Tag: Popshot

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December at last! And the submissions list update…

So, I made it to December without a drop of alcohol passing my lips! I hope you are impressed, because I am.

Today I’ve been updating the spreadsheet of Poetry Magazine Submissions Windows, hoping to email it out today but now it looks like tomorrow. I’ve had to drag my website into 2019 in various ways and that plus visiting all the magazines’ sites and figuring out if they are actually open for submissions or not has rather exhausted me. But I’m enjoying my first sip of wine in a month. Can you tell?

Actually if you have any poems on the theme of ‘mystery’ and if you’re quick you could still submit to Popshot, whose window closes tomorrow at 9am (before the list is due to go out) – go on! In fact, why am I not sending them something right now, instead of writing this blog post??

In other news, I’ve finally added a ‘shop’ to my website, which means if any lovely person wishes to buy any of my pamphlets, including the new one from Live Canon, they can do so on my website – who knew!?

PS a quick shout out for Heather Walker’s blog – she’s been posting (pretty much) every day in November and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. It was down to her that I not only decided to go see the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy, but decided to re-join as a Friend. There’s something very meditative about reading a daily blog. It kind of lets you in on the rhythm of a person’s life. From the blogger’s point of view you don’t have to do worry about whether it’s interesting enough, because writing something every day is interesting in itself. And for the reader, following the day-to-day of another person’s life feels somehow reassuring.

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Some poetry magazine submissions windows now open

windows-scales-weights

For behold! Some windows are now opening, namely…

Agenda – opens today, June 1st – with the promise of a 12 week turnaround time. Submit by email only.

Bare Fiction – submit now for Issue 8, deadline 10th July.

Popshot – is announcing its theme for the next issue tomorrow (June 2nd)

Long Poem Magazine – opens today for the whole of June.

The Interpreter’s House – open for the month of June. Submit by email or post.

Good luck, and don’t forget to check the guidelines as they vary from magazine to magazine.

Most editors suggest you read the mags first before submitting (not unreasonably!) Although it can get expensive you could always take out subscriptions on a rota basis, which is what I do – subscribe to, say, 3 mags per year but change to 3 different ones when the subscription period is up. It seems a fair way of spreading around limited funds and also gives you a good overview of the different styles of magazine. It also exposes you to poets and (reviews of) collections you might not otherwise encounter.

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Out and about the next few weeks . . .

There seems to be plenty happening at the moment, so here’s a quick round-up of some things I’m going to / involved with …

Improve your social web presence - for writers

Firstly, please bear with me if I give a quick plug to my short course at New Writing South which starts tomorrow week, 26th September, 6.30 – 9pm for three weeks, on ‘Improving your social web presence’. It’s basically for any writer who has made small inroads into social media but may be struggling a bit – with finding the time, wondering what to blog or tweet about, not sure how to find writer communities online, struggling with the etiquette or thinking about a Facebook Page, that sort of thing. Lots of practical examples and exercises designed to help writers be inspired, develop useful contacts and find the joy in social media. It’s £80 for the 3 sessions and 10% discount for NWS members. I think there are only 2 places left but I’ll no doubt be running it again in the Spring.

Faber social

Next Tuesday 24th I’m excited to be going to a Faber Social to hear Sam Riviere, Ruth Padel and others plus music. Yay!

Coming up very soon is my trip to Ty Newydd Writers’ Centre for a residential week with Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke. I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty epic and I’m so looking forward to it. Not sure what the broadband is like there, so I may be off the grid for a week and blogging about it when I get back.

Next month I’m planning to get to the Troubadour evening on October 21st to hear an array of lovely poets – it’ll be my first trip to the Troubadour, so am looking forward to that. Details of all the autumn Troubadour readings are here. The next day at Keat’s House in Hampstead, the idea of hearing poetry heavyweights Don Share and Maurice Riordan debate Ezra Pound’s ‘Don’ts’ is just too tempting. Tickets for that event are available from the Poetry Society.

Later that week a bit closer to home is Needlewriters, a quarterly event in Lewes. The October 24th event features our very own John Agard and Grace Nichols, so it’s bound to be a sell-out. I’m delighted to have been invited to join the organising committee of Needlewriters. It’s not really a committee as such – with minutes, officers and regulations – thankfully.  (What is it about the word committee? We need a new word which encompasses the idea of a group of organisers working for a common cause, but without the connotations of officiousness, jobsworthyness and petty politics. Or maybe that’s just my take on it?)

Let me know if you going to any of the above, and let’s say hello.

TFL poets

PS completely off-topic but I noticed on the Popshot blog that Transport for London are seeking a number of poets-in-residence to work out of tube stations during the week of National Poetry Day – if you’re in London it sounds like a lot of fun – details here (PDF).