Tag: the rialto

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Rejections, invitations, forthcoming events & what I’m reading

Despite feeling quite positive about what I’m writing at the moment, I’ve started the year with rejections from two magazines.

As usual, when I checked what it was I sent out, I thought well OK I guess it wasn’t my best work. But that can’t be right, because I remember being happy with it before sending. So who knows what kind of mind-bending reverse-psychology self-help bullshit I’m trying to pull on myself. Anyway, I wasn’t too aggrieved, partly because they were magazines I hadn’t tried before. And also I think I’m robust enough not to get too hung up on rejections these days.

I still have a handful of poems out and awaiting judgement. The question is – do I dare send out any of the new material? Or re-send the old stuff? Although I’m working around just a couple of themes at the moment, with en eye to a collection, part of me thinks I still need to get some of the individual poems published. Even though experience tells me that many new collections contain only a small percentage of published poems, if the ‘acknowledgements’ sections are to be believed.

A few interesting things on the horizon

The indomitable Helen Eastman of Live Canon has invited me, as one of the four 2019 pamphleteers, to read at the Boulevard Theatre in London on March 8th, at its weekly Sunday Service series. We all had our joint launch at the Boulevard in November, in the bar, and it was a brilliant event. I’m so glad this time I won’t have to rush off to get the last train home. I’m so hoping I can persuade friends to come to this, as my only invitee to make the Live Canon launch was lovely non-poet friend Lucy, who is such a stalwart at supporting me. Let’s see.

I was recently asked if I would judge a poetry competition for a local writers’ group, and of course I’m flattered. But with great power comes great responsibility! Being a closed competition there won’t be a huge number of entries, however they do expect feedback. I think it will be fun though.

Last week I was at the National Poetry Library in London perusing the magazines with a view to updating my quarterly list of poetry magazines, submissions criteria and windows. There are quite a few ‘artisanal’ mags among the collection – limited edition, handmade, quirky formats etc – and I was also reminded how poetry journals come and go. Magazine publishing is a tough job, for sure. Many are called to it, not so many manage to keep it going. And yet alongside the artisanal and the fleeting are the grandees that have been going 50, 70, 100 years. If you’re not on the list but would like to receive the update,  please sign up on my ‘About’ page. Next update beginning of March.

On Saturday 22nd February it’s the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair in London, back at Conway Hall. It feels like it’s been ages since the last one so it’ll be a pleasure to re-visit. I’ll be helping out Jeremy Page on the Frogmore Press table in the afternoon – please come and say hello if you’re there!

Currently reading

This month’s random shelf-pick is R F Langley’s Complete Poems (Carcanet 2015) which I’m reading through without pausing to re-read anything until I reach the end (much in the style of my ‘Reading List‘ project). Having not read anything of his before it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’m not far enough through to come to any conclusion yet.

One collection I keep going back to is Kim Addonizio’s Wild Nights (Bloodaxe 2015). I’m back into it again this month. Kim’s work is such a palate-cleanse and there’s always something new in it for me.

Dante’s Paradiso has slipped down the pile a little – I’m finding it the toughest of the three Divine Comedy Cantiche. I’m dipping in and out of it though.

Coming up: I have Anthony Wilson’s The Afterlife (Worple Press 2019) in my to-read pile, and am looking forward to it. Anthony is undergoing a self-imposed ‘digital detox’ at the moment, the results of which I await with interest.

Just arrived: The Rialto 93 – a quick glance tells me there are some new-to-me names and some experimental-looking poems. Interesting…

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A birthday post and on magazines

poetry wall

Ooh. Lots of interesting discussion & comment around my last post. Thank you to everyone who engaged! (Feels a bit of a sham/shame to use that 21st century term but you know what I mean: commented, shared, liked/disliked etc).

Meanwhile, on another blog (when I update it that is) I’m telling the story of our new sheds. Yes, plural! I’m talking about the replacement structure for two sheds, a tool shed and and ‘summerhouse’ which we inherited, and loved, but which ultimately wasn’t really doing the job we needed of it. To cut a long story short, the old tool shed and summerhouse have been relocated 150 yards up to the communal garden, and they look perfectly at home up there. Meanwhile to replace them we’ve had built for us a wooden structure which incorporates two ‘rooms’ – a tool shed (yeah OK a ‘mancave’) and a potting shed/half greenhouse/she-shed. It’s exciting, but it’s more for garden stuff than anything else.

I can’t rival anything like Abegail Morley’s iconic Poetry Shed, alas, BUT I couldn’t help but insert a poetry element: a wall of poems! I’ve often wailed about the number of poetry magazines I have and how they take up an inordinate amount of space on the bookshelves. SO how about tearing out a bunch of poems from various mags, and use them to paper a wall in the ‘pottery’ (as we’re calling it – don’t ask!)? First of all I thought I’d look for ‘garden’ or outdoor-related poems. But it expanded to other topics too – basically poems I just liked and wanted to be able to read and enjoy anytime I’m pottering in my pottery! Also, we do have two very small grandchildren, and part of my vision is to welcome them into the pottery as they get older, to do some gardening fun and get them interested in gardening (the older one is already getting into it) – so how about poetry too??

So out came the mags – I started with the earliest and worked from there – so actually ended up with a lot of poems from 2010 – 2017 and maybe not many more recent, but hey. I took out all the Rattles, Agendas, Proles, Frogmore Papers, Poetry Reviews, Poetry, Rialtos, Tears in the Fence, Obsessed with Pipework and so forth, got out a sharp knife and started excising…

And a funny thing happened. (I should use that as the title for this post, in true Clickbait style!) I read. And read, and realised I’d either not  read these magazines properly or it was so long ago I’d forgotten all the great poems. I took several days over it, but really enjoyed the process, because I discovered/rediscovered some wonderful poems. (In the comments on my last post, Claire Booker noted that many poets don’t actually read the magazines in which their poems appear, or even subscribe to... and I had a twinge of guilt when I read that. I thought I had read these magazines but clearly a cursory lookie didn’t really cut it.)

So I ended up with more poems than I needed to paper the wall. Plus a few air bubbles that I tried to ‘mend’, some more successfully than others. I was careful to place poems with ‘swearage’ (a term I’ve learned from a poet friend – although autocorrect wants to change it to ‘sewerage’ – how appropriate!) further up the wall so that four-year-olds don’t read it and do the classic “nana what does X$%!@ mean?” The photo shows it in progress, I’ve since finished but need to varnish the wall to protect it a bit from the vagaries of shed-dom (damp, condensation etc). I may be putting a mirror on the wall, so I tried to place my faves on the outer fringes so they’re not hidden. A confession: I included 3 of my own poems, although more for fun – I like the idea of someone who maybe doesn’t know I write poetry ‘happening’ on them – ha ha.

PS:  Today is my birthday. In the 1980s I would have bought you all a cream cake. Honestly. Today I just say I hope you have a lovely, lovely day, and let’s all go outside, take a deep breath, and thank whoever or whatever you’d like for being alive. XX

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Being on the happy side of a fine line, and other August musings

August. Already. Do you remember how summer holidays seemed in childhood – a long holiday starting late July (for those of us in state schools) and extending only really to the end of August? But it seemed like ages, and that summer didn’t really begin until the school term was done with. But now, the beginning of August has me thinking ‘oh no please can the summer please slow down?’ because September is just around the corner. I suppose it’s one of the joys of accumulating many years of life, and appreciating every day all the more. So here we are: the garden starting to look blousy, the evenings getting shorter but actually warmer than in June, Autumn events looking a lot nearer.

The last couple of weeks have produced a healthy mix of good and bad news. On the same day as learning that Live Canon are going to publish my pamphlet (yay), I had a rejection from The Rialto (boo). The day after congratulating myself that my new low-carb eating regime (I refuse to call it a diet!) is doing a good job of staving off the steroid-induced fat gain everyone has promised me, a friend I haven’t seen in ages tells me I’m definitely suffering from ‘moon face’ (BOO). And just as some of the tomato plants I’ve been growing have begun to produce lovely sweet yellow fruit, another variety is suffering from ‘bottom end rot’. Hmmm.

Tomatoes Gold Nugget
Some you win …
Tomato bottom end rot
… some you lose

Actually the Rialto rejection was one of the nicest I’ve ever received, in that editor Michael Mackmin gave me thoughtful and helpful feedback on what wasn’t working for him. He has to be at least as overworked as all other poetry magazine editors, so this kind of thing is unexpected and appreciated. And of course I’d just heard about the Live Canon pamphlet competition, so who wouldn’t be feeling resilient after that? My fellow Live Canon selectees/finalists/winners (delete as appropriate) are serious poets: Tania Hershman, Katie Griffiths and Miranda Peake, and I’m having to work hard to stem the imposter syndrome feelings. The longlist contained many fine poets. The way I look at it is this: there is inevitably a very fine line, a hair’s breadth maybe, between longisted and finalist. This time the poems made the cut. Many times they do not. The whole thing is competitive and it’s nuts, but I choose to play the game.  SO … I am very grateful to Live Canon, and the pamphlet may be arriving as early as November. The working title is Was it the Diet Coke, and other questions.

Meanwhile, I’m currently enjoying the Live Canon Summer Treasure Hunt, getting to know new poets and poems. It’s a pleasant way to spend half an hour each day, and it’s expanding my reading. Just another example of the innovative and engaging activities Live Canon come up with (oh yeah I would say that wouldn’t I?)

And talking about expanding reading, here’s an interesting challenge from Electric Lit: 31 poets recommend 31 books to ready every day in August. A book a day? Even the Reading List challenge I set myself wasn’t that demanding. But it’s a good list for reference.

I’ve also had the privilege of singing in a little choir of five at no less than two weddings in the last month. I love being able to contribute to a couple’s wedding day and it never fails to move me, to experience the joy and love that fills the church, to feel again how lucky I am to love and be loved. OH STOP, I really must be getting older. I’d better stop now before I make you nauseous…

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New: how-to guide to submitting to UK poetry magazines, plus new collaborations

New book!

With the UK poetry magazines submissions windows spreadsheet becoming so popular, I’ve decided to take it step further: a how-to booklet – everything you need to know about submitting to UK poetry mags – well, pretty much everything apart from how to write stunning poems – ha ha! I leave that kind of advice well and truly up to others!

There will be honest advice from magazine editors, tips on how to minimise your admin, dealing with rejections, up-to-date magazine profiles, mistakes to avoid… and more. As much as I can squish into a pocket-book, basically. Expect bullets, calls to action, URLs and minimal padding. This will be a lean, mean fact-packed machine. Magazine submissions is a topic that comes up regularly on this blog and always generates questions and discussion, so let’s get stuck in.

More details to follow soon.

Collaboration for Poetry in Aldeburgh

I love autumn and its sense of re-starting, of new opportunities. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to take part in Maria Isakova Bennett‘s Aldeburgh Collaborative, a project involving poets all over the country sharing a moment at the coast on the last day of August. Maria is the artist-in-residence at the Poetry in Aldeburgh festival in November, alongside Michael Brown, and her collaborative piece will be on display there. It’s sure to include hand-stitching and a strong visual element. Here’s a fascinating interview with Maria on Paul Stevenson’s blog where she talks to him about her projects.

Another potential collaboration

I was recently contacted by a visual artist who liked a poem of mine on the Mary Evans Picture Library ‘Poems and Pictures’ website called ‘Ladies’ Hour’. She has in mind a collaborative project which sounds really exciting. We’re both new to collaborations, but we’re both at the same sort of stage in our careers and looking for new challenges. Of course there’s the usual issue of funding to apply for first. I also need to stay focused on my first collection, although this new project would be spread out through the year. I’ll keep you posted as to how it pans out.

Magazine news

The Rialto has just opened its window for poetry submissions. It’s a fantastic magazine to get work into, with a fine reputation. It’s competitive, but Michael Mackmin and his assistant editors are always open to new voices. Good luck.

Not really news, but I’ve just taken out a subscription to Strix, a new-ish magazine produced in Leeds (thank you to Heidi Beck for the recommendation) and am loving first of all the presentation. OK I know looks aren’t everything, but it’s joyful when you have something of beauty in your hands. I’m also already enjoying the poetry inside, work by Julie Mellor and Helen Burke in particular.

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Roundup | a good poetry week

Bit of a roundup post. Last Tuesday evening at West Greenwich Library I got to hear some super poems inspired by the Mary Evans Picture Library, by Sarah Westcott (who I almost didn’t recognise because her new, chic pixie haircut was different to her Twitter pic!) Lorraine Mariner, Mick Delap, Peter Wallis and others – including Sarah’s father Richard, who was also kind enough to buy my pamphlet (!) I bought Lorraine Mariner’s collection There will be no more nonsense (Picador) and have romped through it. Recommended!

lorraine mariner - there will be no more nonsense

I wasn’t able to go to my regular Hastings Stanza group on Wednesday which was a shame, but on Thursday there was a bit of a poets’ reunion at Needlewriters from which I came away enthused – about recent writing, about our plans for Telltale Press, and about catching up with poet friends.

Then on Saturday I was in Brighton for a small group workshop given by Jackie Wills. The day started well (trains running!), until I realised I’d gone to the wrong address entirely. So after a leisurely twenty minute walk from the station, I then turned into a crazy woman trying to find her way across town to the actual venue – and let me tell you Brighton is hilly! So I arrived 40 minutes late, red in the face and carrying all the layers I’d taken off en route while overheating. I then started developing a headache from hell so by the end of the day I was very grateful for sharing a taxi back to the station with two of my fellow poets. I somehow managed to run for the train and then sat through the journey with my eyes closed, praying not to be sick.

And yet! I enjoyed the day very much – Jackie presented us with a series of exercises that were all based on poems by quite different poets, from Thomas Sheridan to Adrienne Rich. I came away with plenty of writing roughs that felt work-uppable.

Meanwhile I have The Rialto still to read properly. It was bittersweet to see two of my poems on a double page spread. It’s always brilliant to get something in The Rialto, but (and I don’t think this is unusual) part of me worries straight away that everything around it always seems so MUCH better. And instead of enjoying the moment I’m thinking how high the next hill is to climb. I did read a very insightful piece recently which I thought shed light on this – how focusing on goals means that satisfaction is always in the future or the past – The Problem of Living in the Present. It’s not about ‘mindfulness’. Worth a read if any of this resonates with you.

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New – List of UK poetry magazine submission windows

window at chichester station

It’s been a while since I updated my last year’s post on this topic and I decided it was worth starting from scratch, as a few web addresses and/or submissions policies had changed, plus it’s given me a chance to review them all. As a result I’ve now got a list of 48 UK (well, one or two Europe/non-UK) poetry journals (some also include fiction, reviews, artwork etc in their pages, but I’ve tried to focus on poetry-led publications.) The list includes:

  • a link to their poetry submissions page
  • regular windows/ dates when you can submit, and/or next ‘open window’ (where available). I’ve also included a couple of mags that I’ve mentioned before but that now appear to be closed.
  • how many poems to send
  • whether they accept simultaneous submissions
  • submissions method (eg email, Submittable, post)
  • notes of anything unusual, eg no responses sent

You still need to visit the submissions pages as some of them are VERY long and specific!

Caveat

There’s an element of recommendation here; it’s not a comprehensive list of magazines. The majority of them I’ve either read, submitted to, or both. There are a few that have been recommended, and which look good. I’m always happy to hear of others – I’m sure there are tons more, please feel free to tell us in the comments if you want to mention any – and if it’s a publication I’d consider submitting to myself then I’ll add it to the list when I update it.

Beat ‘overwhelm’ with a system that suits you

This may look like a daunting list. More and more magazines have submissions windows, and some give little notice of openings, so you may need to follow them on social media or by email in order to be ‘in the know’. As I’m sure I’ve said before, I recommend having a system for keeping track of submissions – I use a good old-fashioned spreadsheets but there are other tools, some more user-friendly than others.

Submitting to magazines: workshop in Lewes, East Sussex

One more thing I’d like to mention – if you’re within travelling distance of Lewes, there’s a workshop coming up called ‘Poetry Submissions Without Tears’ being led by Janet Sutherland and Maria Jastrzębska. They say it’s a ‘hands-on workshop for beginning and more experienced poets on submitting to poetry magazines and anthologies’. It’s on October 21st and full details are here. Janet and Maria are experienced poets who walk the talk, as well as being all-round nice and generous people, so if you’re even slightly unsure about the whole submissions process then this is for you.

List of UK poetry magazines and their submissions windows, etc

There are a few European (non-UK) journals on the list, mainly because they seem to take poems from UK poets, or they just happen to be on my radar.

I’ve done the complete list as a free PDF download. Here are some example listings:

The North – currently open, but closing September 1st. Submit up to 6 poems by post only (so be quick!). No stated policy on simultaneous submissions.

Agenda – currently open, but could close any time. Submit up to 5 poems, by email only. No stated policy on simultaneous submissions.

The Rialto – submit any time, via Submittable or by post. Send up to 5 poems. Simultaneous submissions – OK.

Ink, Sweat & Tears – recently moved to submissions windows – the next opens 2nd October. Send 4 – 6 poems (‘no more, no less’) by email only. No simultaneous submissions.

Get the full list

I’ve created this as a spreadsheet and saved it as a PDF with live links, which I hope makes it easier to work from. It’s also a lot less work for me than to reproduce the whole list on a blog post! I’d be happy to share it with you – please email me if you’d like a copy (I’d rather you didn’t just ask in the comments as that’s harder for me to monitor. Thanks!)

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Readings, launches & other poetry news

Launch of Clare Best's Springlines

There’s been a flurry of poetry events lately and lovely things happening.

Hastings Stanza reading

A couple of weeks back the Hastings Poetry Stanza had its second evening of readings as part of the St Leonards Festival. Somehow we all crammed into the bijou bookshop The Bookkeeper, the proprietors of which are extremely supportive of local poetry and generously laid on drinks and nibbles. The heard a wonderful variety of styles and subject matter, from Gavin Martin’s hilarious riff-rant on Liam Fox to some understated and moving work from Andrea Samuelson.

Huge thanks as ever to Antony Mair for managing everything so calmly and efficiently. A most convivial (& warm in every sense of the word) event – and somehow I managed to spill three glasses of wine before a drop had even passed my lips. Serves me right for wearing white trousers.

Clare Best book launch

Last Thursday I was at the newly-opened Depot in Lewes on what felt like the hottest day of the year for the launch of Springlines, the book of Clare Best’s collaboration with artist Mary Ann Aytoun-Ellis. We heard some short readings, enjoyed a rolling slide show of the photos and artwork from the book, shots of Clare’s notebooks (I enjoyed these particularly!) plus photos of previous events around the project. Two years ago I saw the exhibition at Glyndebourne of some of Mary Ann’s paintings and Clare’s poems and it was magnificent. Some of these, together with new work, is currently on show at Tunbridge Wells Museum. Do go see it if you’re anywhere nearby.

In the capacity of my ‘day job’ I’ve recently finished a revamp of Clare’s website – also worth a visit, especially for the lovely recordings Clare has made of several of her poems.

A bit about singing

By the way I passed my singing exam – despite a pathetic showing in the sight-reading test I managed to ‘perform’ the songs convincingly. Today I’m singing with Eastbourne Choral Society in their summer concert (summer is traditionally ‘easy listening’ – show medleys, a bit of Gilbert & Sullivan, John Rutter’s folk-song medley ‘Sprig of Thyme’ etc). It sometimes seems as if both choral singing and poetry take a hiatus in the summer on the assumption that no-one is around during the school holidays, so there’s inevitably a big spree of launches/readings/concerts/festivals before the end of June & July.

Speaking of which…

Magma launch

Magma 68 is having a launch event at the London Review Bookshop on Friday 28th July. I’m hoping to combine reading a poem there with a visit to the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum as it’s just around the corner from the bookshop. It’s the first time I’ve had a poem in Magma so I’m excited about this.

A bit about acceptances & rejections

I’ve had a huge amount of luck this year and it’s a strange feeling to have so many poems in the ‘forthcoming’ pile.

This week I heard that The Rialto are taking two poems for their August issue. This kind of news is always reassuring. Believe me, I get as many rejections as the next poet – I make a point of mentioning all of them here in order to show the real situation, not a sugar-coated one. But I also mention the acceptances, to show that persistence can sometimes pay off. The two poems that The Rialto liked have both been rejected elsewhere, one in particular has been floating around for three years, been rejected by six magazines and got nowhere in two competitions. I have certainly tweaked it from time to time, in between sending out. But not substantially.

I currently have five poems in the ‘recently rejected/review and re-send’ file – three came back from The Poetry Review (I can only try!), one from The Rialto and one from Poetry News. It’s now a question of do I have anything newer that’s ready to go, or do I ‘review and re-send’? Historically I tend not to send something out right away but let it sit and stew for at least a few months. So maybe I’ve answered my own question there.

Angst/

The poetry competition game

Compers NewsPerhaps that could be a poem title? Should I send it to the Poetry London comp, or is more of a Poetry on the Lake  sort of title? Could I get some kind of double meaning out of ‘game’ in order to make it a nature poem and would it appeal to Simon Armitage when judging the Rialto comp?

‘Games’ were fun things we did as kids, weren’t they? if you discount ‘games’ – that Wednesday afternoon ritual at secondary school that usually involved mud, cold and not being picked for the team. But now we have gaming. Gamesmanship. Game over. Not fun any more. Or is it?

If we decide to enter poetry competitions we could approach it as a game (ie a bit of fun). We give a go, and if we win it’s great – sometimes a cash prize, sometimes a prize giving event or publication. Or in the case of a big competition, career-enhancing. We don’t mind paying to enter because it’s a lot of work for judges and organisers. And besides, the entry fees are a way of giving something back to poetry – the promoters of competitions are usually publishers after all, or champions of poetry in some way.

Is there an alternative? In the wider world of ‘comping’, there are people who make a good living from competitions and win more iPads, Audis and holidays than they can cope with. Apparently the secret is to approach it systematically. Less beach cricket, more The Hunger Games. A serious comper will tell you it’s a waste of time NOT to approach it this way.

So is that also true of poetry competitions? I’ve read various posts about this – what makes for a competition-winning poem, what ‘due diligence’ should be done before entering a competition, whether you’ve got more chance in a smaller competition than a big one (not as obvious as it sounds!) Judges are often happy to give their side of it, either being helpful before the fact (Emma Lee has written a good article outlining exactly what she looks for when judging a competition) or in judge’s reports (which often tell is like it is – essential reading!) Personally, I find the shortlists and longlists (for those competitions that make them public) tell you a lot. I’m often amazed at some ‘big name’ poets entering competitions. And the sheer number of entries from some poets – either money’s no object or their strategy is spend big to win big…

I also read recently (can’t remember on whose blog – help me out, someone) that competition-winning poems don’t necessarily have a place in a pamphlet (and vice versa). I quite enjoy sometimes writing to a theme, but is writing ‘competition poems’ anathema to a poet working on a pamphlet or a collection? And yet that’s a bit of a broad judgement too –  look at Ian Duhig’s marvellous The Lammas Hireling, winning the National and then the title poem of a fine collection.

I came across this interesting piece by Jendi Reiter which, although it’s primarily to do with submitting to US journals and competitions, I still found useful. I rather like her reminder that if you enter competitions, “you’re going to get a lot more rejection than validation, and internalizing others’ opinions of your worth will lead to writers’ block or fearful, unoriginal writing.” I think this is one reason I’m so ambivalent about it. I’m not sure I can keep up a healthy attitude to writing poetry at the same time as entering comps. And yet part of me enjoys the game, and every now and then I can’t resist it.

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Submissions, readings, blogging books

Orford Ness

I’ve been busy with work stuff lately so just a quick update.

I had another rejection from The Poetry Review (but a nice note from Maurice Riordan) and I’m still awaiting news on half a dozen magazines I have poems out to. After umming and ahhing about submitting my short pamphlet to Templar Iota Shots I finally decided it was good enough to go.

The thing about submitting to Templar is that it doesn’t have different judges each time (unlike, say, the Poetry Business Pamphlet competition.) This means that if Templar editor Alex McMillen doesn’t like one’s style, he possibly never will. Some of the poems in the collection I submitted are the same or new versions of ones which I included in my submission last year. Let’s hope they’re not memorable or horrible enough to hinder my second go at it.

On the positive side, I can’t complain about my poetry autumn, having a poem appear in the current Rialto, winning the Stanza comp and being invited to read at Keats House – which is on Wednesday 26th November by the way – I’m REALLY hoping there’ll be some familiar, friendly faces in the audience – it’s the Poetry Society AGM and I’ll be reading alongside Daljit Nagra and Suzannah Fitzpatrick. Must start practising.

As regards Telltale Press, Peter and I have been contacting potential Telltale poets and putting our heads together on all sorts of plans …  we’re hosting another reading at the Poetry Cafe in London on January 7th, with special guest Canadian poet Rhona McAdam. Hope you can come to that!

I’ve enjoyed reading the accounts of Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, here’s how Sarah Salway captured it, and of course Anthony Wilson wrote several insightful posts as blogger in residence. Next year I’ll be there with poet friends Clare and Charlotte – the beach house is already booked. So looking forward to that!

Meanwhile it’s all kicking off with ‘Blogging for Writers’ – I’m in the process of organising a Blog Tour which is shaping up nicely, then there’s the blog to update, blog posts to write… I even have a guest blog post booked in for an excellent US site next April, which is when the next blogging book is due to launch, and readings for that are being discussed already, so I could be in for a busy Spring.

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Launches, readings, online course, a new book … busy autumn

Someone posted recently on Twitter that poetry seemed to be “mostly about reading, writing and waiting”.  I know I’ve certainly had that kind of year up until a few weeks ago. I’d have to wait to do one of my ‘stock takes’ to see if I’ve been sending out less work this year than last, it’s felt a bit like the doldrums but in reality it may just be that I’ve had more rejections this year than before. I love autumn, and right now I’m feeling busy and fulfilled with various projects on the go, so maybe there’s a little momentum building.

New Writing South course brochure

The first half of the year was mostly about writing (non fiction) books, the first of which is scheduled for release in November. This Monday (29th) I’m giving a talk / leading a discussion for Hastings & St Leonards Writers’ Hub  about social media and blogging, as a prelim to my one-day courses for New Writing South – the first of which is coming up in October. I also have a piece to write for Poetry News, on the subject of poets blogging.

I’m also mentoring a couple of writers at the moment on their blogging, social web presence and the rest. It’s great fun to help others get to grips with it all in a way that works for them.

Next Wednesday sees the public launch of Telltale Press, the new poets’ collective I’ve started with Peter Kenny and under the expert editorial guidance of Catherine Smith. We’ve already had the two private launches in Lewes and Hove, both of which were lovely, warm events. We all sold loads of copies of our pamphlets/books and received positive comments about Telltale. The list of jobs to do once the launch is over is long – looking forward to it though. It feels like such an empowering, carpe diem sort of thing to be doing. Our guest readers next Wednesday are Anja Konig (new pamphlet out with Flipped Eye) and Rishi Dastidar (recently appointed assistant editor at The Rialto.) Do come along if you can, details are here.

On the poetry writing front, I’ve just started an online course at the Poetry School which is proving to be excellent for developing my critiquing skills, having written detailed notes on something like 12 students’ poems so far, and we’re only on the first of 5 sessions. My own first poem has only had comments from three people, so I’m hoping that improves and I start to get some useful feedback in return. There are some interesting poets on the course so I’ll enjoy seeing how all of our writing develops.

Meanwhile I’ve got some lovely things to look forward to:  forthcoming poems in The Rialto and South, a weekend with poet friends, listening to, reading and workshopping poetry at Swindon Festival of Poetry, readings of my own at the Needlewriters here in Lewes next January, plus a high-profile reading in the autumn (to be confirmed). And with a bit of luck, the launch of Blogging for Writers, for which I’m hoping to organise a blog tour. Hurrah!

I’ve been enjoying my bagload of books from the Poetry Book Fair, by the way, and will be sharing some of that here in coming weeks.

Benjamin Britten memorial window in Aldeburgh churchOh and I almost forgot – thank you so much for all the encouragement after my post about having to sing a solo and getting a bit stressed. The concert went wonderfully, I did my little ‘mouse’ spot and sang out – what the hell! – I thought of the words I was singing, from Christopher Smart’s fantastical Jubilate Agno, and felt privileged to have the opportunity. I think I was also inspired by a recent visit to Benjamin Britten’s Aldeburgh and learning more about him. He was a great champion of amateur music makers and I hope I did him proud. And as Jean Tubridy said, “This is what living is about!”