The Drunkenness of Things Being Various

While in my hometown over Christmas, I made my usual visits to Milner Library, one of my favourite places, and felt liberated by the variety of excellent poetry I found in such magazines as Denver Quarterly, American Poetry Review, etc. I remembered what I've often realised on previous trips home: when I focus my reading on British mainstream poetry, I tend to suffocate on account of the lack of air, the narrowness of scope. This manifests in a tendency to write and read less poetry in general, but I never seem to recognise the cause until I also see the solution.

How does this happen? Why don't I always "mix it up"? As I've only become properly acquainted with British contemporary poetry since moving to the country in 2001, and since I was working on my thesis on Victorian fiction and early British criminology until autumn 2003 (not to go into my health problems, jobs, divorce, etc.), I've had a lot of catching up to do. Meanwhile, publishing continues and I see new titles that interest me; it doesn't help that Shearsman's received an Arts Council grant to increase their publishing from 2005-7. As the people around me are generally talking about (mainstream) British poetry, referring to poems I haven't read or poets I barely know, I tend to sink into long periods of reading only British poetry of the last ten to twenty years.

One of my goals for 2006 is to keep my reading wildly various. My friend Lytton Smith was kind enough to bring me copies of Lit and American Letters & Commentary this past summer, and in Chicago I picked up Fence and Poetry. The presence and improving quality of online journals will also help.

I also hope to broaden the conversation with fellow poets and my students by sharing copies of American magazines and adding links to noteworthy American and online journals to this blogsite. In each category, there's a range of styles, from rather mainstream through experimental, in the hope of appealing to a range of tastes while broadening them.

Here's hoping--

Current Issues

Since my last Current Issues posting, I've had poems accepted for publication in New Writing 14 (Granta, June 2006), The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, The Rialto, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Reader. The year is ending well!

Upcoming Readings

Hello, all. I have three readings lined up over the next five months.

On Monday, 28 November, I'll be reading at the Friends' Meeting House in Bradford on Avon. The reading will begin at 7:45, and there will be open-mike slots for those interested. If you'd like to find me beforehand, I expect to be at The Bunch of Grapes, also on Whiteheads Lane, with some of my students.

On Monday, 9 January, I'll be reading on a New Voices night at The Troubadour in London. The reading will run from 8-10 p.m.

On Thursday, 30 March, I'll be reading on the Uncut Poets series at The Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter. There will also be an open mike. The reading begins at 7:30.

Carrie Etter, October 2005

Current Issues

All's a go! New (2005) poems are in the current issues of The Liberal and TLS, and acceptances have recently arrived from Critical Survey and New Welsh Review for additional poems in the coming months. I'll also be reviewing Jane Yeh's Marabou for Tower Poetry and Ted Mathys' Forge for Verse.

Some time next year I'll also be reading on the new voices series at The Troubadour, date TBA.

Current Issues

My apologies for the long delay in posting--I've been suffering from injury to both eyes since April. I thought I had a recurring eye infection, but it turns out that my contacts had caused damage to my corneas. I've been wearing my glasses (ack) since June, and the amount of time I can spend on computer without discomfort has been slowly increasing.

On 12 August I read on the Crossing the Line series at The Poetry Cafe in London; fellow readers were Chris McCabe (whose first book, The Hutton Inquiry, was recently released from Salt) and Piers Hugill. It was a great pleasure to have an interested audience for my experimental work, and it's encouraged me to resume work on a book manuscript of this work under the tentative title Divining for Starters.

I've also been working on two reviews, and I recommend both books warmly: my review of Fiona Sampson's The Distance Between Us (Seren) will appear in TLS, and my review of Jorie Graham's Overlord (Carcanet) in The Liberal. I also have a new poem, "Were It Eden," forthcoming in The Liberal.

Academic Profile

Here is my profile on Bath Spa University's website: http://ecs.bathspa.ac.uk/staff/creative-studies/carrie-etter.htm.

Online Appearances of Note

Much of my work available online doesn't represent me well, as my writing and my perspective on poetry have changed greatly over the last few years. Here are those online poems that I feel represent my ethos well.

"The Cult of the Eye" and "The Daughters of Prospero" at Limelight
http://www.thepoem.co.uk/limelight/etter.htm

"Fin de Siecle," "Escalation," and "Pathetic Fallacy as Necessary" at Poetry Review
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/review/pr93-2/etter.htm

"Land-Lock" and "The Taboo" at Poetry Review
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/review/pr93-3/etter.htm

"Red Acre," "Midnight, Illinois," and Infidel's Prayer" at Jacket
http://jacketmagazine.com/22/etter-poems.html

A range of my more experimental poems have appeared in several issues of Shearsman
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/magazine/back_issues/shearsman60/etter.html
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/magazine/back_issues/shearsman54/etter54.html
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/magazine/back_issues/shearsman51/page3.html

as well as in Slope
http://www.slope.org/archive/eleven/etter.html
http://www.slope.org/archive/issue16/page.phtml?url=etter

Current Issues

I've been writing more in fits and starts lately, I think because for once all my teaching is in the writing of poetry! What pleasure! I've just finished teaching Start Writing Poetry, an online course, for Open University, and I'm in the midst of teaching the third-year module in writing poetry and the MA poetry workshop at Bath Spa University College.

Most particular to my own interests is my new course on The Prose Poem for The Poetry School in London. In ten weeks, I take students through the form's predominant tendencies, the most common types of prose poem, and the place of the prose poem in contemporary British poetry, through discussions, exercises, and workshops. I'd be glad to hear from fellow practioners of the prose poem via my e-mail address in my personal profile.

My poem, "As If To Say," appears in the new issue of Soundings, and three new poems have just been accepted for the next issue of Tenth Muse.

On 16 May, I'll be reading with John McAuliffe at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton, in The Bolton Institute's reading series. I'm also reading in August on the Crossing the Line series at The Poetry Cafe in London--more on that closer to the date.

Current Issues

I've been quiet for a while, but not inactive! My poems are in the current issues of PN Review and Faultline, and more poems have been accepted for future issues of Poetry Salzburg Review, Shearsman, and Staple.

My review of Zoe Skoulding's fine first collection, The Mirror Trade, will be in the next issue of New Welsh Review. I also have a short essay on Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "At the Fishhouses," forthcoming in an issue of Magma devoted to the sea.