blog before. She provides a textbook example of how to vary your blog posts, inform and entertain at the same time. Vanessa doesn’t blog to a strict timetable but when she does it’s a very nice mix of interview, reviews,  news-musings and other quirky material.

emerging writer blog

From there I was pulled into Kate Dempsey’s Emerging Writer blog and found a trove (is that actually a word?) of info about competitions, submissions opportunities, events, reviews and all kinds of good stuff with an Irish bent (another question mark over this word) – a horn-of-plenty type blog spilling over with news.

snow like thought

And my third find from Vanessa’s blogroll was Rachel Fenton’s blog snow like thought. I’ve only just started exploring this one as Rachel is in New Zealand, and it’s funny how it takes me a while to adjust to blogs from other countries. Strange, isn’t it? The internet is said to remove national boundaries, we can hop from one continent to another in a click, but I often still feel jetlagged and culture-shocked when I first land on the pages of a ‘foreign’ blog. I don’t mean that in a bad way – I’m kind of blinking and trying to take in the unfamiliar references and it feels like the time I arrived in Perth in the Spring, after leaving home the day before in Autumn. But I’ve already followed a couple of links to yet more unfamiliar American poetry journals … I sense there’s another blog post entirely there.

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 you can? Do you have a schedule, or simply blog when you’ve got something to say?

As we talked about it, I said that actually not only do you find the time, you enjoy finding it – and that blogging and tweeting has helped improve my writing and my writing process. (I suppose it’s not always the case – it depends whether you’re blogging on a topic you feel strongly about. I’ve blogged on behalf of clients in the past and it’s not always easy to find enthusiasm for pallets or lanyards.)

Although it’s not a great idea to stop blogging for months on end – it might look like you left the country, or the world – I don’t think it’s worth stressing about things like how often, or how long a post should be, etc. But we all like rules, even if they’re rules of thumb.

I’m really enjoying writing this current book, a handbook on the theme of ‘blogging for writers’. Already I’ve made contact with many brilliant writer-bloggers and it’s great fun pulling together all the wisdom and ideas out there. I’m two-thirds of the way through and on target to deliver the bulk of it by Easter. After that  … another book! So it’s all about blogging at the moment.

BUT I’m making time for poetry too. I’ve been thinking about how I need to step back a bit from submissions-fever and spend time working on (DUH) writing better poetry. Just chill out a bit. Take my time. Read the greats. Resist reaching for the notebook or getting on the laptop. Enjoy the writing I am doing, even if it’s not poetry. This is a very new feeling for me, and I can only put it down to the joy of having created a pamphlet and a permanent home for my ‘first wave’ poems. All my ideas now are not ‘poem shaped’ but ‘collection shaped’, which feels more substantial and worth taking time over.

Bit of a regroup after a challenging workshop

Ever had a bad day at the poetry workshop coalface? I think I had one yesterday. Here’s what happened and what came from it.

Firstly, I made some mistakes. I haven’t been reading or writing much poetry the last few weeks, as I’ve been consumed with work, research and a very different kind of writing. Tired from a late night, without having decided on a poem to take, I selected something in haste. It was an early draft of a poem in which I was trying something a bit different.  For me, tired can mean ridiculously irritable. I also find reading and commenting meaningfully on other people’s work when seen ‘cold’ one of the hardest things there is, so going at it when tired isn’t a great idea.

Next, my poem came in for much criticism, harsher than usual, or so it seemed. I listened, I made notes. I was surprised to find myself feeling overly sad and disappointed. I could see it had been a bad move to bring something so unfinished, or rather something I was so tentative about. I understood most of the points being made, but I confess not all of them. Maybe I shouldn’t have come at all.

When I had the chance, I couldn’t explain my thinking other than that I’d been ‘trying something new’, which came across as a bit flippant and just fanned the flames even further. Yes, that’s the problem, this poem feels like you’re trying too hard to make it something it’s not. Well, I was taking on board previous comments about my poems being written in ‘neat boxes’ (couplets, tercets, all lines the same length etc) and I wanted to let myself go a bit and be less logical. Logical? What has the correct use of syntax and punctuation got to do with logic?

Dear reader, if you are tempted to say things like ‘I was trying to’ or use the work LOGICAL in a poetry workshop, I urge you to think again. I don’t normally get into ‘discussions’ as I prefer to write down all the comments, say thank you, then weigh it up later in quiet on my own. I’m usually also delighted (yes really) by the frequently insightful and valuable feedback. But  yesterday I conspired against myself. Tetchy, frustrated at my inability to express myself and the pathetic draft of a ‘trying to be’ poem, annoyed that I couldn’t sit quietly and take the criticism gracefully.

And then I disgraced myself even further by not being able to offer useful criticism to another poet, instead just reacting and being picky in a way I hate.

I came home and tried to be grown up about it. At least I didn’t actually cry, even in private. I have so many things to be pleased about, and grateful for, that I shouldn’t let the the odd bad workshop get me down – I know everyone has them. All I can think to do is to read, and remind myself of what good writing is, reassure myself that I can do better, before trying to (sic!) write any poetry.

This morning I picked up and read a little of Sam Willetts’ New Light for the Old Darkwhat a wonderful collection that is!  And then, as if by some crazy sense of serendipity, I read a conversation between Troy Jollimore and Allan Fox in the Spring edition of Rattle, in which they discuss poetic process, anxiety and insecurity, getting at truth and philosophy. It’s a gem of a piece – here’s a short extract:

[Poetry] …. makes almost everybody nervous.  [ … ] If you’re trying to write it’s even harder because you’re afraid of writing a bad poem, and if you do you’ll feel bad about yourself. That’s one of the first things I say to students: give yourself permission to write bad poems. Everybody does. You think that the poets you love don’t, because you never see them, because they’re smart enough, they put it in a drawer. They keep it for a while, then they look at it and say, “Is this any good?” I mean, they might know it’s bad right away, that happens too. But if they don’t know if it’s bad right away, they hold onto it for a while to see if it’s bad, they check back again in the few months, and if it’s bad you never see it. And so we walk around thinking, “Oh James Richardson never writes a bad poem.” I’m sure he’s written bad poems, but he hasn’t shown them to anybody. He’s smart that way. And that’s what we need to do.

I’ve subscribed to Rattle for a year or so now and I have to say I’ve really warmed to its content. These extended interviews/conversations are a regular feature and have a marvellously unedited feel, it’s like you’re listening in to an entire interview verbatim, rather than being fed an editor’s cut, and I really like that.

Mammoth list of literary journals

Worth bookmarking – the Poets & Writers database of lit mags (litmagz?) Salivate over this if you dare –
“listings for 977 journals, providing details about the kind of work sought, authors previously published, submission guidelines, payment policies, tips from the editors, and more”

US literary magazines at Poets & Writers

WOW – nearly a thousand mags?? Why does this kind of list make me feel like I’m in a branch of Staples the size of Wales…

Not that I’ve actually submitted to any yet, but it’s the window shopping that’s fun …

So bad they rejected it twice

Just raising my head above the parapet to report that I’m about 20k words into my book and now at the point where I have to start printing pages off and going through everything with post-its, before I lose my many threads. It’s amazing how I can be convinced I’ve already covered something, or filed something, or penciled in a name and a quote, and then suddenly nothing is as it should be. Ack! I’m trying to do this one on my own, having had some research help with the last book. Remembering all the people I’ve contacted, and where I wanted to use a quote from them, is the hardest thing, despite it all being on spreadsheets.

Anyway, poetry is entirely gone from me at the moment. Although I’ve got stuff out, half of it is to competitions which is akin to playing those fixed odds betting machines. Entering one more comp won’t do any harm! Hey, I might even win! And next thing the (metaphorical) bailiff comes knocking. And for the first time in ages I’ve nothing forthcoming in magazines.

Then, having been rejected by The London Magazine, two weeks later they send another email – we’re sorry to tell you… you mean, you haven’t changed your mind? Or were those poems so bad you had to reject them twice? I did try having a little joke with the sender of the email, but (no doubt in the spirit of not engaging with possible nutters) she declined to respond.

A couple of good things though: the Heavenly Bodies anthology which I’m proud to be a part of is out on April 30th, although I won’t make the launch as it’s the other end of the country from me. Can’t wait to see it! Plus, my pamphlet should be arriving this week. I made some amends after seeing the proof, including changing the cover title and name from all caps to sentence case, as all caps seemed A BIT SHOUTY.

Would be nice to now go out for a walk in the sunshine, but … those post-its are calling to me.

Launch of The Interpreter’s House #55

Launch of The Interpreter's House 55

And so to Oxford, or the Albion Beatnik Bookstore in Jericho, to be precise. Martin Malone took over the editorship of The Interpreter’s House after the untimely death of Simon Curtis last year, and this is his second issue. I have to say, the production quality is great, I love the cover design, and it’s a cracking issue. It’s now on my ‘rotating subs’ list of magazines – I can’t subscribe to them all for ever, but I try to take 2 or 3 titles each year and then change my subs to another publication after a couple of years, which seems a fair way to do it.

It’s a generous move to introduce launch events for every issue – I wish more magazines would hold them! – but there’s a LOT of work involved, and that’s alongside having the small matter of a magazine to get done and out. With fifty-two contributors in this issue, and three issues a year… plus Martin has a new baby to cope with … well you can imagine.

I’ve had one poem in the magazine once before, when Simon was the editor, so I was thrilled to have another accepted by Martin for this issue, and even more excited to be able to read at the launch. Although there were 14 readers, the evening was beautifully paced – everyone stuck to the ‘two poem’ rule, there was plenty of time for Martin to introduce everyone, enjoy a bit of friendly banter and encourage people to mingle, drink and chat. Very relaxed and very warm. The evening ended with Merryn Williams, the IH’s first editor, reading her own poem from the magazine but also one by Simon Curtis, a fitting tribute.

For my part I was very pleased to meet Claire Dyer, whose name I knew straight away from having seen it in magazines, Stephen Bone, a Brighton Stanza member, and Helen Fletcher, who I hadn’t come across before but whose poem ‘The Drowned’ in IH 55 stood out for me, and she read a poem that had appeared in the Frogmore Papers 82 which I remembered seeing and enjoying at the time.

In the break, Martin Monahan came up to tell me he enjoyed reading my blog, which was a very nice surprise. I’m very grateful to everyone who takes the time to read this, whether or not they’re active in the Comments or ‘Likes’, and it’s always nice when someone introduces themselves and tells me what they get from it. In the second half, Martin read his witty ekphrastic poem ‘Fried eggs’. He’s widely published, including in such hardcore journals as PN Review (respect!) and clearly up and coming: watch for his name.

I didn’t win a mug in the raffle (boo!) but I did win a lovely mix tape (well, CD) – thanks, Martin! – which I listened to on the long drive home. It was the perfect soundtrack for that time of night, when the cones and ‘workers in road’ signs come out, and you’re sent on all kinds of strange diversions and motorways empty in a David Lynch moment. But that’s another story.

Quick writing update

This is probably displacement activity, as I should be working on the book which I have until Easter to write. Yikes! Quick update on a few things.

Poetry writing is currently going through a dry patch. I missed out on my Mimi Khalvati fix at the weekend as I was under the weather, but did have a good Stanza meeting on Monday night and the first of our ‘small group’ workshops is next week, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve been digging around my archive of unfinished and ‘in need of work’ poems, of which there are A LOT. One or two I’ve actually managed to re-write, and as I’ve not got much out in the pipeline at the moment I sent a few things out quickly before I changed my mind.

I’m trying Ambit again … surely they can’t still be holding against me that incident at the Betsey Trotwood in 2012 …?

I had another rejection from Poetry Review … still plugging away!

A couple of new RED ALERT cautions that are currently top of mind – on Monday the redoubtable Antony Mair warned of the ‘portentous last line’ – and of course I knew exactly what he meant as I’ve been GUILTY of said practice more than once! Then today I was reading an interview with Rob Spillman, editor of US magazine Tin House, who was complaining about how too many submissions ‘lack engagement with real world issues… there’s a stunning amount of navel-gazing with tiny emotional epiphanies.’ Ouch! Be gone from my poems, o tiny emotional epiphanies!

Meanwhile, talented illustrator Hannah Clare has come up with a striking design for the cover of my pamphlet. I have a week or so before the ISBN numbers come through, which is when I can create the barcode and finish off the rest of the cover. At the moment there are 13 poems in the pamphlet but one of them I’m still not sure about, so it may end up being 12. Probably a luckier number.  All very exciting!!

And now…back to the writing that actually pays!

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 stick to a particular theme (poetry and gardening, or whatever) proved a bit hard to sustain, so here are three random blogs in no particular order.

Verbatim Poetry

I found Verbatim Poetry via a link on Facebook, I think. Put simply, it’s a blog featuring found poetry. Editors are Gabriel Smy and Marika Rose. They welcome submissions and there are some very useful guidelines on ‘How to Write a Verbatim Poem’.

I’ve not written any found poetry, but I’ve sometimes felt I’d like to put together all those station announcements about reporting suspicious bags, delays and trolley services, ending with ‘would the conductor please contact the driver’ which for some reason always makes me laugh. One day maybe.

Sheenagh Pugh's blog

Then we have Sheenagh Pugh’s blog, with the unlikely title of Good God! There’s writing on both sides of that paper. I kid you not. I was pulled in by this thoughtful piece about titles and the job they can do, but soon discovered a rich seam of well written articles.

What I like about Sheenagh’s style is that she shares her knowledge and opinions, often with examples, in an open and interested way, without either patronising her readers or going off on a rant. My only issue with this blog is that’s on LiveJournal, a Russian-owned blog platform which doesn’t appear to be very social media friendly. But the content is pure gold.

The Era of Casual Fridays

Mark Richardson teaches literary criticism and lyric poetry at a university in Kyoto, Japan. As you might expect, his blog The Era of Casual Fridays is not for the faint-hearted. Mark describes the blog as a taking the form of a commonplace book, devoted to literature and ‘with comment, often lengthy.’

Now my attention span on blogs isn’t always the greatest, so it was with trepidation that I started out on ‘What I want (as a teacher of lyric poetry)’. Using a specific poem as example (Church Monuments by George Herbert), Mark takes us on a trip from Heidegger to Hardy, from Emerson to Foucault, in an exploration of what is expected of students when it comes to literary criticism.

Now and again students ask me whether it is okay for them to offer “their own interpretation” of a poem. By which they sometimes appear to mean: “Isn’t one interpretation finally as ‘good’ as any other?” By which, on occasion, they almost certainly mean: “Do you think it is possible for me to be ‘wrong’ in what I say about a poem?” To which my reply is: “Yes, it is certainly possible to be wrong in what we say about a poem—sometimes, very wrong.”

Mark goes on to explain and defend in detail what he means by this. I found it fascinating and despite not being familiar with all the references, yes – definitely worth reading to the end.

Some magazines open for submissions plus a couple of interesting finds

Here are a couple of useful blogs and resources I’ve recently come across – hope you like them too.

Poethead

First of all, Christine Murray’s Poethead is a blog devoted to ‘increasing the profile of women writers and editors.’ But the content seems a lot broader than that, for example I particularly enjoyed the section devoted to Small Press Poetry and Indies, which immediately led me to several new (to me) magazines such as The Stinging Fly, Southwold Literary Journal and The Pickled Body, as well as news and views on the (mainly Irish) small press poetry scene.

If you’re after new places to submit work then this article may be useful – The five best literary journals that have re-opened for submissions this month – the article is undated but I followed a link to it from Twitter (I think – thank you whoever posted it) and it appears to be current. The journals are all American I think, but definitely some opportunities there.

Something a bit different is this little tool I’ve started playing with – ‘online word counter’ at TextFixer. Use it to check how often you’re repeating words (although it was developed as an SEO tool to check keywords, it works quite well for this.) Have a go – paste in your entire pamphlet and see just how often you use ‘licorice’ or ‘steamboat’ – you may be surprised!

I’m always looking for free tools that help (particularly) with the editing of collections of poems or even book-length manuscripts, so if you know of something useful or recommend anything please let us know in the comments – thanks!