Like Julie Mellor and many others in the Poetry Blogging Network, I try to put something up on this blog each week. Like Julie, I don't always manage it but, also like Julie, I thought I'd try again this week. I don't always have something to say so I wonder if it's worth blogging. At … Continue reading Notes from a Cluttered Desk
I've been quiet on the blogging front recently. I've done a few readings and events this year, all noted on my Diary/News page. My review of Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2018) has been published in the current issue of Under the Radar magazine. I'm currently reading new collections published by Pavilion … Continue reading A quick update
Last week I mentioned that the Poetry Society had a callout for poems that take note, in some way, of 99 of the mostly commonly used words used in 40 years of the National Poetry Competition. I wasn't going to write anything for this because I thought it was too much of a distraction from … Continue reading A few poetry notes
It's been really helpful to read these posts by poets writing about how they find their way into poems: "Writing" Towards Writing by Pam Thompson and fearless creating by Julie Mellor. As well as containing useful and practical advice, the posts are a comforting reminder that I'm not alone in finding writing hard going at … Continue reading Finding your way into a poem
There's that joke about January lasting hundreds of days and then the rest of the year whizzing by in the blink of an eye. That's definitely what I've been experiencing. I was just beginning to recover from my knee operation and then I somehow managed to contract viral pneumonia - so my January has definitely … Continue reading Slow January continues
New Year was extremely quiet - very much like Christmas. I'm still recovering from (minor) knee surgery and 'cycling' on my static bike every most days. At the moment, I'm listening to The Leopard described on BBC iPlayer as "Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's gorgeous masterpiece of European political fiction, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, abridged by Sara … Continue reading A very quiet start to the year
This Christmas has mostly been about recovering from minor arthroscopic surgery to correct a torn meniscus in my left knee. My stitches came out on 19 December and I had hoped to do a lot of writing because, coincidentally, my husband and two grown-up children have been visiting a close family friend in Australia for … Continue reading Christmas Retreat
Dashing off a quick post to try to keep to my weekly blog plan as part of the Poet Bloggers 2018 Revival Tour. I'm knee-deep in old notebooks this week, as I flounder inside the messy and muddy quagmire that is my poetry manuscript. I've spent the past two days holed-up inside my house, as … Continue reading Keeping a poetry reading journal
I've enjoyed these tweets from different writers who've shared their stories of not being straight out of the cradle when their writing received recognition. Here are a few of them: https://twitter.com/KitdeWaal/status/939278943332503552 https://twitter.com/VanessaGebbie/status/939130266538467328 https://twitter.com/pascalepoet/status/939677522693824512 The writer Joanna Walsh (@badaude on Twitter) has written this article on The Guardian books blog, arguing that "all awards for young … Continue reading My started late, stop-start writing “career”
This weekend I managed to send off a poem to the Verve Poetry Festival Competition a couple of hours ahead of the deadline - deadline now closed but you can find out more about the festival here - and I'm still working on one I'd like to send to The Cafe Writers competition - deadline … Continue reading A few last minute submissions
