Adventures in poetry publishing

I'll start with the purely good news first: "Over the Thames," the most recent poem to go into The Tethers (written September '07), has been accepted for the spring issue of Poetry London, suitably enough. I'm especially happy to see this poem accepted because I think of it as a second title poem; while there is a poem titled "The Tethers," "Over the Thames" uses the phrase in a different way that expands on its meaning.

This leaves me with six or seven unpublished poems in the collection. I feel rather sorry for them, the orphans, though it's not really their fault--most have been lost by magazines or accepted but never published, and one or two, like "Over the Thames," are recent enough that they've barely made it out the door (sometimes I sit on poems a long while before sending them out, sometimes I send them out more quickly than I think I want to admit here--but my usual practice is to live with the poem a while first).

Here we come to the mixed news. Each week I check out TLS's online contents page to see whether, at last, my review of Bang's Elegy has appeared, and today I saw that a poem I'd long assumed had been rejected (as I hadn't had a reply in months and months) was going to appear this Friday. (That's right: no acceptance letter, no proof.)

Another poem in TLS--what's the problem? Of course I'm delighted, but I think this may be a poem I, thinking it rejected, sent to Another Magazine. That's not all. The poem I sent to The Other Magazine last month was a replacement for a poem I'd sent and only realised it'd been accepted elsewhere when The Other Magazine accepted it. Are you following me? So it looks like I'm sending out work simultaneously and jerking The Other Magazine around, when really, in the first case, it was bad recordkeeping, and in the second, a reasonable assumption.

My only excuse is that all the poems involved are titled "A Birthmother's Catechism"....

I want cats

but I'm not home enough to care for them properly--and I live to close to a busy street. So for now I enjoy my friends' cats and my parents' cats, who, bizarrely, like to try to sleep on the playpen's rails--

Luigi (l.) and Mario (r.)

Alternatively--



I miss them.

"The Occupation of Iraq" on Delirious Hem's advent calendar

I'm on the calendar for the 8th.

More poetry in the news: Mary Jo Bang's Elegy

I'm glad to see Mary Jo Bang's wonderful book of poems, Elegy, has made it onto The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2008 list; I only wish TLS would print the review I submitted back in March!

Poetry in the news: "New Poetry Society Director lays out plans to grab public's attention"

In today's Guardian, Judith Palmer discusses some of her ideas for making poetry more publicly appreciated and available, ranging from the practical to the laughable.

The public shouldn't have a say in choosing the laureate--Nicholas Lezard

Here is the article on the Guardian Books Blog. I doubt anyone will be surprised that generally I agree with the piece.

After sex

(now removed to prevent any publishing conflict later....)

The Poetry Hearings Brunch, Berlin, 15 November 2008

Annie Freud and John Hartley Williams

Me in profile, Prosecco in hand

Jaya Savige, Jem Rolls, Alistair Noon and Richard Toovey

Thanks to Alistair and his partner for the scrumptious brunch and to Catherine Hales for these photos. More Poetry Hearings photos anon!

8 May 2009--The New Star Trek movie!

Click on the post title to be directed to the YouTube copy of the trailer....

Yes, I am a sci-fi geek, though not so extreme that I've ever dressed up as an alien species or attended a convention. As I've often explained, I was my father's first daughter: he didn't know what to do with girls, so he held me up to see the moon landing and he had me watching Star Trek with him as long as I can remember.

Compensations

On Halloween I received my settlement cheque--connections, anyone?--and since then I've been buying things to improve my day to day life, including a new, powerful eco-radiator for my used-to-be-cold flat, new glasses, membership in the university teachers' union (which I'd been wanting since I began at Bath Spa), a microwave, Circulon 2 saucepans to complete my cookware collection (actually my first settlement purchase--I bet you didn't think I was that domestic), etc., as well as taking out to dinner those who stood by me through the injury itself--Matt (and so I need to treat Claire soon, too)--as well as friends who supported me through the suit &c., such as Alan Summers and Karen Hoy.

I'd still rather have my left jaw normal, but in lieu of that, I'm enjoying a sense of the improved ease and quality of my everyday life. That eco-radiator has, at long last, made it comfortable to be in my bakehouse flat in cold weather, and that truly makes each day better. I also decided for my trip to Berlin this weekend for the Poetry Hearings Festival to forego Easyjet for an airline that would neither try to sell to me throughout the flight nor nickel-and-dime me for such things as hold luggage, etc.

Small pleasures.