In the post today came a copy of Poetry magazine, volume 202 number 1 – yes, it’s been going for over a hundred years – gawds! The reason it was an unexpected bonus is because I cannot remember where or when I ordered it. But here it is, and with such a heritage the firstRead more ⟶
Category: Mags & Blogs
Social media for writers, ‘Orgasm Management’ etc
This is not the blog post I started writing this morning – but that turned into a cod philosophical/ psychological discourse that I eventually decided wasn’t going anywhere. So I’ve saved it for another day when I might be able to better whip my thoughts into a proper shape. Instead, more of straightforward diary entry.Read more ⟶
Frogmore Press 30th birthday readings
It was an intimate affair: in the round at the New Venture Theatre in Brighton yesterday evening, the first Sunday of the Brighton Festival and an unusually sunny (if not balmy) evening, with poet friends and friends of poetry, all to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Frogmore Press. The evening brought some thrilling readingRead more ⟶
Launches, celebrations, lovely poets
Three days into May and I think it’s been sunny all week – that’s about 5 or 6 days on the trot, something we haven’t had in over a year, if not two. It’s not yet warm enough to take off my ‘winter’ boots (which I now wear nine months of the year.) What onRead more ⟶
Submissions: this week’s yays and nays
Oh OK I might as well admit it – there are no new YAYs to report. But issue 62 of ‘Obsessed with Pipework’ arrived, including my poem ‘Calamity’ which just crept in at the back. It’s a bit of a weird one (the poem that is) and I’m grateful that Charles Johnson at ‘Obsessed’ hasRead more ⟶
Exploring new territory, one poet at a time
I’m a big fan of Dan Blank, founder of We Grow Media. Dan’s mission is to help writers build their online platform, not by blasting out marketing messages from twitter or facebook, but by growing your audience ‘one reader at a time.’ I was thinking of this maxim recently when I was contemplating American poetry.Read more ⟶
Judith Cair’s ‘The Ship’s Eye’ and other new reading matter
Judith Cair launched her debut pamphlet ‘The Ship’s Eye’ on Thursday evening in Brighton and the event was a sell-out, or rather a sell-over, as about a dozen people had to stand the whole evening. (Great for publisher/event organiser Pighog in a way. But I know from experience that packed events usually mean the nextRead more ⟶
An acceptance, a talk and workshop news
I haven’t had a poem accepted for a while so it was very nice to hear from Jeremy Page at The Frogmore Papers to say he’d like to take one for issue 82 in the autumn. Hurrah! (I also had some other good news last week but more about that shortly.) And now I’d likeRead more ⟶
January’s off to a great start
Happy New Year! I’m particularly upbeat about 2013 – already there are lots of positive things going on in both work and play (not sure where poetry sits on that spectrum but I’m doing my best to blue the edges, little by little.) On New Year’s Eve I had an email from Helen Ivory toRead more ⟶
My recent poetry unsuccesses
True to my pledge to blog the UNsuccesses as well as the successes, here’s the latest news. Firstly Magma – I’ve submitted there a couple of times previously and on both occasions was rejected pretty quickly. This sets a precendent – you assume that if you don’t hear quickly, that your poem is likely toRead more ⟶