Commonplace - Maria Taylor

New year and new things to do. I was tagged by Matt Merritt to answer the following questions. The questions were devised by Sophie Mayer an...

As an end of year sign off I thought I should probably write a few things about my reading and writing activities. I'll keep it brief. F...

I did entertain the notion of compiling a 'best-of-2012' book list, but the feeling quickly passed. Instead I'm writing about a ...

A poem by Dennis O'Driscoll, who died yesterday, Christmas Day. As a nominal Greek Orthodox it speaks to me. Missing God His grace ...

Last night I did a reading with a difference. I read along with Lemn Sissay, Jacob Sam-La Rose and Laura Dedicoat. This was one of a series ...

A couple of weeks ago I went to The Poetry Business in Sheffield for a workshop with Michael Laskey. You’ll probably know that Michael is th...

It's November. Haven't updated the blog since September and we've gone from summer to autumn without so much as a squea...

This fascinating site was brought to my attention by Wayne Burrows the other day. A project run by Sophie Mayer. It's a simple idea,...

Here's some good news! There is a feature on Melanchrini on Michelle McGrane's excellent blog 'Peony Moon.' As I don't ...

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’...

I'm reading at the Ledbury Festival on Sunday 8th July at the Shell House Gallery at 4pm. This event is the official launch of Melanchri...

When I was about 6 or 7 I had a curious urge to write a book. At that point it was a children's book, I wrote my first on A4 paper with ...

Nice shirt. On a very balmy evening at the end of May – yes, balmy, there was actually sunshine – I went to Leicester’s central libr...

 Always one to get the timings wrong on this blog post, I was thinking about the Jubilee. No, not the Jubilee t...

Alice contemplates the flowers... In the few months which have elapsed between their publication and now, there’s been some very li...

Fiction is Stranger Than Truth (Sometimes). The other week Will Buckingham interviewed me for American webzine 'Necessary Fictio...

 A poet spotted on t'internet Surely a whole month hasn't whizzed by without a blog entry? Crikey me. It was a busy month wit...