April 2019 - Saboteur Awards

                                  

I am very happy to share the news that I’ve been shortlisted for ‘Best Reviewer’ for the Saboteur Awards this year! Especially so when there are some very strong reviewers out there. It has also motivated me to sit down and write a post that I’ve been writing in my head for a long while now. So thanks to the Saboteur Awards I am now (finally) updating my blog!

The reason for writing this post is to explain the work I do as Reviews Editor for Under the Radar, alongside Jane Commane.  This is a role I took up 5 years ago. I’d been writing reviews for a few years by that point, and had pieces published for The Times Literary Supplement and various online poetry sites, such as Sphinx. The first TLS piece was back in May 2009, when the twins were only a year old and I doubted very much I was ‘clever’ enough to have anything accepted by them. I worked against that feeling and my first review on an academic book on slang was published.

Let’s get one thing straight. Reviews are hard work. I’ve worked many long hours making notes, reading, scribbling, typing and editing many different versions of the same piece. I’ve worked for money and I’ve worked for books as payment. My guiding principle was that if I wanted to improve as a poet, I’d better darn read some poetry books closely and have opinions on them.  I’m not someone who chooses to write ‘slasher’ reviews, because that isn’t my style. My role is to tune into a poet’s style and attempt to get under the skin of the poetry itself.

Under the Radar relies on a strong team of reviewers, and we have our regulars such as Pam Thompson, Jonathan Davidson, Deborah Tyler-Bennett, Alison Brackenbury and often me! From time to time we’ve had reviews from others such as Kim Moore, Peter Carpenter, Dzifa Benson, Kathleen Bell, David Clarke, Charles Whalley, D.A. Prince and John Foggin. For the next issue Josephine Corcoran is joining us too. I have a read of the reviews they’ve drafted and edit them, and Jane has a final read as General Editor. We stipulate that the reviews should contain plenty of quotations from their primary texts in order to give our readers a true flavour of the poetry.

Most issues generally feature female reviewers, and while that wasn’t the plan, it’s encouraging to support women reviewers. We know the background of the usual suspects in critical writing if we’re talking stereotypes. Regular readers of this blog (if they can remember who they are, it’s been a while!) will know about me and my background.

Ideally, I’d like to write more in the future on how I go about approaching a review and what makes a good one in my opinion. The next issue of Under the Radar will feature my review on Raymond Antrobus and Gaia Holmes, as well as a reissued complete works from Carcanet of the Greek Poet George Seferis.

Ok, so the Saboteur Awards is one you have to vote for. It seems a bit much saying ‘Vote for me!!!’ if you’ve not come across my writing before, so here are some links below.

My last review was on books by Peter Raynard, Amy Key and Tishani Doshi and you can read it here.

Jane also kindly shared an online version of another of my reviews on books by Luke Kennard, Melissa Lee Houghton and John McCullough, which is magically here.

And for good measure here are two published on The Compass and Everybody’s Reviewing, from a little while ago.

So if you read those and thought 'yep that'll do!' please vote for me here at the Saboteur Awards site.

There are lots of really great writers and performers on those shortlists. 

Merci!

January 2018 - Time Flies/Time Flown

My retro clock...tonight we're gonna party like it's 1981

Maybe I'm writing this post because it's January and I should, but one thing's for certain - I'm not going to yammer on about resolutions. It's January the 17th and we're all beyond that now. However, I did see a post by Josephine Corcoran where she mentioned something about trying to keep up to date with blogging at least once a week. It's a lovely idea, but not sure I can keep up. I can't even keep up with ruddy Twitter - and that's only 140 characters. Even Donnie Trump manages that (sadly). This time last year I put up a vigorous post about sending out regularly and such like...but didn't really send out very much. Because guess what - you can't force it if you know you're not ready. I sent out the grand total of five or six times last year. At one point a few years ago I was sending out six before breakfast or something.

Instead, let me talk about what I'm learning at the moment as opposed to what I'm achieving. I'm teaching Creative Writing at DMU and now for a term at Warwick University. Teaching also means learning. I have been busy making lots of new resources and reading work by poets I'm less familiar with, as well as re-reading old favourites. My word, I ended up falling in love with 'Avenue A' and 'Now That I am in Madrid' and I Can Think' by Frank O'Hara last Sunday. I digress. Part of the job involved sitting in on  one of David Morley's seminars in December to meet the new students. I LOVED it. I felt like I wanted to read and write and read and write and then remembered I was meant to be the teacher. Not a bad thing though. Everyone has their words of wisdom of course, but here's another newsflash - as a poet I don't think you should take yourself seriously, but be overtaken by writing.There is nothing like getting caught up in the jolly artwork stage of writing a poem. I come across lots of learners with enthusiasm and this fires me as well.  This is a good thing as there have been times last year when poetry and I were not the honeymooners we used to be. Now we're holding hands again. Relief.

Wednesday is my free day and it's reading and writing day - hurrah! I work part-time but once you factor the little things like life, family, colds, lack of sleep, Lego, exercise classes (I can do a mean plank I'll have you know) and so on it doesn't leave much time for concentrated writing time. Wednesdays are a good start.

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Nine Arches Press and I have a long history of working and publishing together. One enchanted evening eight years ago this very month, I met them for the first time. I am really proud of Jane Commane's achievements with the press and was really happy when Jacqueline Saphra's Nine Arches collection 'All My Mad Mothers was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize. When you have seen someone work their ruddy socks off over eight years, publishing, editing, organising readings, giving up hours and hours of their time and one of NAP's poets does really well you can't help but smile. Good for them.

The Launch of 'Maps and Legends'

The Book!

Here I am again. The blog seems to be mended and I'm like a child with a new toy. The launch of Maps and Legends - Poems to Find Your Way By, a new anthology published by Nine Arches Press, took place in the new library of Birmingham, earlier this month. The anthology is edited by Jo Bell and Jane Commane and marks the fifth anniversary of Nine Arches Press. 2008 was a very big year for me, I gave birth to my twins and life was never the same. Writing poetry, however, was not at the top of my priorities then, but at the end of 2009 I was beginning to write and had also just heard of a local  Midlands publisher named Nine Arches Press. A few years later and they'd published my first book and my reading - and thus my life - had been dramatically enriched by various Nine Arches publications and poets. This also included setting up the regular Shindig events in Leicester, which has meant bringing lots of fabulous poets to the Midlands and regular contact with Jane Commane. Jane has always been extremely modest about her successes with Nine Arches and is to my mind one of the key editors out there in contemporary poetry. There are some very exciting publications from the press to look forward to in 2014, but back to the anthology.
At the launch we were treated to some very fine readings from Nine Arches poets. It was great to hear Angela France's 'Canzone: Cunning' poem, 'Oh, woman / your grin seeded such an itch in my bones' as well as work from Matt Merritt, David Morley, Daniel Sluman, Roz Goddard and Myra Connell. The event was compered by Jo Bell, who many poetry lovers will have heard of and she brought a great deal of energy to proceedings. I have a few poems in the anthology myself, including a certain poem about a certain poet called Larkin. I've been reading the book over the last few weeks and though much of the work is familiar to me, the poems gathered together feel fresh and inventive in the context of the anthology. In addition to the readers listed above there is some great poetry by Claire Crowther, Peter Carpenter, Alistair Noon, Luke Kennard, Tony Williams, really I could go on. Obviously I'd recommend this book, but if you're interested in contemporary poetry you will not be disappointed! Oh yes and details of how to get hold of the book are available here.

L-R Roz Goddard, Angela France, Deborah Tyler-Bennett, Myra Connell, Jane, Commane, Matt Merritt, Jo Bell, Daniel Sluman and yours truly.

Joel Lane 1963 - 2013

I was very upset to hear of Joel Lane’s passing last night. He was a terrific writer. I know his poetry better than his prose and perhaps in time I’ll read more of his fiction. He’d won major awards as a Fantasy writer and that just goes to show his remarkable scope. Joel was a contributor to Overheard, Stories to Read Aloud published by Salt and edited by my husband Jonathan Taylor. There is a very moving post here by Jane Commane about Joel and his writings on the Midlands.

Joel had a very unassuming presence as a poet, even though he was extremely good at writing poetry. He seemed to shy away from the limelight. We once spoke briefly about him putting together a new poetry collection. He told me he wanted to but he felt a little disconnected from the poetry world. That was about a year ago. Many thanks then to Flarestack for publishing his final pamphlet of poetry, Instinct, a beautiful book I’d strongly recommend.  I’m including the poem below as an example of his ability to marry clarity and evocation so distinctively. I had tears in my eyes as I was typing this up.

Ghosts of the Living

After a day of bruised silence

you finally answered the phone

in a child’s voice. That night

your blank side came to my house

and stood on the doorstep, thin

and trembling, unable to hold on

to yourself. It took me an hour

to bring colour back to your face.

In the morning you left your shadow

pinned to my bedroom wall:

another still for me to run through

the projector of broken sleep.

Ledbury, July 2012

My Photo of Ledbury at Night

Last weekend we went to the Ledbury festival. I performed on the Sunday in the Shell House Gallery, but I’m very glad I stayed the for two nights as I managed to have a very full weekend of poetry. Despite weather forecasts, we managed to have a lot of sunshine. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and our place was very close to where all the events where taking place, everywhere was within walking distance.


After a picnic on the hotel room floor, went to the first event which was a reading in the Burgage Hall by the winners of the National Poetry Competition. Zaffar Kunial read first. He managed to achieve third place by sending in his entry with the attitude of ‘you never know’ – well, that was lucky. Zaffar is rather modest – he dosen’t send out and therefore he’s not appeared in any magazines – but I have no doubt we’ll be hearing more of him, or certainly seeing more of his work in written form. His poems were beautifully formed and often rather personal and touching. Second was Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, whose reading was dramatic and exceptionally well paced. It was quite a treat to hear someone read who was clearly very skilled in the art of performance. Well you hear work of this calibre it quickly becomes apparent that good poetry ‘breathes,’ it finds a life of its own which is immediate and powerful. Lastly was Allison McVety, whose poem ‘To the Lighthouse’ managed to win first place. It was at some point during this reading I felt a little emotional, I found myself wrapped up in the poems she was reading. I was also just a little stunned. When someone is that good, I can feel myself ‘detune’ I can’t even focus on anything, the words take over. You are absorbed by the imagery and cadences and this is exactly what happened.

Thinking I was off back to the hotel room at this point. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited along to the Poetry Parnassus event in the evening. Poets from across the world were represented: Tishani Doshi (India), Kim Hyesoon (South Korea), Jang Jin Seong (North Korea), Doina Ioanid (Romania), Reza Mohammadi (Afghanistan), Raul Henao (Columbia), Paul Dakeyo (Cameroon), Ribka Sibhatu (Eritrea) and laureate Bill Manhire from New Zealand. Kim Moore also read from translations of the poets’ work. I loved hearing the pieces in their original languages.

Then bed. Now some people might find a bell chiming the hours away romantic but all I felt was stressed. The chimes chimed and when you hear three in a row you can be sure of your status as an insomniac. I had my reading on my mind perhaps.

Next day we did a bit of exploring. Ledbury is truly picturesque and we looked around a nearby church. Unfortunately one of my children fell over so went back and some lovely ladies tended my daughter Miranda, using the festival First Aid box in the hospitality room. After a drink and some scone she felt better. Spun my head round and there was Simon Armitage. Wanted to say hello, but did I? Did I diddly. A little while later went to his ‘Walking Home’ reading which included what he descrbed as a ‘boring’ slide show which wasn’t boring at all. He read from his new book, which also included some new poems. He also talked about the fact he found it very hard to compose poetry whilst walking, but that was mostly due to having to focus on the walk and the elements. Most of the work was written in retrospect. There was an amusing moment which wasn’t really amusing (one of those ‘we can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible' moments) about being lost in the mist. No visibility meant he wasn't sure if he was walking uphill or downhill. That’s lost.

I looked around the room and felt I was in a whole school assembly rather than a poetry reading. There were so many people packed into the community hall. It was a good reading and no doubt a shed load of books were sold.

Of course the Crystal pamphleteers were also reading, but having to look after the twins I could only hear of how good they were. Jonathan Taylor, my husband, introduced the readers. I’m especially looking forward to hearing some new work by Jess Mayhew.

Then it was my turn in the Shell House Gallery at four. For the first time this summer the sun was out. The reading went well and I sold a few books. Some people were friends, but I was interested in the people I didn’t know –what were they thinking? I read 10 poems in twenty minutes, kept the intros short and just got on with it really. Had some good feedback, hurrah. Should say a thank you to Jane Commane from my publishers Nine Arches Press for intro and organisng things.

After that it was straight to the hospitality room of course, drinks and the like. One of my favourite parts of the weekend was listening to Kim Moore’s anecdotes. It was the end of the festival; people were off home. Had a nice chat with Aly Stoneman and Andrew Graves about Ledbury and writing.

There was a little party right at the end and it was lovely to talk to the organisers and have members of The Poetry Society fill your glass. There was a remarkable quiet on the way back to the room, it felt as if the world had gone to bed by 10:30. Then it was me and the bell.

The Bell!

Additional Note: Here are some blog posts about the same weekend by Kim Moore and Roy Marshall, so don't just take my word!

Lichfield

As if Ledbury wasn’t enough, I read at an event in Lichfield at the spark café on Tuesday. The event was superbly organised by Gary Longden and Janet Jenkins of the Lichfield poets. Same structure as the Leicester Shindig readings: four main readers and an open mic. There were so many talented readers that evening that I ended up speaking to lots of people at the end and exchanging details. I heard some interesting things from readers I'd not heard before including Justina Hart, Penny Harper and Bert Flitcroft. I kept the running order sheet to remember names.Sold a few books as well, hurrah!

I’ve also been thinking about how a poet manages to go about the business of selling their own books. Yes it’s important to have the support and admiration of those you perceive as your peers, but there’s nothing like people who ordinarily don’t read poetry who tell you they like your work. One of the mummies from my twin daughters’ playgroup brought a copy of 'Melanchrini' and said she loved it and that means a lot.

Here'a very thorough review of the event from Mal Dewhurst.

A Woman Walks into a Pub: Shindigs, Flying Geese and Hearing Voices.

Hearing Voices Issue 4 - Because you're worth it.

Doesn't time fly? A busy couple of weeks with some very tip top poetry events to talk about here. I thought I should probably write about these before we plunged into November. The new issue of Hearing Voices is out by the way, more on that later. On October the 18th The Flying Goose Cafe in Beeston opened its doors to a new season of readings, with Jack Underwood, John Lucas and Pippa Hennessey.

This was a lovely evening in a very cosy venue and all three poets, despite being rather different in flavour, complemented each other well. Pippa's reading was warm and memorable and there were some very memorable images in her work. I should really write things down, but there was one about planting a tree in childhood, almost by accident, which grows and flourishes in the future while everything else changes. John Lucas's readings always leave me feeling that I've learnt something worth knowing. John talked about poetry of the Second World War, and read a poem by the American Randall Jarrell. Controversially, John asserted that poetry of this period is the equal and in some cases the more superior when compared to the poetry of the Great War. This threw me, but then I've not read an awful lot of WW2 work, apart from the odd bit of Keith Douglas, so perhaps it's time I delved further. Jack Underwood was a treat, very individual and full of verve. Again I should make notes but I remember devils' mouths replete with slim legs and envy over the pre-pubescent obsessions of girlfriends, such as pet horses. Anyone remember that classic series for girls, 'My Friend Flicker?' I think he has nothing to fear.

Last Monday saw the launch of Issue 4 of Hearing Voices, (yes that’s Hearing Voices, every home should have one!) at The Western Pub in Leicester. The guest readers were Mal Dewhirst, Charles Lauder, Wayne Burrows and Jane Commane. All great, I could write and write but so many other people have done this for me, so I’d suggest looking at some of the blogs below for a more spirited version of events, as I’m a little red eyed and snoozy at the moment. Suffice to say that Wayne’s pop stars and space travellers, Mal’s nature adventures, Charles’ sonorous and quirky work and Jane’s race horses and school anthems were all warmly received by an audience so attentive and wonderful I don’t know if it would be possible to find their like elsewhere. It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again, the open mic at these Shindigs is superb. As Alan Baker put it: ‘Poetry is a participation sport; most readers are also writers of poetry, and the whole scene is democratic and unhierarchical. But this is not to say that standards have to be driven down to the lowest common denominator; there's no reason why that should happen, and the evidence of the Leicester readings is quite the opposite, with people generally trying to raise their game to keep up with others.’ There you go, proof.

Oh, did I mention Hearing Voices is on sale now? And you’d like a copy, well of course you would, you are after all very intelligent! This issue features work by Joanne Limburg, Helen Ivory, Todd Swift, Mark Mawson, Mark Goodwin, David Caddy, Jacqui Rowe, Lydia Towsey, Alan Baker, Tony Williams, Nathan Lunt, George Ttoouli, Jess Mayhew, Matthew Stewart, Deborah Tyler-Bennett and many others. Please send a cheque made payable to Crystal Clear Creators to Jonathan Taylor, Crystal Clear Creators, c/o Department of English and Creative Writing, Faculty of Humanities, Clephan Building, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, U.K. Postage and packing is free!

Gary Longden's blog is here: http://garylongden.wordpress.com/
Matt Merritt's: http://polyolbion.blogspot.com/2011/10/full-house.html
Alan Baker's: http://alan-baker.blogspot.com/2011/10/shindig-in-leicester-this-week-has-been.html

Very much worth a read! As is Hearing Voices, out now! You know the rest...