Poetry News

A few acceptances recently, which are always pleasing (I won’t bore you with the rejections).  Poetry Wales got in touch to say they’ve held on to two poems to publish in their summer issue (I had thought they’d be in the current issue).  That’s fine by me, as long as they’re still publishing them. (I would be upset if a magazine changed its mind – I suppose that could happen). One poem is forthcoming in New Walk, and Under the Radar magazine has taken three poems which will be out later this year.

Talking of Under the Radar, I was very pleased with Alison Brackenbury’s review of my pamphlet The Misplaced House  in Issue 16.  This is the first print review I’ve seen – I heard there was one in The Journal but I haven’t been able to find that magazine anywhere (let me know if you’ve seen the review!).  I’m grateful to the magazine and to Alison for taking the time to write a careful review.  Here’s a snippet:

These are intriguing poems. ‘The Aunties’….. are thought by a visiting child to be witches.  The aunts speak: “We fed you trifle, persuaded you / we hadn’t eaten your mother..” But the final line “the old tricks had worked again”, brings the reassured reader up short.  Corcoran can draw more from the barest of language.  Her poems have many voices.  The inhabitants of a sand castle exclaim, their childish exuberance turned to alarm: “Dead crabs are coming in through our windows!”

Meanwhile, I’m delighted that six poems from The Misplaced House are featured on Christine Murray’s poetry site Poethead.  I’m among some fantastic poets so it’s an honour to be there.

I’ve had two poetry longlistings.  Another poem from The Misplaced House ‘Stephen Lawrence isn’t on the National Curriculum’ has been longlisted for the inaugural Remembering David Oluwale Prize and will be published in their anthology.  The rules of the competition allowed previously published work to be submitted so I’m pleased that I’ve been able to show my support for the David Oluwale Memorial Association at the same as giving my poem another outing.

A new poem ‘Supermoon’ has been longlisted for The Plough Poetry Prize.  The winners were supposed to have been announced by now.  I’m not expecting anything and I’d already submitted the poem to a magazine before I’d heard from Plough (still waiting to hear from the magazine, as well).  Who knows what will happen?? 🙂 I will let you know!

I wrote another new poem for Live Canon for their Shakespeare event which celebrates Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary.   154 poets were asked to write a new sonnet in response to one of Shakespeare’s.  The results are published in a new anthology and there is a free, drop-in, all day (10.30 – 17.30)  marathon reading on Sunday, 24th April, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, when all of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and all the new commissioned sonnets, will be performed by members of the Live Canon Company.  Full details here.

My sonnet ‘The chicken and its mistress’ responds to Sonnet 143 which begins

Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feathered creatures broke away

 
This was the first rhyming sonnet I’ve written and was deliciously enjoyable to write. It was also the first time I’ve given a chicken a voice! My version begins:
 

My roosting place is not a house of metaphor;
My pleasures can be summarised with grain and water.

 
I’m not sure how successful my attempt is but I surprised myself by liking working to the imposed restriction of a given form.

This is the second Shakespeare-related event I’m involved with this year, as I’ve mentioned before I’m also taking part in Winchester Poetry Festival’s All Day Sonnet event on April 23rd.
 
I think that’s all of my poetry news, so far. For National Poetry Month, I’m keeping a Poetry Reading Journal (just one of the ideas I mentioned here) and I’m REALLY enjoying Centres of Cataclysm: Celebrating 50 Years of Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine, Bloodaxe, 2016. I’m using my journal to document my initial thoughts and responses to poems and it’s an utterly pleasurable experience to read in this slow, considered way. I recommend it AND the anthology.