never knowingly without a pen
My system for keeping tracks of poetry submissions is a spreadsheet-free zone. It involves paper, pen and coloured pencils. It isn't for everyone but it works for me and I thought I'd share it with you. First, I keep track of all of my submissions in a little book. It was a freebie from a… Continue reading My Poetry Submissions System
Last year, I entered poems into more competitions than usual. I wonder why I did this? Perhaps I was trying to win some money in a patchy year or trying to store up funds for whatever lay ahead? I'm not sure, but, in any case, it's a good job I wasn't relying on competition prizes… Continue reading End of month, rainy Sunday blog
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
Rattling off a post before March ends. I've worked hard on my poetry manuscript since I last mentioned it on this blog. Now for the final stages of editing, tweaking, rearranging lines, titles, and order with my editor, Jane Commane at Nine Arches Press. What have I learned from writing a full collection of poetry? Mostly,… Continue reading End of the month blog
I had my very first real life meeting with Jane Commane from Nine Arches Press on Friday. Nine Arches is based in the Midlands and I live in West Wiltshire, on the border of Somerset in the west of England, so we met in the cafe of the Friends House, by Euston Station in London. It's… Continue reading Towards a poetry collection
This week, I've spent a lot of time working on one poem for a competition. I sent it off yesterday, Saturday, one day before the deadline. I don't know what's made me enter more competitions this year, it's not something I've ever done excessively, preferring instead to send my poems to magazines. I suppose I… Continue reading In which I send off a poem
As Januarys go, this one hasn't been too bad, so far, not taking into consideration world events, of course, although yesterday's amazing marches across the world have filled me with hope. I've had five - FIVE - rejections in the past six weeks, not all poetry or writing related, but, surprisingly, I'm unbowed. Could it be… Continue reading A good January, so far
Can I sound you out about something? What do you prefer reading, pamphlets or full collections? Do you buy either, both, or none? What about writing? Have you published a pamphlet or a full collection or both? Which came first? Why? Have you published more than one pamphlet? Have you NEVER published a pamphlet? Did… Continue reading Pamphlet or full collection?
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… Continue reading Poetry News
I've just done a quick tally and I have 26 poems out for consideration with magazines at the moment. Some have been out since last October and the others are gradually more recent. On top of this, I have two poems coming out in Poetry Wales and one in New Walk but I haven't been… Continue reading Mid-week catch up
Josephine Corcoran 