Brighton Stanza on top

First the good news: I got a note through a week or so ago from Paul McGrane at the Poetry Society saying my poem had been commended in the 2012 Stanza competition (judged by John Siddique), but the full results weren’t out until today. So what should I find, but that there are 2 otherRead more ⟶

Writing musings/ submissions etc

I’ve been grabbing the odd hour here and there to write while my other half watches the cricket highlights each day. I need to submit some new stuff, so I need to write some new stuff. I’ve tentatively been trying to come up with something ‘humorous’ for the Moss Rich Prize. Yes I know I’veRead more ⟶

Out now – The Rialto 75

The Rialto: bedside reading for this week at least. Very proud that I have a poem in it on page 50. The Last They’ve been coming since posters were invented: sometimes in dreams, to the tipping of cowboy hats or dressed in Liverpool shirts. Each one appeared in my diary, in code. My mother wouldn’tRead more ⟶

Ambit at the Betsey Trotwood

Took Lucy along to an Ambit poetry night yesterday at the Betsey Trotwood pub, a little island of old London tahn amidst the chaos and cacophony of Farringdon Road and on the edge of Clerkenwell Green. We weren’t prepared for the evening to start on time, but it did, so we missed a little ofRead more ⟶

At the Plastic Bag Museum

these are the things that carried the stuff that people bought see those loops for hands – handles they’re called naturally they never carried boxes the corners would poke through split sides you can see why empties got crumpled thrust into drawers small thin ones used to pick up dogs’ turds the sturdier ones forRead more ⟶

Bumper latest news

Lots been happening lately. Firstly, my good friend and very talented poet Charlotte Gann was shortlisted for the Michael Marks pamphlet award. Although she was pipped at the post it was a wonderful to see her pamphlet The Long Woman make the shortlist for a big prize. Then, I had the chance to take partRead more ⟶

Hurrah! The Rialto takes another

So excited to have had a poem accepted for The Rialto. The first poem I had published was in this magazine (Rialto 70, Autumn 2010) and to say that I was ‘gobsmacked’ would be an understatement… only I’m not allowed to use that word in my husband’s presence as he believes it is an affront theRead more ⟶