Skip to the good bits

In no particular order, here’s some online and offline stuff I’ve enjoyed in 2013.

Two great blogposts

I love following Isabel Rogers on twitter and this year I got to meet her at The Live Canon Poetry Competition Prize Giving.  Here’s her fantastic blogpost about that event.

In fact, 2013 was a bumper year for meeting people I’d previously known through Twitter and Facebook.  As well as lovely Isabel, I had the pleasure of meeting Jo Bell, Penelope Shuttle, Fiona Moore, Stephen Payne, Martin Malone, Claire Trévien, Gareth Prior, Helen Ivory, Martin Figura, Geraldine Clarkson, Pascale Petit, Mona Arshi, Nick Makoha, George Szirtes and Robin Houghton.  Robin and I went to one of George’s poetry workshops in Swindon and here’s Robin’s fantastic blogpost about that!

Other blogs I’ve enjoyed this year

• Anthony Wilson – Anthony’s Lifesaving Poems Series is not to be missed.
• Helena Nelson’s Unsuitable Blog –  always enjoyable and you do learn a lot by reading about poems from a publisher’s perspective.  I revised a remembering poem following Helena’s words of advice ( a lot of poets write remembering poems, Helena says) – a workshop through the ethernet.
• Chris Murray’s Poethead – discover the work of women writers and editors on this always interesting and frequently updated site.
• Billy Mills’ Elliptical Movements – plenty to read here and an excellent regular slot featuring Irish Women Poets.

Some poetry books I’ve loved reading this year

My favourite live poetry event

was watching Martin Figura perform ‘Whistle’ in Bath.  I wrote this brief blogpost but it doesn’t really do it justice.

I read some of my own poetry at these events

• Swindon Poetry Festival which was glorious.  Swindon is glorious because Hilda Sheehan and Michael Scott live there.
• The launch of The Interpreter’s House Issue 54.  Under the editorship of Martin Malone this magazine promises to go from strength to strength with the added bonus of live readings (and a bit of a party) for the launch of each issue.
• Derwent Poetry Festival.  An absolute highlight of my year was reading at this gorgeous festival and my only regret is that I didn’t stay longer.  Gareth Prior wrote this wonderful blogpost about it.

One of my favourite publishers of 2013

was Nine Arches Press.  I’ve enjoyed their lively and supportive presence on Twitter (plus they tweet special offers like books for a fiver and free pamphlets for eReaders) and I like their magazine, Under the Radar, and not just because they accepted one of my poems this year (although that probably helped endear me to them).

And finally…

A real treat for those of us who can’t always get to poetry readings has been the creation of this free, online reading series, Transatlantic Poetry.  Devised by Robert Peake  the idea is brilliantly simple – selected poets read their work to camera so we can enjoy the experience from the comfort of our own homes.  The broadcasts from 2013 can be viewed here – 21 poets from five countries reading their best work – and there are some exciting names to look out for in 2014.

So there you have it.  I hope you’ve enjoyed 2013 as much as I have and here’s wishing you a Happy New Year for 2014.