Tag: antiphon

Blog/

Seven Questions for Poets #9 – Rosemary Badcoe

This is the penultimate post in this ‘Seven Questions’ series, I’ve hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have – there have been some really interesting and surprising answers, but also a fair bit of consistency – particularly when it comes to recommendations for non-poetry readers, and reactions to being asked to read at the Festival Hall!

Rosemary Badcoe is well known as one of the editors of Antiphon, an excellent online poetry magazine. But, just like many poetry magazine editors, she’s an accomplished poet in her own right. I sometimes think poets who submit their work to magazines may not know (or imagine) that the editor is also a poet, and also submitting elsewhere themselves. I know this was something I was ignorant of when I started sending work out. Editing a magazine has to take time away from the business of writing, so my feeling is it’s the least we can do to help promote them as POETS. (Ooh, I sense another blog post coming here…)

So – my thanks to Rosemary for playing this particular game, and on with the questions.

1 – What was the last poetry book you read, that you would recommend?

The latest poetry book I’ve read is Millstone Grit, which is a new anthology we’re creating as part of Sheffield Hallam University’s Catalyst festival. I’m working with fellow Antiphon editor Noel Williams and journalist and Senior Lecturer Carolyn Waudby, but I’ve given myself the job of designing and creating the book. It’s been a great learning curve, tackling typesetting software and layout, but we’ve just received the proof copy and are delighted with it! It’s the first book we’re publishing via Antiphon Press. But the proper answer would be Dark Matter, by Christine Klocek-Lim. All the poems are based on images from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website but are personal and moving.

2 – Philip Larkin and Dannie Abse are both alleged to have said they only wrote one or two decent poems a year. How is it for you?

I find however much I write I tend to end up with about one poem a month that I’m really pleased with. But book creation has got in the way of that recently.

3 – What would be your ideal place for a writing retreat?

Hmm, not sure I’d be good with a retreat! I like the internet too much. And bookshops…

4 – Do you enter poetry competitions?

No, not generally. I can never guess which poems they might like!

5 – You’re asked to give a reading at the Royal Festival Hall, to thousands of people. What goes through your mind?

Aargh!  Followed by ‘I wonder if they’d mind a quick plug for Antiphon?’

6 – Why is end-rhyme considered a good thing in performance poetry, but rarely found in contemporary magazines?

Possibly because if not used carefully end-rhyme can swamp the rest of the poem. It works best in poems with a proper rhythmical format, which performance poetry often has, but which people don’t always use on the page.

7 – A murmuration of starlings, a murder of crows etc – what would you call a group of poets?

A confusion? Is there a word for a group of people all staring in different directions?

 

QUICK PLUG:

Rosemary Badcoe’s collection Drawing a Diagram is coming out with Kelsay Books early next year. As well as the main Antiphon website, there is an accompanying blog featuring recordings of poets reading from the issue.

Previous ‘Seven Questions for Poets’:
#1 – Clare Best
#2 – Jill Abram
#3 – Antony Mair
#4 – Hilda Sheehan
#5 – Ian Humphreys
#6 – Claire Dyer
#7 – Louise Ordish
#8 – Anna Kisby

Bloggers/

Two exciting discoveries (new to me, anyway!)

There I was, just noodling about on the internet, when what should I find but not only a wonderful blog and poetry resource but also a poet who I’d never heard of but whose work immediately excited me.

Jeffrey Levine
Jeffrey Levine

First of all, thanks to a Facebook update by Antiphon magazine* I followed a link to an excellent and timeless post on putting together a manuscript, on Jeffrey Levine‘s blog. Jeffrey is a poet, author, publisher, critic, mentor – you name it – and his blog is a powerhouse of articles that you just want to read and absorb RIGHT NOW – rather like Neo being injected with knowledge in The Matrix: “I know Kung Fu!” – he he.

Then I started following links to US poetry magazines, submissions policies, prize competitions (there seem to be a shedload of those going on at any one time in the US, or is that an illusion? Many seem to have entry criteria to do with age, residency or publishing history or whatever, but there are plenty open to international poets.)

Fragile ActsNext, I looked at featured poets, prize winners and so forth, and googled their names. I followed several lovely detours before coming upon Allan Peterson. Here’s ‘Implicit’, a new poem by him in The Believer magazine. Love it, love it, love it. And then on to his own website, which sets out his monumental writing achievements under the modest ‘Resume’ tab.  There are a few poems on the site too, such as ‘Confession’. I could hardly buy a copy of his most recent book, Fragile Acts, quickly enough.

If Jeffrey Levine and Allan Peterson are familiar to you, you may be thinking ‘she’s just discovered them? – oh DUH!’ and I probably look like a bit of a noob. Oh well! One man’s thrilling discovery is another’s same-old!

*PS another reason for me to thank Antiphon is for publishing one of my poems in their latest issue (9) alongside many fine poets, do take a look

Competitions/

Nice to end the week with an acceptance

Although I was delighted to hear that Antiphon is taking a poem of mine for the next issue, for a moment I had a panic because it’s a piece I’ve altered drastically since, and I was thinking of sending it into the National in its new form (but same title). As it happened, I was so busy going on holiday at the end of October I missed the deadline for the NPC anyway – DUH, so later version of poem is still with me.

So now what – I really like the new version but I suppose I should give it a new title, make sure it doesn’t contain any of the exact same lines/phrases and think of it as something entirely new. I wonder if there’s such a thing as plagiarising one’s own poem? And can a poem be very very similar to another poem and yet a different poem? At what point has it ‘calved’? I’m thinking about some examples in art – cf all those Monet paintings of water lilies. Or music? Those Satie Gymnopedies are all more or less the same. (My husband might not be impressed by my saying that.)

Meanwhile I guess my entry for the Troubadour prize fell on its face – since I’ve not been one of the lucky recipients of a phone call summoning me to the prize giving! Ah well! Another year maybe …

Mags & Blogs/

Submissions update

Good news and bad news!

Quick update first of all to my October ‘working on, waiting on’ post: Poetry London – standard rejection slip. Shearsman – standard rejection email. The North – a very nice personal reply, but no. Envoi – yes (yay!).

I’ve also just heard that The Interpreter’s House (now edited by Martin Malone and with a shiny new website amongst other things) is taking one of the poems I wrote at Ty Newydd, which I’m very pleased about. It’s a bit of an homage to Ian Duhig. Martin also leaps right to the top of the ‘speed of response’ chart, having replied within a few days. Douze points!

After a sending spree I’ve currently got 6 poems out to Ambit, 3 to Antiphon, 3 to Lighthouse and 3 to Poetry Review. Plus a number of pamphlet submissions. Will post updates to all this as and when.