The first review of The Tethers on Delirium's Library blog

A wonderfully appreciative review on Sophie Mayer's blog, Delirium's Library.

My London launch

is tomorrow. I'm so excited and hopeful. Yet there's also been some bad news: it looks like the tube strike's going ahead, so while people can reach the venue, they will have to find a way home that doesn't use the Underground. I hope it doesn't keep people away....

Blog tour stop 2: Ben Wilkinson's Deconstructive Wasteland

For a kind introduction to The Tethers and the poem, "The Review," see the latest post on Ben Wilkinson's website, Deconstructive Wasteland.

Two-poem reading from The Tethers now on YouTube

Seren had me do a recording of my reading of two poems from The Tethers, "Magnum Opus" and "The Honeymoon of Our Attraction" (I thought they were pretty representative), and as the book arrives at their offices tomorrow, they've now posted the video to YouTube. I'd be glad to know what you think!

Blog tours

I'm not sure what I think of poetry collections doing "blog tours." I suppose they're most useful for people who don't themselves blog, to give their book a greater online presence. 

Michelle McGrane asked to present The Tethers on her blog Peony Moon, with a sample poem; it's up now. I guess that's my first stop! Thanks, Michelle.

Facebook discoveries: Joseph Lease

One of the pleasures of Facebook has been learning about poets I hadn't previously known of, whose work interests and moves me. Today that poet is Joseph Lease. A ten-minute recording of his reading from his second book, Broken World, can be listened to here. I highly recommend it.

Poetry Days in London: Wednesday, 13 May

(That's right, there were three days in a row of this delight.) I spent the afternoon at one of my favourite places, The British Library, doing some research for my introduction to the anthology I'm editing for Shearsman, Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets. I'm very pleased with the anthology's range, with such poets as Caroline Bergvall, Elisabeth Bletsoe, Carol Watts, Claire Crowther, Zoe Skoulding, Sophie Mayer--the list goes on! To my surprise and pleasure, a while into my research I started writing the intro--it poured onto the paper, and I could see the structure for the essay as a whole. After worrying about how to present and structure it for some months now, I was relieved to have the matter solved. 

That evening Claire and I attended the launch of C.K. Stead's Collected Poems (Carcanet) at New Zealand House. There I met the man himself (who knew my poems from TLS!), Eric Ormsby, Anthony Thwaite, and Siobhan Campbell, and saw some familiar faces, in particular Jane Yeh and Todd Swift. In other words, great conversation bubbled on and on. 

Afterward, Jane, Siobhan, Claire and I decided to go to dinner nearby, and Jane took us to a wonderful Korean restaurant (I'll ask her the name and revise this with it when I have it). We tried a number of unexpected, delicious, and interesting dishes and talked the night away (the launch had begun at 6, so it was only eight or so when we went to dinner). Indeed, when we left and went to catch the tube, Claire and I saw it was eleven-thirty (!) and we'd have to catch a night bus back to Claire's. We didn't stop talking the entire trip; we were both buzzing over the ideal night.

Poetry Days in London: Tuesday, 12 May

On day 2 I visited The Poetry Library, in part to look into some magazines I enjoy but don't subscribe to (as I can only afford so many!) as well as to research magazines that seem open to beginning poets, for the sake of my three Publishing Your Poetry seminars next year for The Poetry School. I discovered a relatively new magazine from Clutag Press, Archipelago. Issue 3 was the latest, dated Spring 2009; I particularly enjoyed the poems by Michael Longley and Peter McDonald. Often I choose magazines to submit to based on how much I enjoy an issue; that is, commonly I'll enjoy reading a magazine and want to join the company, so to speak. On looking at Archipelago's website, though, I was disappointed to find out the magazine doesn't consider unsolicited submissions, something I haven't encountered in a long while. Oh well.

Next I saw the Annette Messager exhibition at The Hayward. It was so various and particular I don't want to try to describe it here; it really must be experienced. The words that occur to me are intriguing and disturbing. She's very idea- and symbol-driven, which I think describe my work, too.

I spent the early part of the evening in the atmospheric Vaults in the RSA, for the Bath Spa University MA writing programmes' anthologies launch. To read some good work from the programmes, follow these links for the MA in Creative Writing anthology, Mosaic, the MA in Writing for Young People anthology, Pick and Mix, and the MA in Scriptwriting anthology, The First Ten Pages. If I had the money, I'd launch my book in the RSA vaults, too! I very much like the mood the space encourages. 

The latter part of the evening was spent on the town with some of the MA scriptwriters, but details of that I'll leave to rumour....

Poetry Days in London: Monday, 11 May

Monday afternoon through Thursday morning I was in London to take in poetry, and I had the best of times. Monday night Claire Crowther and Siriol Troup launched their second books to an audience of approximately eighty at Swedenborg Hall. I encountered many poets I hadn't seen in some time--Joyce Goldstein, Mo Gallacio, Nancy Mattson, Sue Rose, and Tammy Yoseloff, as well as those I tend to see at Shearsman readings fairly regularly, such as Rachel Lehrman, Robert Vas Dias, Frances Presley, and Gavin Selerie. I also finally met George Ttoouli, co-author of the Gists & Piths blog and new reviews editor for Horizon. Claire and Siriol read very well, and afterward nearly 20 of us converged on Tas Restaurant next to the British Museum for a lovely dinner. There I sat across from/met Rachel McCarthy, whose energy awed me (Met officer by day, avid poet by night...). 

So that's just the first night! More anon!

April '09 Illinois Visit

prairie sunset viewed from the coach home

my nephew Andrew and his father Bryan

my niece Lindsey (aka Brain Box)

brothers

my niece Kaylee, Mom, my nephew Austin, and my godmother Sue