Tag: national poetry day

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On National Poetry Day: getting autumnal, Medieval women, currently reading

medieval women exhibition at the British LIbrary

An blog update for National Poetry Day! To celebrate, not only have I just recorded an interview with the immensely talented Tishani Doshi for Planet Poetry, but this evening I’ll be at Hastings Stanza for some poem sharing and workshopping. All very fitting.

Everything’s cranking up now it’s the autumn: the publicity machine for various Christmas concerts, book projects, the podcast starting its fifth season, the garden to be tidied up (though the tomatoes keep coming)…

A week or two ago I was in Seaford reading poems mostly from the new collection (still forthcoming!), plus a couple from Foot Wear. I took with me the last five copies of Foot Wear and sold four, which means there’s only one left of the limited edition run. Not sure if it’s a left or a right foot, teehee. Perhaps I should auction it??

Meanwhile I was very excited to see there’s a forthcoming exhibition at the British Library called ‘Medieval Women: In their Own Words’ which has started me submitting my novel to another round of agents. Medieval women is a thing! Just look at Janina Ramirez on TV, and her brilliant book Femina. You may have guessed I’m a bit of a fangirl. Come on, lit agents: there’s a lot of interest in strong 14th century women!

In submissions news, I’ve had a bit of a dry summer as regards writing new poems, but I’m very pleased to have one in the new Frogmore Papers and another forthcoming in Black Nore Review on October 17th.

Currently reading: Ellen Cranitch’s new collection Crystal, and Tony Hoagland’s final collection Turn up the Ocean – the latter I picked up in the Poetry Book Shop in Hay on Wye in the summer. Both books are from Bloodaxe.

 

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You win some, you lose some…

As a fresh writing impetus I’ve joined Bill Greenwell‘s online poetry workshop this term, a group I’ve been thinking about for a while. Abegail Morley always spoke well of the mentoring she had from Bill, and I have a lot of time for Sharon Black, under whose auspices the workshops are run. Wish me luck!

Meanwhile, Peter Kenny and I have been busy recording interviews for the new season of Planet Poetry. Watch out for the Season 3 opener later this week (hopefully!)

A lot seems to have happened in the last couple of weeks. Despite my previous blog post when I talked about going back to York to finish my MA in Poetry & Poetics, I decided to pull out. Let’s just say I couldn’t cope with the chaotic organisation there. I don’t think York is particularly geared up to dealing with part time students who commute long distances and have (what??) commitments in their lives other than university.

I’m very sad not to be immersed in the close-reading of poetry, and finishing the MA. But the stress of spending hours on Trainline looking for fares, losing money on non-refundable tickets that turn out to be useless because the timetable has changed again… on top of the considerable academic load… something had to give. Some people have suggested I move my ‘credits’ to another Uni, but I could only find two Universities in the UK (York and Belfast) offering this course. Now, if I wanted to do a creative writing MA, that would be a lot easier!

Soooo… actually I feel a weight has been lifted. More time to write (or think about writing!), more time to devote to Planet Poetry and my work on the submissions windows spreadsheet, plus I’m looking forward to all the music-related admin for concerts on the run up to Christmas, planning for Spring workshops, and enjoying my birthday in The Hague researching a future choral trip. I’m also still tied up with my sister’s estate as her co-executor (now is not the time to be trying to sell a flat).

On the good news front, a week or so ago I happened to check my email at lunchtime on a Saturday, to see that Visual Verse were running a competition – but it was only open for 24 hours. Visual Verse is an online magazine for ekphrastic writing – they post a new image every month and people respond to it. This was a bit different, in that there was only a day to write something and submit. I rather liked the image, so I had a go, and was one of the winners. It’s ages since I won anything so this was a really nice boost for me on National Poetry Day. It was also extraordinary to read the other winning poems and see how different our takes on the image were!

Speaking of NPD, the evening before I was at the Eastbourne Poetry Cafe awards night for their ‘Eastbourne and the Environment’ competition, handing out comments and certificates to the winners. The poems received in the Under 18s category were particularly encouraging, and lovely to see the two young winners take to the stage to read their work. I chatted to one set of parents, who were grateful for events like these to be happening. I know competitions can be seen as problematic, but they do at least give young poets (and potential young poets) a focus and (for the winners at least, but I hope for everyone) encouragement to keep reading and writing poetry.

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National Poetry Day (week of)

Prole 33 and Frogmore Papers 100

So Thursday is National Poetry Day, which I shall be celebrating with my Hastings Stanza group, doing what poets do… agonising over line-breaks, commas and what have you.

Before that though, on Wednesday, I’ll be at the Fisherman’s Club for the prize readings of a local competition I was a judge for, on the theme of ‘Eastbourne and the Environment’. A theme that was interpreted in some interesting ways! Hastings Stanza member Jackie Hutchinson is among the winners, so I’m looking forward to hearing her winning poem.

Last week I was in Lewes for the launch of The Frogmore Papers‘ 100th issue, an amazing feat, and under the editorship of Jeremy Page the whole time. We heard readings from some of the contributors and from co-founder Andre Evans on how it all began in a cafe in Folkestone. It’s a lovely story, and having heard it a few times it’s now taken on almost mythic status, up there with Aeneas crossing the Mediterranean to found the city of Rome, or Phil Knight making rubber outsoles on his mum’s waffle machine for the first Nike trainers. Anyway, having read the edition from cover to cover I can confirm it’s a fine book – and let’s face it, some of our ‘little magazines’ coming in at 90 pages or more deserve to be called books.  On that subject, I can also recommend Prole 33 which recently arrived, weighing in at 140 pages (although about half of it is short stories.)

The Lewes event was also the launch of Clare Best‘s new collection, End of Season (Fine di Stagione), published by the Frogmore Press, in which the poems are presented in both English and Italian. It was lovely to hear both Clare and Jeremy reading the poems in both languages – very evocative. I’m enjoying the book especially as it is about a beautiful place on Lake Maggiore called Cannero where Nick and I stayed for a week back in 2019 (on Clare’s recommendation).

Meanwhile, if you’re a member of the Poetry Society you may notice a piece I’ve written for Poetry News on magazines’ submissions windows, which should be hitting your doormat this week.

Nothing much to report on the new writing front, although I have just sent out another tranche of poems that have been languishing in the ‘am I ever going to go back to working on these or shall I just send them out’ pile. So that’s 22 poems out to magazines at the moment, and one pamphlet submission.

Happy National Poetry Day Week!

launch of Frogmore Papers 100
At the launch of Frogmore Papers 100 and ‘End of the Season’: Andre Evans, Neil Gower, Jeremy Page, Clare Best, Alexandra Loske and Peter Stewart
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Launches, lunches & putting the ‘win’ into Swindon

A quick update before I make my way to Swindon Festival of Poetry via lunch in Newbury with my sister-in-law. The Telltale Press public launch on Wednesday evening at the Poetry Cafe was a great success – the audience was mostly friends and friends of friends of myself and Peter Kenny, so we felt right at home. And the peeps at the Poetry Cafe are so helpful and unfussy. We’ll definitely be back in the New Year. Plans are afoot!

Rishi Dastidar at the London Telltale launch
Rishi Dastidar reading at our launch on Wednesday

Our guest readers on Wednesday were Anja Konig, all the way from Switzerland with her new pamphlet ‘Advice for an Only Child’ (Flipped Eye) hot off the press, and Rishi Dastidar, who’s part of the Complete Works II programme, launching on Monday evening at the South Bank. 

Then yesterday was National Poetry Day, with an avalanche of stuff on social media and a shedload of events, none of which I actually got to, but that’s mainly because of tiredness and in anticipation of a full-on poetry fest this weekend. I don’t know if it’s just my perception, but it feels as if NPD gets more mainstream coverage than it used to. Probably just my skewed viewpoint.

Somewhere in amongst all the excitement about Forward Prize winners, Next Gen Poets, NPD readings etc was the little announcement about the Stanza Poetry Competition, which I somehow managed to, er, win. (As a reward I get to read at the AGM of the Poetry Society at Keats’ House in November. I am absurdly excited about this.) It was lovely to receive emails and messages of congratulations from fellow poets. Thank you so much. The winning poems and judges comments are here.

And now – I must pack and get myself off to sunny Swindon, where Hilda Sheehan has been Facebook updating with her particular brand of exhilarated craziness – porcelain dogs, men with megaphones, lunch poetry and all kinds of shenanigans appear to be happening. What the hell’s going on down there, Hilda? I’m coming to find out …