What is it about poets called Don? There’s Don Paterson for starters. Don. Paterson. And now Don Share. Maybe it’s the the power/mafia connotations (Don Corleone). Or the suggestion of raffishness (Don Juan). Or the hidden warning: not DO but DON’t. So here’s the thing: picture sixteen or so poets perched in a circle, hothoused in aRead more ⟶
Category: Poet’s Tips
Jack Underwood interviewed by Maurice Riordan
I came across this nice podcast on the Poetry Society website and thought I’d share it – Jack Underwood talking to Maurice Riordan about his background, what got him into poetry, being a Faber New Poet, transitioning from pamphlet to full collection and so forth.
More words of advice from Mimi Khalvati
Having recently been to the last of Mimi Khalvati’s Lewes for workshops for a while, I realised I hadn’t been blogging about them as I used to. It was also time to clean out my ‘workshop notes’ folder, so here are a few more things I’ve jotted down from time to time – I hopeRead more ⟶
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 didRead more ⟶
Mimi Khalvati on editing and what to bin
On Saturday I dropped back in on one of the regular workshops with Mimi Khalvati run by the excellent Lewes Live Lit here in my home town. I was lucky enough to be rewarded with a place in one of these highly popular groups about 18 months ago, and although I’ve been on a breakRead more ⟶
Links to useful poetry resources (publishers, magazines, competitions etc)
I thought I’d post some links to poetry resources I’ve been bookmarking. I’m sure these are just the tip of the iceberg so if you know of anything similar to add to this list please let me know in a comment – thanks. These are mostly UK but I’ve included one good US resource also.Read more ⟶
Riordan & Share on ‘100 years of the don’ts’
Yesterday evening I was at Keats House in Hampstead listening to a Poetry Society debate on the subject of Ezra Pound’s enormously influential article ‘A Few Don’ts’, first published a hundred years ago. As the respective editors of Poetry Review (UK) and Poetry (US), Maurice Riordan and Don Share could be said to represent the behemothRead more ⟶
At Ty Newydd, part 2
Here’s the longer post I promised about my week at Ty Newydd. First of all, some of the advice and sayings I captured from the tutors during workshops. It’s not a long list, but we were mostly doing exercises, so I just wrote down phrases that resonated with me: Train yourself to remember details SometimesRead more ⟶
Another three great poetry blogs
Thought it was about time I shared a few more blogs, one I’ve been following for a while and two that have come to my attention just recently. I’ve particularly been enjoying Clare Pollard‘s ‘poetic journeys’ – most recently through Kent, from Broadstairs and Margate to Canterbury and one of my favourite places, Dungeness. TheRead more ⟶
Mimi Khalvati on form, and a few ‘banned’ words
Saturday was our penultimate workshop with Mimi Khalvati before the summer-autumn break. (By the way I realise the title of this post could be read as a pun -‘ on form’, geddit?? Um, sorry…) This month, several of us got pulled up for the chosen form of our poems. Classic Mimi comments often sound likeRead more ⟶