"Superb," "Tremendous": Katherine Stansfield on Imagined Sons at New Welsh Review

"Superb" and "tremendous" come from Stansfield's tweets, while the review itself is a podcast nine minutes long with a brilliant, appreciative analysis of Imagined Sons. Her observations on the "friend" series and on the final catechism especially heartened me, as they perceived ambitions I had for the work that I wasn't sure were successful. Have a listen!

Giving it away and other poetry matters

Imagined Sons is one of twenty titles in a giveaway by New Welsh Review. The reason? I'm a past NWR contributor; between reviews, poems and a short story, I've had more appearances in its pages than I can recall. Details of the competition, including how to enter, can be found here.

On another bookish matter, Josephine Corcoran came to my reading at Park Street Poets in Bristol on the 11th and brought her thirteen-year-old son, Johnny. I'm glad to hear my work appealed to him. Her account of the evening appears on her blog here.

On Wednesday I fly to the States for a mini book tour, with readings in Providence (April 26 at Ada Books), Claremont, New Hampshire (April 30 at River Valley Community College), and Cambridge, MA (May 1 at The Grolier Poetry Book Shop). Full details of these events are on my Readings & Events page, and I hope to post photos &c. from the trip as I go. Recommendations for sightseeing, restaurants and used bookstores in these areas are all most welcome!

The Magazine Life

I love the magazine life--that is, publishing poetry in literary magazines. There's the hopefulness of sending poems out, the lows of rejection, the giddy pleasure of acceptances, and that's just getting started. 


Today's been an unusually full day for magazine activity. It began when I opened my email this morning to find proofs for the next issue of Drunken Boat. In the afternoon, I received an email accepting a personally important poem, "My Mother's Ashes," for the autumn issue of Poetry Review, and when the post arrived, there was my contributor's copy and cheque from New Welsh Review. Opening it and seeing the other poets therein was a treat: Chinese poet Xiao Kaiyu, translated by Pascale Petit, fellow stablemate at Seren and simply lovely person; Philip Gross, whom I see at events and conferences from time to time; Harry Man, who was my MA student the first year I taught at Bath Spa; and Marianne Burton, who once took a class of mine at The Poetry School and I've seen from time to time since. I'm looking forward to reading the issue.


And here's an email from Hayden's Ferry Review in the States, asking for a bio for my poem in their next issue. It's been a splendid day of little excitements.

Catching Up / Current Issues

With my overwhelming workload this past academic year, I haven't had as much time to blog as I'd like, but with classes over, I hope to change that. It's been a long time since I've given an update on magazines, but now's a great time with a flurry of appearances. In the UK, poems are in the current or next issues of Domestic Cherry, New Welsh Review, The Rialto, Shearsman, Under the Radar, and The Warwick Review.  In the US, poems are forthcoming in the next issues of Hayden's Ferry Review, Notre Dame Review, and The Same. 


Additionally, my series of prose poems for Sylph Editions' folio for Peter Coker's painting, "Sunflowers," is at the printer's now, I understand, and from the PDF I've seen, it appears beautifully produced. I also have a short essay on prose poetry coming out in the summer issue of Poetry Review.

Prize notices

Thanks to Kathryn Gray, editor of New Welsh Review, for her kind notice of The Tethers winning the prize on the New Welsh Review blog; to Alex for the enthusiastic notice on Cyprus Well; and to Sarah Ellen Hughes for her account on the LondonJazz blog.

Another appreciative review of The Tethers in New Welsh Review

When a review of The Tethers shows close reading and subsequent understanding, I feel heartened and encouraged. Sarah Wardle's review in the summer issue of New Welsh Review is such a one (others include Paul Batchelor in The Times, Richard Gwyn in Poetry Wales, and Ben Wilkinson in the TLS). I'll quote the last few paragraphs here and refer you to the magazine for the complete article.

"In places the word choice is archaic: vocabulary includes ‘cherish’, ‘yearn’, ‘forebore’ and ‘nay’; but her fondness for such language fits with her at times Shakespearian inflexion. She deploys elevated diction, as in ‘asseverated your sincerity without reserve’, and in places uses academic discourse to interesting effect: ‘There is a London winter hermeneutic at work/ well into April’. In general, her raised diction and meditative cadence succeed in capturing the register and rhythm of the mind’s pensive voice, as at the close of ‘The Honeymoon of Our Attraction’: ‘Of the wave’s surge I know only/ I stand soddened.’

"Elsewhere, she can write with startling clarity and imagery, as in ‘Biopsy’: ‘This is my body. This is my heart,/ standing aside like a child at the zoo’; and in the fine lines which close the collection from ‘The World at Dusk’: ‘When at last I walked to the postbox, afternoon/ was everywhere. I had decades to live’.

"This book will be enjoyed by a readership that is both general and academic, and on either side of the Atlantic. Carrie Etter’s poetry stems from strong geographical roots and, unlike some contemporary poets, she shows an awareness of her literary heritage. Dedicated to her late father, The Tethers is a fine tribute and promising debut, filled with intelligent observation and written with precision."

The Son, a new, forthcoming pamphlet

I am delighted to say that Oystercatcher Press is going to publish my pamphlet, The Son. If you've heard of Oystercatcher but can't place it, it's probably because they just won the Michael Marks Award for a poetry pamphlet publisher (Americans, for pamphlet read chapbook). 

I hadn't planned on publishing another pamphlet in the UK at the moment (I had a chapbook ms under consideration at a US press and pulled it once this came through--it'll have to wait for another day), but Peter Hughes, editor and publisher of Oystercatcher, asked me to "come aboard," as it were, and I was flattered and honored to accept. 

The Son draws on a book manuscript in progress, Imagined Sons; large selections of its prose poems first appeared in PN Review in 2007 and The Republic of Letters earlier this year. "Birthmother's Catechisms," which also appear in the manuscript and pamphlet, have appeared in New Welsh Review, Stand, and The Times Literary Supplement.

As soon as I have the prospective publication date, I'll happily update this post accordingly.

Current Issues

My poems are in the current issues of Bombay Gin, New Welsh Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Poetry Wales, The Republic of Letters and Stand, and are forthcoming in Angel Exhaust, The Iowa Review, Jewish Quarterly, Noon, Painted spoken, The Rialto, and Versal.

Additionally, my review of James Shea's Star in the Eye (Fence Books) is in this week's Times Literary Supplement. 

Current Issues

Early this year I decided I wanted to expand the reach of the poems forthcoming in Divining for Starters by placing them in new magazines, including more in the US, and I've succeeded. I have Divining poems in the current issues of Shearsman and Cannot Exist, and more coming out in Angel Exhaust, Painted, Spoken, and Bombay Gin--all but Shearsman are first appearances. I'm especially pleased by the acceptance from Bombay Gin as it's Naropa's journal and I've admired it for some years now.

Poems for The Tethers and other manuscripts are in current issues of Poetry Ireland Review and The Warwick Review, with more forthcoming in Court Green, New Welsh Review, and Poetry Wales. All is well.

Adventures in Publishing, or Current Issues

I had a bit of surprise in the post today. A year ago I sent some poems to Poetry Ireland Review, where, under the editorship of Peter Sirr, I had appeared a few times before. Six months later with no response, I queried via email, figuring that the transition to new editor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin had caused the delay; but I received no reply. Today I found in my post the new issue, 94, and therein my poem, "The Meal." While I was delighted, I would have enjoyed the pleasure longer with an acceptance letter and/or a proof, as with past acceptances from PIR. But perhaps I'm being fussy.

Along with Poetry Ireland Review, my poems appear in the current issues of Poetry Wales and The Rialto. In the US, there are two poems in the current issue of Boston journal, Salamander, and one in Orange Coast Review. Reviews are in current issues of Poetry Wales and The Warwick Review, and one is forthcoming in TLS.

In the UK, poems are forthcoming in New Welsh Review, Shearsman, Stand, and The Warwick Review, and in the US, in Court Green and Cannot Exist.

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

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.

Current Issues

My review of Molly Peacock's Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems appears in the year-end double issue of The Times Literary Supplement, and my review of Kona Macphee's Tails is in the Autumn 2004 issue of Poetry Review.

My short story, "Prospects," appears in the Winter 2004 issue of New Welsh Review.

My poems appear in the current issues of Seneca Review (US) and Shearsman and are forthcoming in Stand, Critical Survey, Poetry Salzburg Review, New Welsh Review, and The Times Literary Supplement. Additionally, "The Trapeze Artist's Dear John Letter," originally published in Metre, was selected for and published in The Forward Book of Poetry 2005, and "The Bonds," first published in TLS, will appear in a new anthology of poetry by California (and, in my case, former California) poets.