In the 4 March 2006 Books section, Erica Wagner writes, "I'd like to know if you'd like to see more poetry (discussion of, or the poems themselves) in Books. Single poetry reviews? Poetry round-ups? Poetry discussed in the Books group? We're open to suggestion, here. books@thetimes.co.uk."
The full article can be viewed at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2066902,00.html .
Poetry lovers, please write in!
Saturday, 18 March 2006
Thursday, 2 March 2006
Lovesick and homesick
Hello, all. My partner is teaching in Italy for the next week, and I haven't seen my family since late December, so I'm missing everyone at the moment and thought I'd post this photo of Matt and my nephew Nathan, from Matt and I's Christmas visit to my folks.
Going American
After my posting about my need to "mix it up" with other poetries besides British, especially by reading more American poetry, I suppose it's appropriate that I'm going to the Associated Writing Programs annual conference in Austin, Texas next week. The list of exhibitors at the bookfair almost makes me want to weep. So many journals I've heard about and wanted to see, quite a few journals I've appeared in before, presses I admire, etc., etc.--I'm going to go from just dabbling in the American scene again with a few publications in various magazines to being immersed in it--dropped in as though I were sitting in the dunk tank at the county fair. It can only be good, right?
I'll let you know!
I'll let you know!
Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Poetry in Bath and environs
What does it take to make a poetry community? I feel as though one is emerging here in the Bath area, but perhaps I feel that way because I am directly involved in a number of community poetry activities--the new Bath Spa reading series at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on the second Thursday of each month (through June, and resuming again in the autumn), The Poetry School's first proper course offerings in Bath next academic year, my own seminar group at my home in Bradford on Avon, and the new Aloud series run by David Berridge here in BoA (in which I am "involved" as a regular attender--there have been two so far!--and reader). Then we have a Poetry Society Stanza group developing under Nikki Bennett-Willetts' direction, possibly meeting at the University of Bath in the near future.
What I miss about London poetry is the conversations I'd have with others involved in poetry in different ways, especially with my Poetry School students at the Poetry Cafe before our class on Friday nights last spring and when I'd run into other poets at readings and we'd go for a drink afterward. We would talk about new books, magazines, reading series, other poets, etc., and I loved it. I miss it.
What I miss about London poetry is the conversations I'd have with others involved in poetry in different ways, especially with my Poetry School students at the Poetry Cafe before our class on Friday nights last spring and when I'd run into other poets at readings and we'd go for a drink afterward. We would talk about new books, magazines, reading series, other poets, etc., and I loved it. I miss it.
Sunday, 8 January 2006
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--
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--
Wednesday, 28 December 2005
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!
Sunday, 13 November 2005
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.
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.
Tuesday, 25 October 2005
Saturday, 8 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.
Some time next year I'll also be reading on the new voices series at The Troubadour, date TBA.
Sunday, 4 September 2005
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.
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.
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