Tag: planet poetry

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Currently reading & other summery (?) things

currently reading

The weather has been a bit rubbish here so I’ve been catching up on some reading and writing. Magazines tend to drop through the letterbox all at the same time, so I’m still working my way through current issues of PN Review, The Dark Horse, Poetry, The Poetry Review and Lighthouse. So far I’ve particularly enjoyed poems by Donna Aza Weir-Soley in Poetry, Isabel Galleymore in The Poetry Review (‘Then, one spring in which every dawn came/ pigletty and the blossom trees were really putting in / the work’), Diane Thiel in The Dark Horse and Josh Ekroy in Lighthouse.

Poet friend Claire Booker kindly gave me a copy of The Language of Salt, an anthology of poems ‘on love and loss’ which so far looks to be an excellent range of poems from poets both known and new to me.

Meanwhile I have a number of full collections by my bed – Sometimes I Never Suffered by Shane McCrae (Corsair) has gripped me, particularly I think because I’m deep in Dante at the moment. I found McCrae’s ‘Hastily Assembled Angel’ sequence strange and moving. Then there’s Mortal Trash by Kim Addonizio (Norton). I always reach for Addonizio when I’m feeling jaded or all out of fresh words and it’s like a shot of adrenaline. YEEESS!

Peter Kenny and I are on a summer break from Planet Poetry which has given us a chance to do a bit of admin (such as setting up a somewhat basic website – coming soon), create artwork for all the Season One episodes, put together a bit of a promo plan and get some more poet interviews in the bag for broadcast in the Autumn. We’re getting more confident about approaching ‘big name’ poets and also poets from other countries, so we’re excited about how Season Two is shaping up.

I’ve just ordered collections by Di Slaney and Martina Evans, which I’ll talk about in a future post….plus I’m trying to get some quality writing time in… honest!

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Launches, recent and forthcoming

There have been some interesting launches and other events in the last few weeks. I suppose all those books that were out last year are playing launch catchup. Kudos to all the poetry book and magazine publishers that have kept things going, despite the fact that most books are sold at readings, so sales must have taken a severe hit.

These are some of the events I’ve managed to get to:

Mara Bergman launching her new collection The Night We Were Dylan Thomas, published by Arc, alongside Ranjit Hoskote launching his book The Atlas of Lost Beliefs – the event was recorded so you can watch it on YouTube if you wish. Mara is one of those wonderfully supportive poets and I wasn’t surprised to see a large audience on this very warm occasion.

The next night was the launch of Robert Hamberger‘s long-awaited book A Length of Road – a prose/memoir/poetry hybrid which has been many years in the making, based on Robert’s punishing four-day 80-mile walk in the footsteps of John Clare and a meditation on both their experiences. Rob is another of those lovely, supportive and humble poets as well as being a beautiful writer. Another love-in of a launch!

Last week was the launch of three new pamphlet anthologies from Candlestick Press, one of which, Ten Poems about Getting Older, edited by John McCullough, included a poem by Hastings Stanza member and poet friend Judith Shaw. So I was there primarily to support Judith, who read brilliantly alongside some big-name poets on the bill.

This evening, another Hastings Stanza member Brian Docherty is launching his new collection from Dempsey & Windle, The View from the Villa Delirium, which sounds very on-trend for these days, and I’m looking also forward to next Friday 23rd when I’ll be one of the readers at the launch of the new issue of Lighthouse Journal, in which I have a poem.

Meanwhile over at Planet Poetry, Peter and I are getting Episode 17 tidied up for its launch this Thursday, in which Peter talks to Rishi Dastidar, and we drop a bombshell – I can’t tell you what it is though, as it’s embargoed until then!! Listen in or subscribe in your podcast service to find out…

Enough for now… I hope like us you’re promised some warm, dry days in the next week or so. Don’t we just need it.

Angst/

A sick kitty, Arvon, podcasting and MA latest

Bobby with cone

Help! I’m just emerging from a fraught couple of weeks. Two weeks ago our cat Bobby suddenly developed a life-threatening condition. He’d only been officially ‘ours’ for less than a fortnight. He’s on the mend now, but I think the shock of it all (including not being insured, plus a week or so of cleaning up after an incontinent cat, lack of sleep, worry etc) took its toll on me! While all this was going on I was on an Arvon-at-Home course. At least I was at home, not away for the week leaving my dear husband on his own with poor Bobs. More about that in a mo. So, a bit of a rundown on what I’ve been up to…

Planet Poetry podcast

This week Peter Kenny and I got our 16th episode of Planet Poetry up and out … yesterday in fact… it would have been Thursday but I hadn’t finished editing it plus had a schoolpals meetup that afternoon then a Needlewriters event in the evening to co-host. This week the interviewee is Helen Ivory – a fine poet and a wonderful guest, fascinating, fun and generous. Do have a listen. Peter and I also chat about what we’ve been reading lately: Tomas Transtromer (me) and Robert Hamberger (Peter), then we get a tiny bit grumpy about this and that, as per usual!

Planet Poetry Ep 16 with Helen Ivory

There’s been so much to learn about podcasting and we’re still very much learning. Something we’re planning to have is an actual website sometime. We’ve got the domain, we’ve got the hosting and we’ve got the know-how. Just a bit more time required. Peter and I are a tad busier than when we started it last October! What we both agree on though is how it has opened us up to so much poetry that’s new to us and so many interesting poets and editors. It’s also super to get the occasional nice feedback, because when we’re recording it we do sometimes wonder if anyone’s going to be listening!

tomas transtromer selected

Arvon-at-home

Re the aforementioned course: this was my first Arvon experience, and despite being held via Zoom, I enjoyed the sessions. The tutors (Carrie Etter and Sasha Dugdale) were the main draw for me, and also the fact that it was focused on putting together a collection. Although it finished a week ago I haven’t had a chance to organise & read though my notes. BUT as soon as I’ve finished this post it’s first on my list. I was a bit worried beforehand that we might be given some general writing exercises, and I wasn’t really there for that. As it happened, Carrie and Sasha had prepared some excellent sessions and what writing exercises there were were relevant and interesting. My fellow students were pretty much all at a similar stage to me (verging on a full collection) or beyond, which I also liked. A first for me was an attempt at a translation of a Marina Tsvetaeva poem from the Russian, which Sasha guided us through. I really enjoyed that. Basically, although I was tired most of the time and probably not quite myself, I came away from the week with plenty of great advice, ideas and motivation.

Poetry & Poetics MA latest

My course at York feels like it happened ages ago now, since there was nothing to do in the Summer term. I submitted my Spring term essay and got the equivalent of a B+, pretty much the same as my Autumn 2020 essay mark. I have to admit although I’ve enjoyed the reading, the research and the essay writing very much, getting my head around the literary theory and adapting my writing style to what’s required has been harder than I expected. In the past I’ve always got good grades in academic work so a B+ is disappointing. I’ve also been reassessing my priorities, given how financially punishing the last 15 months have been. So, although I still have another year to go if I want to complete the MA, I’m hoping to take a leave of absence and review it this time next year. In the meantime, I have a ton of books still to read, detailed reading lists and access to the University resources, so I’m well set up for self-directed study.

dante essay file

Are we all Zoomed out yet?

I don’t know about you but the Zoom tolerance is wearing thin now. In the early days I used to think hard about where I was sitting, or what was my hair like, the lighting etc. Now, unless I’m actually reading, I just schlepp up and hope there are no food bits between my teeth.

I’d like to offer my grateful thanks, though, to the organisers of some of the lovely poetry events that I’ve enjoyed via Zoom over the last few months:

Helen Eastman and all at Live Canon for their Friday lunchtime series, still going strong although I haven’t been able to make the last few…

Jeremy Page, The Frogmore Press and the Sussex Festival of Ideas for the Poetry South East readings…

Jo Clement and guest editor Ian Humphreys at Butcher’s Dog for a wonderful afternoon of readings for the launch of Issue 15…

All at South magazine for their launch event featuring my good friend and excellent poet Miriam Patrick…

Until we meet again!

Angst/

Faith, hope and podcasting

The sun is shining and I’m going to be gardening this afternoon. The weather is becoming less glacial and I may even be able to plant out the tomatoes. Hurray! I feel my mood lifting. The diary for May and June promises much, it looks like Nick will be working again after 15 months of enforced layoff, and musical events are on the calendar again. Not before time. I was starting to find it hard to get out of bed and not succumb to dark thoughts. But at least the pool has reopened!

In fact, the last week or two have brought some brilliant moments – not least of which was Wednesday’s launch of Antony Mair‘s new Live Canon collection A Suitcase Filled with Hope. I was proud to be able to say a few words about Antony, in front of his friends and family and many, many fine poets in the audience. He is a very modest person, but with a big talent and a huge heart. I think this is his best book yet. Highly recommended.

Last week I met up with my Planet Poetry co-producer Peter Kenny and poet friend Charlotte Gann for a few beers in Lewes. A bit of rain didn’t put us off! This is the first time Peter and I have been able to meet properly since last November, and although we thought we might do some recording for the show, we ended up just socialising.

We’re really proud of Planet Poetry;  we’ve learned as we’ve gone along, made mistakes and haven’t quite reached BBC standard yet but hey! This week I attended some sessions of a Podfest Masterclass, and although the things I heard about how to take a podcast ‘up a notch’, promote it to a wider audience, make it easier to subscribe to etc wasn’t anything I didn’t know, it was a fantastic kick up the backside. As a result Peter and I now have a domain name, plans for a website and lots of ideas for the future. We’re currently working on Episode 14, due out next week and it’s all about poetry publishing. Looking at the list of previous episodes I’m reminded how much wonderful new poetry we’ve encountered, and how many fascinating poets and editors we’ve spoken with – most recently the eminent American poet LeAnne Howe. Meanwhile here’s Peter and I in one of our recent recording sessions. Peter is ‘Proud Parsnip’ here…. don’t ask!

Robin Houghton and Peter Kenny on Planet Poetry podcast

 

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On over-exposure and other poetry ups and downs

It’s been a busy few weeks. To tell the truth, I’m feeling a little over-exposed. You know how annoying it is: Poet X has just launched this, then it’s announced they’re going to be judging some competition or other, then someone has just interviewed them or whatever and you just think I’ve had enough of Poet X and his/her face all over my social media. All I can say is that when you say yes to an interview, or send some poems to a magazine or competition, or write a review, it’s out of your control when these things hit. Sometimes it all happens at once.*

Anyway, at the start of March I had the magazines windows spreadsheet thingy to update (no I still haven’t got a short/neat name for this. Suggestions please) three interviews to edit for Planet Poetry, and the usual shedload of reading. I’d half thought I would enter the Poetry Business pamphlet competition this year, but once I’d got out my sorry pile of poems I realised it was the usual mish-mash of unrelated material with no discernible link between any of them.

Reader, I did not enter the competition. But one very good thing came of the ‘getting out the poems’ exercise, which was the realisation that with a bit of work, I had a dozen or so poems that could be good enough to send out. So I set to on the work, then did some sending out. Let the rejections or acceptances begin. I need to move forward and the only way to get my poetry-writing mojo on is to SEND SEND SEND, thus clearing the way for NEW poems.

My uni course is still online, sadly… it looks like I’m going to do an entire academic year without setting foot in the library. Thank goodness for electronic resources, and World of Books. But the handful of us majoring in poetry & poetics have chummed up on WhatsApp, and we meet for Zoom chats too, which is almost as nice as socialising in the ‘Common Room’, or wherever the socialising takes place in normal 21st century times. I got my first term essay back with a somewhat mediocre mark and dismaying feedback. I’ve certainly had some wobbly moments on this course and that was one of them. But hey ho. I’m a grown up and can take criticism, albeit through gritted teeth. And selectively. I’m doing this for fun, right?

Something that really is fun is the Planet Poetry podcast. We recently put out the 10th episode, an interview with Inua Ellams who really blew us away. A fine poet and a lovely guy. It was so interesting what he had to say – do have a listen if you haven’t already. Co-host Peter Kenny and I have a number of interviews in the pipeline and I like to think we’re getting better at it as we go along – I’ve certainly learnt a lot, and even enjoy the editing, finding music to use in between clips etc.

*OK, since you asked (!) there’s an interview with me on Abegail Morley’s website talking about life in lockdown, recordings of three poems on Mark Antony Owen‘s marvellous Iambapoet website wave 5 (going live on Monday 15th I believe) now live – and I’m currently a ‘featured poet’ on the Chichester Poetry website. Subscribers to South magazine will shortly be receiving the latest issue with featured poet Miriam Patrick, for whom I was delighted to write an introduction. I’m sure you will have seen Miriam’s work in magazines. She’s a poet for whom I genuinely feel a first pamphlet (or collection) is well overdue. Come to think of it, I know of several people in that category… I may make a blog post of it.

And finally, I’d like to mention a couple of poets I’ve discovered via the excellent Live Canon Friday lunchtime readings, whose work I’ve really enjoyed: Laura Theis and NJ Hynes. These readings are every Friday at 1pm and have been excellent – next Friday the line-up is Marcus Smith, Jill Abram, Andrea Holland and Cherie Taylor Battiste. Recommended.

(PS just noticed I’ve used THUS and two instances of WHOM in this blog post. All this academic reading must be rubbing off on me.)

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Readings this coming week, Planet Poetry & Uni stuff

Today feels like a desk-work day even though the sun is shining outside – we did go for a long walk on the Downs yesterday and I always need a day to recover after sustained exercise, although of course I have to keep up my Yoga with Adriene sessions! It was cold and frosty up on the hills yesterday, but beautiful:

On the South Downs winter walk

Poetry & Poetics course update

The good news is I wrote my essay and submitted it a week ago – woop! I could have delayed and kept fiddling with it, but I didn’t really see the point. So now I’m free to devote my reading time to Dante. It looks like the entire Spring term will be taught online, which is a shame, but I’m clinging onto the idea that as I’m doing this over two years, next year I might be able to go up to York more regularly. My small coterie of fellow students is lovely and we’ve enjoyed some sociable Zoom chats. All this is much harder for them than for cosy old me of course.

A couple of readings coming up

Nothing at all since last March and now I have two readings in a week – hmmm. Actually both are team readings, the first is on Monday 11th at 6pm (GMT), an event organised by the Mary Evans Picture Library and Arts Destination South Molton, in which 15 of us will each read a poem from the Poets and Pictures blog, accompanied by the photo or image that inspired it. We had a run through the other evening and there are some intriguing poem/picture combinations. It makes good use of Zoom to have the pictures up while we read. Lots of fine poets taking part, including Janet Sutherland, Jane Clarke, Rosie Jackson and Martyn Crucefix. Its free and open to all, but if you’re interested in attending do drop an email to Alison Verney at admin@artsdestination.co.uk who will send you a link.

Meanwhile on Thursday 14th, again at 6pm, there’s a Needlewriters/Frogmore Press Zoom event in which eight of us will read something from the Poetry South East 2020 Anthology. Drop a line to Jeremy at frogmorepress@gmail.com if you’d like a link to attend. It would be lovely to see you at either or both readings!

Planet Poetry

The podcast is back for 2021! In yesterday’s episode Peter interviewed Mario Petrucci, and then we had a bit of banter about prose poems, New Year’s resolutions and whatnot. We have some very interesting interviews coming up over the next few weeks, including Mary Jean Chan, Inua Ellams, and a number of other lovely poets and pundits to be confirmed ….why not have a listen and sign up?

Planet Poetry 7/1/21: Mario Petrucci

Spring

More good news – the days are getting longer! Daffodils are pushing up already! last week I did a big clean up in the ‘potting shed’ and that felt good. The seed catalogues are here and I’m thinking about what to plant. Bring it on!

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What I’ve been doing (and While you were Sleeping)

It’s three and a half weeks until my first term essay is due, and I’m starting to relax into it. Which may sound strange, as I know the usual narrative around deadlines is that the tension rises and the panic grows the closer they get. But instead I did all the panicking early on, when I couldn’t decide what to write about and the vastness of possibilities rose in front of me like Mount Everest. Now I have a loose topic, not exactly a plan yet, but I’m getting there. Today, a flurry of post-its. Soon: an essay plan.

post its

One of the texts I’m focusing on is a book suggested by Peter Kenny who promptly sent me his copy, which is generous of him as it appears to be out of print: Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, a poet who died too young, which may be why she’s not more well-known, certainly it seems in the UK. It’s completely gripped me and I’m going to be scrutinising it alongside Anne Carson’s brilliant Nox, another book that I’ve only recently discovered even though it’s a few years old now. Woop!

Last week was Episode 5 of Planet Poetry, in which I interviewed Jack Underwood and Peter and I talked about some of the poetry collections we’ve enjoyed this year. We’re having a few weeks off now so the next episode will be on January 7th. It’s been hard work getting ‘the Planet’ off the ground, but so stimulating and great fun to work with Peter on it.

I’ve not submitted a great many poems this year, in fact nothing in the last six months. Alongside the usual rejections it’s been super to have work published in Stand, The Frogmore Papers, The North, and I do have two poems forthcoming in Prole. But then… nothing. I hope I can get something out soon, or in 2021 I might vanish.

On a more positive note, I’m going to be taking part in an online reading for the Mary Evans Picture Library in January, and Chichester poetry are going to have me as their ‘featured poet’ in February/March. Come on Robin, write some bloody new poems why don’t you.

Meanwhile my wee group the Lewes Singers have had a quiet year, but a few of us got together for a very small, socially-distanced concert last weekend. It was so wonderful to sing with others again, if a bit tricky having to stand so far apart. And emotional. I felt myself welling up during a couple of the carols. I know there’s a lot of discussion about how to take care of our mental health at the moment, but the subtext I always hear is ‘yes but of course physical health is much more important.’ I do wonder if it shouldn’t be a more equal balance.

Yesterday I had what turns out was my last gym workout for while, so jogs on the windy seafront beckon.  And good news today: the arrival of half a dozen favourite feelgood films on second hand DVD from World of Books which Nick and I plan to hunker down with over the coming weeks. (Overboard, It’s a Wonderful Life, While you were Sleeping, Green card etc) I know what you’re thinking: only six? What about the rest of January? But some of those are going to get watched several times, I’m sure. Plus there’s always Netflix.

Thanks so much for reading/commenting on this blog. Wishing you a peaceful Christmas, and (as someone said on a card) a Happier New Year.

Angst/

– and + and so it goes

A teeny bit of a moan

How’s things with you? Well, I hope. During the first lockdown I was happy to enjoy the garden and revel in the novelty of it all. I trusted (more or less) what we were being told. I admit I’m feeling a bit ground down by it all now.

I’ve just deleted an entire paragraph I wrote here, as I deemed it too negative. All the planning and hoping is what keeps me going I think, but it feels exhausting trying to stay glass-half-full while under what feels like the constant attack of glass-half-empty people. I don’t want to add to the negativity with my own angst, so let’s move on.

So now the positive

My booklet on getting published in UK poetry mags is selling even better than the first edition – wowsers! And THANK YOU for buying it, telling your friends/students/social media contacts all about it.

Planet Poetry, the podcast I co-host with Peter Kenny, is generating some lovely comments. Thank you for that too! Working with Peter on the podcast has been one of the things keeping me positive.

There’s so much I’m enjoying about the course I’m doing, not least of all how it’s opening my eyes to so much great poetry and ideas about poetry that I’d never have encountered otherwise. My bookshelf is bulging. There’s enough reading there to keep me going for the rest of my life, I think.

We’re still planning on having a scaled-down Lewes Singers Christmas concert: venues and singers booked, music distributed. It’ll be intimate. But OH HOW MUCH Nick and I want it to happen, even if we’re only singing to ourselves and a handful of friends and family.

Right, I’m off to a Zoom seminar on the poetics of Don Paterson and Ben Lerner (whose novel 10:04 I absolutely loved.)

Have a good weekend, and here’s to the free life that we took so much for granted. May it return.

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So no fireworks this week then? Hmmm

What a week. That election (can’t bring myself to watch). Another lockdown starts. Planet Poetry Episode 2 coming up. And I’ve just turned 60.

Planet Poetry

Peter Kenny and I were thrilled and touched by the feedback on our podcast first episode. Episode 2 goes live on Thursday, when I’m interviewing Clare Shaw (yeah, baby!) and Peter meets editor of Channel magazine Elizabeth Murtough.

Meanwhile we’re having an editorial meetup tomorrow in Lewes, the day before what would have been Bonfire Night but is now the day before lockdown. The Bonfire Boys and Girls have been told by their societies not to congregate or let off any ‘rookies’, but I can imagine the pubs will still be a tad busy. What are we thinking of? It should make a colourful recording.

Search for Planet Poetry wherever you subscribe to podcasts, or you can listen to episodes here after they are live.

The York MA

I’ve handed in my first assignment! Not that it carries any marks, it’s just a chance for them to make sure we can put one word in front of another, know how NOT to plagiarise and NOT to being a sentence with ‘and’. And I hope I’ve passed.

Whether I’ll make it to another ‘face to face’ seminar this term is anyone’s guess, but it’s looking unlikely. Ah well. More zooming.

Submissions, writing etc

Bad news! I’ve nothing out to mags at the moment. But I do have a dozen or so poems that have been rejected numerous times this year, so I ought to go back to them really, but I’m enjoying reading and writing about real poets at the moment, too much really, to bear looking at my own attempts, but that’s OK. It’ll happen.

Actually I had a poem in The Frogmore Papers recently, and I’ve two poems forthcoming in Prole next month I think, all of which I’m very grateful for, so I shouldn’t be moaning anyway.

The updated ‘Guide’

It’s out! My updated version of ‘A Guide to Getting Published in UK Poetry Magazines’ is here and I’ve sent out the pre-orders. Can I tempt you to a copy? Or someone you know? What else are we doing to do during lockdown except write and send out our poems? It’s a mere £6 including UK postage (£1 extra to send to the EU and £2 extra to North America).

Comps news

No, I’m not reneging on my vow to NOT enter single-poem comps this year. I did waver a bit when it came to the National Poetry Comp deadline, but as someone said on Twitter, having made the long list last year I rather feel lightning won’t strike twice (unless you’re Ian Duhig of course, who actually WON it twice). But that shouldn’t stop you, of course! I’ve been asked to promote the Cafe Writers Competition which closes 30th November (1st prize £1,000) and there are a plethora of magazines with their windows wide open this month, but more about that in a forthcoming post.

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Planet Poetry takes off

A quick time out from poring over Virgil…

Planet Poetry the new podcast from Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny

The first episode of Planet Poetry is launching this afternoon, stand back! We’re starting with a big hitter – Pascale Petit gives a fascinating interview about her collection Tiger Girl (shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection – results this weekend!) and the themes in her work.

Peter and I would have loved to meet today for a self-congratulatory launch PINT (or is it a PIE?) but that will have to wait for now.

PP is now listed in the main directories so it should be available wherever you get your podcasts. Or just have a listen on our Buzzsprout site – the trailer gives you an idea. Exciting times!

OK, back to the Underworld…