I’ve written about my sequence ‘Once Upon a Lockdown’ before but this is the first time I’ve been able to post all nine pieces together. I began this writing as a sequence of diary entries/prose poems/poems and then reworked each section into a collage using natural materials from my garden, photos from my camera roll and a few cropped photos from the internet. It’s my … Continue reading Sequence of nine prose poems/collages
It’s been ten years since I started writing again, after a long spell of not writing. I suppose I stopped writing because I became too busy with life events – marriage, children, moving house, working to pay the bills. I was never properly SAD about not writing but it was wonderful when the desire and ability to write came back. I’d started writing in 1992, … Continue reading Ten Years of Notebooks
A busy November has given way to a quiet December but my growing collection of new poems is demanding attention so the blog is being neglected. I’ve written about 20 new poems that I’m reasonably pleased with. Many more will likely never see in the New Year. My editing knives have been sharpened. November began with a weekend by the sea in Aldeburgh for the … Continue reading A quick round up of recent events
A quick note to say that my poetry book What Are You After? has received a gorgeous review by Jonathan Edwards at Poetry Wales. You can read the whole review here. Stowaway (Seren, 2018) by Richard Gwyn and Feral (Bloodaxe, 2018) by Kate Potts are also reviewed by Jonathan Edwards. It’s fair to say that, 18 months after my book was published, I’d put it … Continue reading ‘What Are You After?’ reviewed at Poetry Wales
Just to let you know that Nine Arches Press is holding a Summer Sale with many books half-price or less including What Are You After? my collection of poems which was published last summer. 🙂 Continue reading My book is Half-Price in the Summer Sale
I’m reading poems from my book What Are You After? (published 2018 by Nine Arches Press) and new poems, on Sunday, June 16th, 5-7pm in the cellar of The Vaults Alehouse. Here is a link to my event on the festival website. There will also be an opportunity to perform your poems at the open-mic. This is a free event, part of the festival fringe. Hope … Continue reading Poetry Reading plus Open-Mic in Devizes, Sunday June 16
In November 2018, I was lucky enough to attend two days of training with the National Literacy Trust to update and improve my skills as a writing workshop facilitator in schools. The course was based in Victoria Park Primary School, an absolutely lovely school in Bristol, and facilitated by Fay and Tim from the National Literacy Trust, and novelist and teacher Wyl Menmuir. The course is … Continue reading School for Writers with the National Literacy Trust
It’s November and the weather is alternatively grey and grim or sunny and seriously cold, and the news is pretty dreadful these days, so I thought I’d cheer myself up by remembering a lovely bus journey I took on a beautiful day in October – when it was as warm as June. As part of my Ginkgo Projects/Bloor Homes commission to write new poems that engage … Continue reading Trowbridge to Avebury on the Number 49 Bus
Three years ago, I was lucky enough to be selected for the Aldeburgh Eight Advanced Poetry Seminar, organised by the now, very sadly, discontinued Poetry Trust. I had an amazing time as an Aldeburgh Eight Poet with a free festival pass – which, for me, felt like being a child allowed to run amok in a sweet shop – followed by a five-day workshop and … Continue reading My bags are packed for Poetry in Aldeburgh
A new poem of mine was commended in the Poetry Society’s Stanza competition, a yearly event for people who are both members of the Poetry Society and a Stanza (poetry groups run voluntarily by Society members). As I’ve mentioned before, I organise the Trowbridge Stanza which meets on the first Saturday of every month at Drawing Projects UK, in Trowbridge, so I was eligible to enter … Continue reading ‘To Bring Me Luck’ – new poem
