Submissions – to enquire or not to enquire?

First of all a huge thank you to Matthew Stewart of Rogue Strands who has once again mentioned my blog in his ‘Best UK Poetry Blogs of the Year’ roundup. It’s exciting to be in there with such great company, and always very nice to know this blog is read and enjoyed. I think allRead more ⟶

Latest on the book, the pamphlet and more projects

I don’t suppose you’ve noticed, but I’ve been a bit quiet on here the last week or so – not for any reason other than work though. I’ve fully recovered from the mini workshop trauma of a couple of weeks ago (I typed that as one word, workshoptrauma, which made me wonder momentarily if that’sRead 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 ⟶

Poetry writers and poetry readers – a tricky issue

It was a small turnout last night at our Stanza reading group in Brighton – just Miriam, Gary and myself! Of course there are all sorts of reasons why that might have been – the first time it has clashed with a sunny evening, plus there’s been some confusion about the start time and contentRead more ⟶

Every Stanza meeting is different

I turned up to yesterday’s Brighton Poetry Stanza meeting with pretty much a clean sheet regarding how we’d spend the time. Although it was scheduled as a poetry reading and/or workshopping group, everyone was actually wanting to workshop their own poems. So pretty straightforward, and virtually no facilitation required from me at all. Except itRead more ⟶

Poems we read and talked about last night

There may only have been four of us at the Stanza reading group last night but we had plenty to talk about. The poems we looked at were ‘Reprimands’ by Michael Donaghy, ‘Calcium’ by Deryn Rees Jones, ‘Substance & Shadow by John Hewitt and ‘A gift’ by Don Paterson. So America, Wales, ireland and ScotlandRead more ⟶

Ten Voice Stanza tonight…

It’s been a few months in the planning, so Jo and I are hoping we’ve thought of everything – ha ha! If you’re in the area, do come along to Ten Voice Stanza – doors 7.30, starting at 8pm, ten members of Brighton Poetry Stanza reading their work, plus open mic opportunities. It’s at theRead more ⟶

Brighton Poetry Stanza – new reading group launch

The Brighton Poetry Stanza is expanding. Jo Grigg has done a fabulous job of nurturing this group over the last few years, with a diverse group of people meeting once a month to workshop their poems. There are a number of regulars and many more who come along when they can. Stanzas are regional groupsRead more ⟶